Ghost World (2001)
Comedy | Drama

Tagline: Accentuate the negative.

"A Stunner Of A Film… A Winner!" -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

They're high school graduates - and the world's got hell to pay! Hot new talents Thora Birch (American Beauty) and Scarlett Johansson (The Horse Whisperer) "sneak into your heart and stay there" (Rolling Stone) in this "uproariously funny" (Premiere) comedy from the acclaimed director of Crumb. With Brad Renfro (Deuces Wild), Illeana Douglas (Stir of Echoes) and Steve Buscemi (Fargo) in "the best role of his career" (Movieline), this "whip-smart comedy" is "a surprise gem" (People)!

When their classmates head for college, Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johansson) focus their energies on tormenting those around them! From a goofy convenience store clerk (Renfro) to an eccentric art teacher (Douglas), these two saboteurs wreak havoc on all those who cross their paths. But when they zero in on an oddball loner (Buscemi) looking for Miss Right, their seemingly innocent meddling threatens to shatter one of their hearts… not to mention their lifelong friendship!

Storyline: This is the story of Enid and Rebecca after they finish the high school. Both have problems relating to people and they spend their time hanging around and bothering creeps. When they meet Seymour who is a social outsider who loves to collect old 78 records, Enid's life will change forever. Written by eric from Mexico City

User Comment: Blake French (baffilmcritic@cs.com) USA • GHOST WORLD / (2001)

For those of us who tire of standard teen movies, here's the film to brighten our day. It's a monkey wrench in the cranks of the tedious genre that features actors in their mid-twenties portraying stereotypical high-school characters shamelessly indulging predictable plots of frivolous romance. Where most movies set in high schools find resolve in romantics, "Ghost World" dares to be different.

Yet it contains all the usual ingredients-aimless main characters, one-dimensional side characters, high school graduation, moronic parents, sexual revelations, a romance-but it tastes different. This movie doesn't believe high school is the root of youth complications; it knows that school isn't where the confusion lies-it's after graduation when the complexities begin.

The movie opens as a high school senior dances along with a music video. Sounds like a typical teenager? Well, not really. The music this girl listens to isn't exactly mainstream. Nothing about Enid (Thora Birch from "American Beauty") is ordinary.

The same goes for her best friend, Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson). She is slightly more focused than the aimless Enid, but, as they graduate from high school in the opening scenes, neither of them know what they want out of life.

Rebecca and Enid find interesting people to follow, exploit, and embarrass, just for their own leisure, but even this loses its edge. Making the most (or least) of their situation, the girls stumble upon an outstandingly pathetic personal ad. As a joke, they respond. However, when they meet this man, Enid becomes infatuated with him.

In their post high school days, Enid and Rebecca find themselves slowly drifting apart. Rebecca is eager to get an apartment and get on with her life, while Enid lives by the day, following one infatuation after another. As their attitudes gradually change from cynical to sober, Enid and Rebecca's emerging differences become blatantly obvious, but painfully realized.

"Ghost World" refers to the world in which these characters live, a town slowly being overcome by shopping malls and coffee shops; a town that slowly loses its distinctions and becomes a ghost of what it once was.

My small town of Mason, MI speaks for itself. Once a minuscule farming suburb of the state's capital, it's now a breeding ground for new subdivisions, factories, stores, gas stations, trailer parks, and businesses. Before you know it, it will be a densely populated city like the capital itself.

"Ghost World" makes harsh points, but it never loses its sense of humor. Enid is so full of bitter cynicism that we have to laugh. She indulges the dialogue. It's often tactlessly frank, savoring every opportunity to bash, thrash, ridicule, or insult anyone or anything for any reason.

Society tends to repress our caustic desire to insult a fellow man, but "Ghost World" doesn't hesitate. It takes a lot of risks, but never steps in the wrong direction. It connects us with these characters. They are so casually antisocial that we can't help but to love them. At times, the movie doesn't require dialogue. It simply examines the character's surroundings. We get to know these people so well, we know exactly what they're thinking before they say it. They are a part of our instincts to react on impulse.

But a character is only as good as the actor behind it. "Ghost World" features enormously engaging performances. Brad Renfro gives his nobody store clerk a raw blandness. Illeana Douglas injects a kind of controlled eccentricity into her role as an art teacher. Steve Buscemi creates a hopeless record player collector out of repressed emotion, and lack thereof.

Scarlett Johansson gives Rebecca a dry, depressed mood. Thora Birch steals the whole show with a straightforward, fearless performance. Although the movie never defines the relationship between Enid and Rebecca, the actors themselves make it clear. They create an enticing charisma that gradually turns to an awkward tension.

"Ghost World" captures part of our journey from childhood to adulthood with poetic grace and cynical wit. Though it's not really a coming-of-age film, where a young character finally takes a place in the world. Enid never finds her place, decides her future, or chooses a path. By the end of the story, she simply becomes aware of her possible options. This movie is just the beginning of her story.

Summary: For those of us who tire of standard teen movies, here's the film to make our day. (four out of four)

[CSW] -4.4- Ghost World is remarkable in that it's fundamentally about the slow death of a friendship, which expires very gradually over the course of the entire movie without ever quite receiving the last rites. Gradually and authentically this black comedy depicts the unraveling of that friendship. Enid's unexpectedly rich relationship she develops with Seymour is basically unimportant as the heart of the film is the failing relationship between Enid and Becky. Even though they never have a major tiff what really makes this entire movie work is Scarlett Johansson's performance as Becky. She doesn't strain to make Becky seem like a sellout or a shallow caricature of nascent materialism-she just sort of shrugs at everything Enid says, unable to agree, but unwilling to start an argument. Enid does not know what she wants to do, but instead she knows what she does not want to do. It could take her whole life to figure out what she wants if she only focuses on what she does not want. She is denying herself happiness because she is too concerned about the things that make one unhappy. The title suggests that ghosts live in "the-in-between" and Enid was trying to avoid this in between that everyone else seems to be living in.
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(Based on Comic Book)

--- JOYA ---


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