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Ghost World Movie Review

Ghost World is a 2001 black comedy film directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. It’s such a singularly strange coming-of-age movie.

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“I can’t relate to 99% of humanity“

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Neo-cool Enid and Rebecca 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 and Rebecca focuses her attention on their mutual romantic fixation on Josh, the girls’ friendship is forever changed. The movie was based on the comic of the same name and it received excellent reviews despite a very weak box office. It’s now a cult movie.

It is a strange film, that’s for sure, and although I usually do not like such offbeat, odd movies, this one was different as the relatability factor was still there despite the initially off-putting tone. Yes, it took me a while to grow accustomed to its characters and this world, but when I finally did, I started to care for them and I ended up really liking the movie, warts and all.

Whatever happened to Thora Birch? She was a child star apparently, but now she is nowhere to be seen, which is truly unfortunate as judging by this movie, you would think that after 2001 she would be a bigger star than her co-star, Johansson. Alas, the opposite happened, but at least Birch should be proud of the work that she’s put here.

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I loved everything about Enid. Initially, she was too cold and unappealing, but eventually I’d come to fully appreciate what the writers were trying to do with her. The angst on her part is definitely excessive, but also believable and actually rather recognizable to me as I myself despised my entire home town and all the other teens and people living there, though I never outwardly expressed that sentiment. Most of the lines that she spewed were reminiscent of what I would be thinking back in those years, so the end result was one very relatable protagonist to me.

Rebecca fared worse as she did not get all that much development, but the friendship going sour was superbly depicted here and again so grounded in reality. Johansson is very good, but again it is Birch who killed it with fantastically wry line delivery and excellent emotiveness. Steve Buscemi is also terrific in a smaller, but crucial role.

The weird relationship that develops between Enid and Seymour is, yes, initially implausible, but genuinely affecting and sweet toward the end. And the two finding common ground despite their age difference was a very interesting commentary – strangeness and social ineptitude strikes all people, regardless of age or gender.

So yes, basically Ghost World is a love letter to all the weirdos out there, but the movie is famous, rightly so, for not romanticizing nor criticizing its protagonist, which is why her entire character journey felt incredible and the best reason to see this movie. Again, the pacing and the repetitiveness of the much less interesting first half hurt the movie, but the second half was emotionally rewarding and worth the wait.

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The performances are great, but the direction from Zwigoff is surprisingly good as well. The script is outstanding, though clearly better suited for the comic book medium than the cinema. The look and sound of the movie are just fine, but as an early indie feature, it did deliver the goods.