Ghost World Directed by: Terry Zwigoff Dave's Rating: A The summer after high school graduation is often the glory days we try hard to remember or forget. The world is at its most beautiful and ugly state. Enid (Thora Birch) and her best friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) like to think it's a bit more ugly than precious. They prefer records to compact discs, foreign films to what is spoon-fed to their age group at the theaters, and dance to obscure Indian music from the Sixties instead of the hip hop sang at their graduation ceremony. Enid and Rebecca only have each other for friends, and they prefer it stay that way. The two treat boys like most girls would in grade school, as a necessary evil. They don't hate men entirely, and Rebecca seems quite interested in finding conversation with people other than the cynical Enid, but Enid cuts almost every chance short that Rebecca has with the opposite sex. Enid is played by Thora Birch, who you probably remember as the daughter of Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty. Birch is essentially still playing the same role of a lost girl in a teenage wasteland, but she has more spunk and bite than her character in American Beauty. Enid's wardrobe is always in the moody shade of dark purple or black, and rule number one with Enid is that it must always go with combat boots. She is still susceptible to peer pressure though. When she dyes her hair green to the spite of those around her, all it takes is a local pest to tell her punk is dead before she dyes it right back to its original color. For a graduation present Enid is informed that she has to take an art class over the summer in order to receive her diploma. Some of the films most hilarious scenes take place in an art room that is all too familiar with a flaky art teacher played by scene stealer Illeana Douglas, who is always searching for something "inner." For kicks, Enid and Rebecca stalk oddball characters walking down the sidewalks of their fast food franchise dominated streets. They harass convenience and video store clerks, waiters, old men waiting for the bus; basically anyone within earshot. The two find great joy in answering personal ads for lonely men, and the central plot of the middle and last half of the film revolves around the lonely life of Seymour, who has a personal ad that Enid answers as a prank. Seymour, who is played by Steve Buscemi in the role he was born to command, infatuates Enid with his geek persona and obsessions that are compulsive and odd to everyone except Seymour. Seymour's style is entirely retro, 1950's style with no substitutes. He collects obscure blues albums and vintage advertising posters, and displays them in his "special room." Enid sees in Seymour a beautiful light, even though he is twenty years older than she is, and works an assistant manger position in a fried chicken restaurant. When Enid remarks that she would kill to have the collection of mid-20th century artifacts that Seymour has, he says "please do." Ghost World is directed with efficiency by Terry Zwigoff, who made the wonderful documentary about cartoonist Robert Crumb called Crumb. Ghost World is adapted from a comic book of the same name written by modern comic book author Daniel Clowes, who helped write the script for this film. Clowes and Zwigoff give the film plenty of comedic elements to make Enid, Rebecca and Seymour likeable, yet tragic characters, and the film gives the three enough realism that we see the heartache and the despair that make films like Ghost World memorable. |
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