Ghost World

Terry Zwigoff has created an excellent parable about disaffected youth in "Ghost World". The character of Enid (memorably played by Thora Birch) is a sardonic iconoclast, and a bit of a hero to me. She has her own style, speaks her razor sharp mind, and truly doesn't care what people think about her. Picture a female, proactive version of Holden Caulfield. I desperately wish I were more like Enid when I was in high school.

Enid's partner in crime is Rebecca (Scarlett Johannson), who has one foot in the offbeat world Enid inhabits, and the other foot in the mainstream world Enid loathes. Rebecca's one of those types who never seem to mean what they're saying, not because of dishonesty, but because of lack of self-knowledge and security. When these two pals start to drift apart after they graduate from high school, Enid latches on to champion loser Seymour (Steve Buschemi, who seems to live for these kinds of roles), a devoted record collector. Through one long, seemingly uneventful summer, Enid takes a good look at the world around her, and a painful series of events force her to find her own place in it.

I adored this anti-"teen movie", and it was so refreshing to see a heroine who wasn't a blandly blonde, pool cue shaped cheerleader who spouted out adorable one-liners. Enid is a proud loner and rebel, who wears her crazy wardrobe and Truman Capote glasses with pride. Zwigoff never allows the movie to be Hollywood saccharine or indie film depressing. It's full of realistic, human characters we've all known at one time or another. I was further amazed by how true to life "Ghost World" is. Nothing in the film turns out the way you expect it to, but, really, isn't that just the same as life?

If on day you ever wondered where it all started for Scarlett Johansson in film, before her regular Oscar nods and the well-established Marcel hero Black Widow, the archives would take you to North, a 1994 comedy-drama starring Elijah Wood, but one of her first leading roles was in Ghost World alongside Thora Birch - two late teens at the time, they rocked in Terry Zwigoff's production, proving a significant indication of what's to come for both actors in.

The story of neo-cool Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) who, faced with graduation from high school, take a hard look at the world they wryly observe and decide what they really want. When Enid takes an interest in the offbeat Seymour (Steve Buscemi) and Rebecca focuses her attention on their mutual romantic fixation Josh (Brad Renfro), the girls' friendship is forever changed.

An eerie tone echoed through the narrative as we seemingly await the big punchline breakthrough which explodes to heighten the tension and develop the storyline, however, the film cleverly probes and anticipates its audience into a spiral of uncertainty and doubt. Adapted from the novel of the same name, Zwigoff ensures that the storybook feel is still present and acts as an enticing mechanism to achieving the act of conveying the movie's key message.

The idea of casting Steve Buscemi is genius, providing contrasts to the two protagonists, his character is ageing and lonesome, in light of the two youthful best friends the three bond in an unlikely fashion, though musical references in a time of prevalent anthems of the early 2000s / late 90s is a relatable, appropriate feature of the pictures excellence.

Ghost World is an ambiguous watch, which will leave you questioning the realms of fantasy and reality, an immersive, thrilling watch perfect for indulging away from the sameness of everyday life.

I guess different people can extract different meanings from GHOST WORLD and all nail exactly why it was made. For me, it was the chronicle of that small group of people who don't, and probably never will, quite fit into this world. They're here on the fringes though, just existing in their own parallel universe, or their own "ghost world." Though it sounds depressing, this film is hardly a downer, it's full of humor, satire and acute observations on life. The overall production is excellent (the brightness and colors in the photography, costumes and sets is stunning)... plus it pulls off the impossible by successfully steering toward dead-on seriousness near the conclusion to drive it's point across.

It begins at graduation with Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), two very perceptive high school outcasts who see right through the facade of their juvenile peers and want nothing to do with it. For Rebecca this self-ostracizing is just a passing phasing, but for Enid you get the strong impression this is going to always be her way of life. It's not that she doesn't get it, it's that she's doesn't understand IT or people or the games of life. There's a brief emotional turning point for Enid when a cruel practical joke backfires and she becomes involved with the target, the nerdy and very sardonic Seymour (Steve Buscemi), who may just be the kindred spirit Enid was looking for. The shared scenes between Enid and Seymour, though doomed to take a bad turn, are handled with tenderness by the director and actors and are quite memorable and touching.

Highlights are an excellent scene in a blues club that just about nails the American outlook on life and our lack of reverence and the ones in Enid's remedial art class, with the most misguided and pretentious teacher (Illeana Douglas) you could imagine. The girls are wonderful, and Steve Buscemi was unfairly overlooked at awards time (big shocker). Anyway, he's never been this good before. The fact this premise, these ideas and these original and interesting characters came from a comic book makes me realize I've completely overlooked the artistic possibilities within that medium.

Ghost World is endearingly odd, a dryly funny satire of the awkward phase after high school and before adulthood. I greatly enjoyed it; my partner strongly disliked it, finding it awkwardand unfunny. It's certainly not a movie for everyone, and I suspect you'll know in the first half hour whether it's for you.

The movie is about Enid and Becky, two high school friends who seem to own the anti-cool clique and have no real plans for life after graduation other than to get an apartment together - though Enid has not officially graduated and needs to take a remedial art class in the summer in order to finish out her credits. (There's more than a passing resemblance to the Daria and Jane relationship, for those who remember that show.) Becky seems to be handling the transition better: she gets a job and picks out an apartment. Enid instead seems insistent on taking an apathetic, hipster approach towards everything and everyone, deeming it all so lame as to be unworthy of effort, other than her affection for Seymour, a dorky record collector many, many years her senior who has few friends and even fewer romantic prospects.

Without ever being in your face politically, Ghost World has great social commentary on art, relationships, and consumer culture. It's a weird movie, and you'll either love it or roll your eyes at it, but I hope it's the former.

Movies that criticise the world can fall into many traps, leaving the viewer to feel jaded by the film's experience. Ghost World's witty appraisal of 'America' successfully avoids being childishly caustic or self-important and thus emerges as one of the best films of 2001. We sympathise with Enid (the luscious Thora Birch) without being expected to completely believe that her cynical world-view is necessarily the right one. Enid's (and her best-friend Rebecca's)negativity is turned on all around them, and their obsessive need to be cool but on their own terms sees them take post-modernism to its absurd conclusion.

Enid's bizarre costume choices mean that she stands out from the rest of her baggy-panted generation, and in one scene is infuriated that no-one, even Rebecca, understands her 'original 1977 punk look' she's testing out.

The fact that we should not fully empathise with Enid is shown by the contrasting character arc of Rebecca. There is a definite sense that she grows up over the course of the movie, but not in a "what have we learned about life" Disney way. Perhaps she has sold out to the conservative ideals that seemed so repulsive to them at the beginning of the movie, but just as Enid ultimately fulfils her desires, so does Becky live out her 'seventh grade fantasy'. The important thing is not the choices people make, but whether they make choices with which they are happy.

The movie's main targets are people who betray themselves in an effort to fit in, and their resulting stupidity by doing so. But the people who have remained true to their values (like Steve Buscemi's Seymour, in a performance that should have been at least nominated for an Academy Award), are portrayed as leading equally vacuous lives. Seymour's infrequent attempts to achieve 'normality' are galling for us to observe, and near soul-destroying for him to experience.

This is an excellent movie. Thora Birch gives her most confident performance to date, and Scarlett Johansson is superbly laconic as Enid's icy side-kick. The supporting cast all shine. Strongly recommended!