GHOST WORLD (2001) ***1/2
Reviewed 7/20/01
Historical precedence says movies adapted from comic books have a singular probability to be equated with dreadfulness. But then, no comic of Daniel Clowes has ever been adapted, and “Ghost World” is not your typical comic.
Recent high school graduates, Enid (Thora Birch) and her best friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johannson), wander their hometown landscape of wannabe actresses, socially inept record collectors, pretentious artists, and other assorted losers ripe for their hip mockery. The humanity on display before them are disgusting pigs, offputting freaks, or naïve youths all unaware of how pathetic they are. Enid and Rebecca revel in their sarcastic superiority over the rest of oblivious society. Reading a personals ad put out by Seymour (Steve Buscemi), Enid calls him in order to see what such a “loser” looks like. She tells him to come to a diner she frequents to meet her, then she, Rebecca, and their friend Josh (Brad Renfro) watch as they stand him up.
Later, Enid and Rebecca come upon Seymour at a garage sale, and Enid befriends him on a whim, the same way she makes all of her decisions. Enid’s interest in middle-aged Seymour and neglect of Rebecca pushes Rebecca away even as Seymour begins to irk Enid with his interest in a woman his age, Dana (Stacey Travis).
What sets GHOST WORLD apart from other teenage angst/ennui movies is its piercing intelligence and self-awareness. The movie opens with a parade of freaks – an injured high school valedictorian strapped into a wheelchair as if she were a poorly designed scientific experiment, a shirtless redneck with tanktop tan lines etched across his torso – and shows Enid and Rebecca’s condescension towards them. As the film progresses, we see one of the freaks, Seymour, become more human while Enid is made readily apparent a freak herself. Still, writer-director Terry Zwigoff and co-writer Clowes remain compassionate toward her, extending to her understanding while noting the hazards of her scornful attitude.
GHOST WORLD also spoofs contemporary pop culture and its disdain for anything that inspires permanency, basically, anything that amounts to history. Pop depends on the prevailing winds of fashion to sell the ever new or recycle the old in novel ways. Zwigoff and Clowes point to the absurdities such a culture gives rise to in the form of mock-50s diners and pro-environment commercials by oil companies. Meanwhile ragtime music and “classic” movies like Fellini’s 8½ are left behind.
GHOST WORLD is an inestimably smarter career move by Thora Birch than DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Her Enid is also a much more complicated and interesting character than her breakthrough role in AMERICAN BEAUTY. Scarlett Johannson is just as good, if not better than Birch in the more difficult role of playing her foil. As reconsidered for the screen, GHOST WORLD’s central concern moves away from the friendship between Enid and Rebecca and toward that of Enid and Buscemi. The change is not better or worse, just different, but it is a shame that Johannson does not get more screen time as a result. Buscemi, given his looks and perceived persona, could not have been better cast, and Seymour is Buscemi’s best role since his own directorial effort, TREE’S LOUNGE.
GHOST WORLD is funny and powerful in following Enid, a fascinating character who is afraid of becoming what she hates, but is already worse than that.