Ghost World Review
Based on the hit underground comic this movie barely registered a blip in 2001.
But since then it's become a cult classic.
Ghost World is dreary, annoying, hilarious, and strangely endearing.
Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch make a rather odd couple in the emotional and psychological wasteland of American suburbia.
The two girls, Enid and Becky, are outsiders at school and see themselves as rebels, with their deadpan putdowns of those who have sold out to suburban mediocrity.
But deep down, it’s just empty despair.
The rebellious bluster rings hollow as the relationship disintegrates.
Becky is already selling out, and Enid is too busy destroying her few relationships.
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Seymour, a sad sack and eccentric middle-aged collector of blues records, is drawn into Enid’s self-loathing to dark comic effect, but this off-beat romance has no chance of succeeding
Life simply sucks.
The war is lost.
Let’s all commit suicide and die.
This classic Generation X anthem of alienation gets a rather strained hearing in Ghost World.
The suburbs' stifling claustrophobia ultimately overpowers the self-serving wisecracks the girls spout about their seemingly dead surroundings.
Their doomed rebellion is as false as their projected bluster.
But some genuine heart can be felt beating inside Enid as she tries to escape her internal and external prisons.
We wish her well, but it’s best not to hold your breath for any length of time.
This is a brutal movie.
Totally.
