Ghost World
Starring: Thora Birch, Steve BuscemiDirector: Terry Zwigoff
Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release: May 4th 2004
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DVD Review
If you've ever felt alienated by the world around you, Ghost World will offer laughter, tears, and reassurance that you are definitely not alone. Adapted by Daniel Clowes and Crumb director Terry Zwigoff from Clowes's acclaimed graphic novel, the movie spends summer vacation with high school graduates Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlet Johansson). They inflict little tortures on the denizens of urban sprawl, wielding scathing irony as a defense against a "ghost world" full of pop-cultural lemmings and uncertain futures. But when Enid picks a 40-ish vintage-record collector (Steve Buscemi) as the target of her latest cruel prank, she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to him ("he's the opposite of everything I completely hate") and is forced to confront her own crushing loneliness. This combination of deadpan sarcasm and deeply compassionate humanity makes Ghost World a rare and delicate comedy, with an ambiguous ending that suggests tragedy or hope, depending on your own point of view. --Jeff Shannon
User Reviews
By far one of the best movies that you will ever see! It will just blow you away! - Rating: 5/5
This movie rocks! I rented it like a week ago and was blown away! The day after I saw it, I went to Blockbuster to bring it back and was ready to buy it but.....THEY DIDN'T HAVE IT! What a joke! I mean, seriously, some of their movies for sell are horrid and they don't have Ghost World?
This movie is quite original and is one of the few movies without any violence whatsoever. The movie is about two friends, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) who just graduated from high school. They have no plans to go to college but instead plan on moving in together in their own place. Enid is mad because she has to go to summer art school and doesn't really get along with her dad or his girlfriend. She doesn't have any friends besides Rebecca and Josh, a guy whom she enjoys bugging. Rebecca and her basically just spend their days mocking people and following random people around, criticizing and laughing at them. Their newest victim is Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a nerd that sells records for a living. But, Enid starts to really like him and they become good friends. While Rebecca and Enid's relationship goes downhill, Enid's relationship with Seymour gets stronger.
My interprtation of this movie to me is that most of the people are ghosts, especially to Enid, meaning that she can't realte to them and doesn't get along with them, therefore, she can't even see them. This line by Enid perfectly explains the title: "I can't relate to 99% of humanity."
This movie will make you cry, laugh your head off, nodd in agreement and more. Some moments are downright hilarious while others are very sad. This is one movie that I will never forget. NEVER.
Lastly, the acting in the movie is incredible, notably by Thora Birch. She is a rising sensation that showed off all of her talent in this movie. Steve Buscemi is also quite remarquable in a supporting role. Scarlet Johansson also does a nice job.
I hope that this review will make you want to see this excellent movie that is unlike anything that you have ever seen before.
"Move it! Come on! What, are we in slo motion?"
Check the Personal Ads - Rating: 4/5
Hidden beneath this modern comedy is an important social commentary. The story revolves around 2 post high school girls who consider themselves `different' from everyone around them. When Rebecca (Scarlet Johannson) turns her back on this by taking a job, her friendship with Enid (Thora Birch) becomes strained. But Enid has since made friends with Seymour, who was once a target of her attacks. Steve Buscemi is just great as Seymour, an LP collecting geek who has adapted his life to his loneliness. Enid finds an attraction to the forty-something Seymour, initially from guilt. Also from guilt, she helps Seymour contact the girl of his dreams as described in his personal ad. When that relationship works out, matchmaker Enid again is alone against her desires.
A very reflective film that many will relate with, GHOST WORLD's real star is its sharp screenplay. The film is not for everyone, however as its hero is rebelling against mostly everything. But, most will be able to appreciate the young girl's depression.
Quirky brilliance with a most unexpected depth - Rating: 5/5
I went in to Ghost World expecting an oddball comedy, so I was surprised by the nuance, depth, and emotional complexity of this film. There are some funny moments, certainly, but the whole movie is just too deep, dark, and meaningful to be dismissed as mere comedy. Your reaction to the film may well depend on what kind of person you are - or were back in school. If you were cool and ran with the in crowd, you'll probably laugh - condescendingly, of course - at the losers who make up the main characters of the story. If you were an oddball and have drunk deeply from the waters of alienation, however, you will feel a real kinship with these characters. The only bad thing about this film is the fact that there isn't enough of Scarlett Johansson in it. It's really all about the character of Enid (Thora Birch), an incredibly complex character who wears alienation like a crown and tries to avoid total decimation at the hands of a cruel, mixed-up life. We start out with Enid and her friend Rebecca (Johansson), but - for obvious reasons - Rebecca has a lifeline to normalcy and makes a much better transition to post-high school existence than her friend. The fact that her partner is crime begins to grow apart from her only makes Enid's journey all the more difficult to navigate - and there is much to fuel her contempt for the world.
