Ghost World Review

Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johannson), two recent high school graduates, are bored with their summer after finishing high school. Enid is forced to take a remedial art class in order to graduate whilst Rebecca works in a coffee shop, earning money for the apartment that the two girls have always said they would get after school. All is normal until the girls find a posting in the newspaper from Seymour (Steve Buscemi) and decide to play a prank on him, after the prank, Enid becomes interested in Seymour and wants to find out more. The film shows Enid and Rebecca's friendship drift apart whilst hers and Seymour's strengthens.

If you have been on websites such as Tumblr or Twitter, you have most likely seen pictures of, or quotes by the character of Enid. Having being propelled into a cult icon due to her quirky personality which is matched in her sense of dress and her hilarious misanthropist personality, it very quickly feels like this film should have been called The Enid Show or something along those lines, with Rebecca being a fairly bland character who I never really felt any interest in. Although it can seem a little bit too try-hard at times, the character of Enid is a fun one who is relatable in a sense and exaggerates all of the teen angst we all once felt, or feel now, or are to feel in the future.

The film is an adaptation of a comic book of the same name by Daniel Clowes, which is obvious in the general style of the film. The colours used in this film are bright, mostly coming from Enid's adventurous hair and clothing, however the settings are also extremely playful and interesting to watch, with Enid's bedroom and the diner being the two most memorable locations. A lot of the characters are two dimensional, perhaps because of their stems from a comic book or perhaps because of director Terry Zwigoff's adaptations of them, I have not read the graphic novel and therefore cannot comment on the reasons why they appear to be shallow and have no real qualities, all I can say is that they do. Rebecca is a shell of a human, with the only thing we really see her do being working and being a shadow to Enid, who is pretty much the opposite of her. Seymour, who I know is not featured as a major character in the graphic novel, is a character who Enid is obsessed with, however this interest is not mirrored in the audience, with his character just being there and not provoking any real response from viewers.

I just felt while watching the film that it was missing something. Perhaps I will read the graphic novel and then be able to make more sense of the director's intentions in making this film, however in a stand alone film, I don't think this should be necessary in order to fully enjoy the feature. The plot is stagnant, the only thing interesting is Enid and her failing relationships, and the films attempt at a thought provoking ending fails quite miserably. The film was interesting in regards to the style, however it doesn't go much further than that, I'm afraid.