The plan is for Enid and Rebecca to gets jobs and rent an apartment together, playing pranks and generally complaining about how fake and stupid everyone else is in their spare time. After Rebecca starts working, though, you can start to see that her heart's just not in their long-held plans, while Enid just sort of sleepwalks through each day with no purpose whatsoever - apart from attending the remedial art class she has to take during the summer. She does find a project for herself, though - one extremely weird fellow named Seymour (Steve Buscemi). Of course, it begins with her setting the hapless Seymour up on a fake blind date and watching him suffer through the internal agony of being stood up. She follows him, though, and the two strike up an unusual friendship. Seymour is a great collector of classic jazz and blues records and an odd assortment of other things, and he basically lives in that forgotten world he has recreated for himself. Enid sets out to find Seymour a girlfriend - which is quite a project indeed, as Seymour is almost hopelessly undesirable in the eyes of the world (or at least the 99% of it that Enid hates so much).
Then Enid's world starts closing in on her in all sorts of ways. Always alienated, she now begins to feel completely alone, and she basically keeps sabotaging her chances of reversing course (which is an unfortunate habit most of us weirdoes seem to have). Every day brings bad news on some front. By this point, the comedy is basically over and done with, and the final third of the film comes across as a nuanced, poignant look at this poor soul who truly doesn't know what she is going to do with the rest of her life - or even tomorrow, for that matter.
I could say more, but this is really one of those films that you can't really explain. There's no real sense of closure when the movie ends, but that is indicative of life itself - and that is really what Ghost World is all about. Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi give inspired performances that will stay with you, Scarlett Johansson is marvelous, and some oddball characters (such as Numchuck Guy) round the film out quite well. It's quirky, but quirky is almost always good. I'm not sure how older people will react to this sort of film, but the younger generation will see much of themselves somewhere in this weird story, making Ghost World one of the most impressive coming-of-age movies of the new millennium.
When Unpopular Sarcastic Girls Attack - Rating: 5/5
Ghost World is a very comical, very dark look at American society through the eyes of two teenage misfits. Recent high school graduates Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are two girls who are outsiders, and that's how they like it. They can't stand America's obsession with pop-culture, non-conformism, and retro styles. They try to seperate themselves any way that they can. They like to play cruel pranks on people they don't like or tell people awful things, true or false. They hassle a boy (Brad Renfro) who works at a convenience store, they make fun of the valedictorian (Rini Bell), who is in a wheel chair and neck brace due to an accident involving alcohol, and they show up at Wowsville, a 50's nostalgia cafe that plays rap and techno music, just so they can mock the establishment to the waiters. Neither of them are virgins, but I think that they were only messing with the guys that had sex with them (it's never directly stated, but I came to that conclusion myself, especially since their personalities would drive most guys away). While most of the people/things that they attack deserve criticim (the valedictorian states in her speech that she no longer needs drugs, she is later seen drinking from a flask, and Wowsville is a poor excuse for a 50's diner), they still focus their time and energy on these things. They even buy food at Wowsville, thus supporting the very thing they make fun of. It seems as if even they can't seem to completely detatch themselves from the things they claim to hate so much.
Neither of them plan on going to college, probably because it's what "everyone" is doing. Instead, they try to find jobs so that they can move in together. However, while Rebecca gets a job at a coffee shop (not Starbucks, but the same kind of place) and begins to grow up out of her high school persona, Enid is unable to either hold a job or outgrow her old, sarcastic self (which is part of the reason she can't hold onto a job). She is perfectly happy going through life, criticizing the people and things she finds to be stupid (which is nearly everyone and everything). Then she meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a middle-aged record collector who turns out to be a target of one of her pranks. Even though she looks down on him, thinking he's a loser, she can't help but become somewhat attracted to him, both mentally and physically. As she later states, "He's the opposite of everything I hate".
Ghost World follows Enid, Rebecca, and Seymour over the course of the summer following their graduation. Enid must attend a summer school art class (she failed during the year, and probably because even though she is a great artist, she doesn't conform to the teacher's nonconformist ways, if that makes sense). Rebecca searches for apartments, while Enid shoots down her every suggestion, and the two best friends begin to pull apart. Enid also spends a lot of time with Seymour, trying to get him to go on dates, but secretly hoping that he will ask her out.
Not everyone will understand this movie. Some people who do may find it to be too dark, or depressing, or pessimistic. Personally, I found it to be hilarious and somewhat poignant, which is strange, seeing as how I am probably a likely target for one of their pranks.
"Some people are ok, mostly I just feel like poisoning everybody" - Rating: 5/5
'Ghost World' is a hilarious film about two high school graduates on their summer vacation. Both of them are outcasts who enjoy making fun of the rest of society. One day a bored Enid and Rebecca decide to play a prank by responding to a love connections ad placed in the paper by a lonely 40 something year-old man. They leave a fake message on his machine pretending to be the woman he is searching for in the ad, telling him to meet them at a restaurant. There they wait for him and watch him, pathetically feeling sorry for him. When he leaves they follow him to his apartment. A few days later they meet him again at his garage sale. Enid borrows one of his old blues records and starts to develop a friendship with him. From there everything goes down in a whirlwind. Seymour (the 40 year-old man) and Enid develop an odd relationship that sort of surprises the viewer and the movie ends without anything resolving or coming to a solution. 'Ghost World' is pretty funny yet at the same time manages to be realistic. I think any young person can relate to it if they've ever felt like they have no idea where they are going in their life. Highly recommended.
