Ghost World (2001)

Seriously I wouldn't consider calling this a movie, it's just pure rubbish! I feel there's just no story to it, it's just only about two whingy girls who find life rather depressing and stupid. I felt there was no action or any interesting scenes that were included in the movie. It was bad enough that great actors were involved in this such as Scarlett Johansson. She would ve been better off if she just said no to this, that will make her career fo smoothly rather than this being above her head!This movie sucks, I wish IMDb would give us the chance to rate this 0. It would be accurate! It doesn't deserve a nomination of anything, or even a single award! Awful..

I'd heard much about this film but never got to watch it until finally now. Supposedly a class graphic novel, I've never managed to get round to reading it. This film has piqued my interest.Thora Birch is the real central character of this film as we follow 'Enid' round her hometown as she falls for a far older man (Seymour) who is socially awkward. Enid is partnered by her friend Rebecca, and both have a dark sense of humour and pray cruel pranks to get their kicks. They're outsiders in their world, and seem almost nihilistic. Apathy rules, but Enid's burgeoning friendship with Seymour seems to release pent up emotions in Enid, riding from caring & love to jealously & loss.I'm very surprised by this mostly low budget movie. It's sassy and interesting, and will bring back long past memories. The characters feel too real to us all, and maybe we see some of our past lives in them.There is little to be negative about this movie. It balances many aspects to mull over without shoving them in your face, and for the most part avoids condescending small times stereotypes & clichés.I liked it a lot, I'd recommend it to all, whether they be young or old. Give it a try.

Reviewed September 6th, 2015 - 1st viewing (IFC HD) Based on the comic book by Daniel Clowes, the film centers around two teen outcasts struggling to find their place in the world after they graduate high school. Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) has plans to get a job and an apartment, however Enid (Thora Birch) is decidedly less motivated, having spent her whole life just skating by. She must inevitably learn that there are very real consequences for her actions—even in indifference.The film makes for a very interesting social commentary about the difficulty of maintaining relationships and our struggle to find our place in the world, the quintessential tug-of-war to find the balance between being true to ourselves and hiding pieces of us to fit into society's accepted norms. It makes a provocative statement about how society and media make us feel we have to choose between acceptance and being who we are. The word normal is constantly thrown around, particularly by her best friend Rebecca, serving to illustrate the fundamental differences between the two girls, with Enid spending most of her life seeing what she wanted to see, only to discover her and Rebecca were not as alike as she thought.Enid's boredom leads her to play a practical joke on a lonely man searching for a woman he met in a personal ad. After the two girls observe his melancholy and follow him to his home, Enid discovers he collects and sells records. They hit it off and she starts to see that he's not so different than her. Believing she's found a kindred spirit in a man twice her age, she takes an interest and starts spending time with him, promising to find him a date.Her journey is an illustration of how we can get so caught up in our own lives that we fail to see that we are neglecting those important to us—our relationships—the very thing we rely on for emotional support. And when someone we care about fails us, we either internalize it or lash out. Enid's required art class poignantly illustrated that artistic license cannot so easily be acquired, but instead of working to cultivate her own creativity, she chose to use an old art piece borrowed from Seymour. This unfortunately would also prove to have dire consequences.Seymour finally got that call from the girl he'd been looking for in the ad and Enid encouraged him to meet her. After they hit it off, he sadly became self-involved and blew Enid off, never giving thought to the fact that she had genuinely cared for him. And so with that disappointment causing her to only think of herself, frustrated that he was settling for a woman he had little in common with to be 'taken care of', Enid recoiled back into her comfort zone—Rebecca. Unfortunately, she failed to see that while she was caught up with her infatuation with Seymour, she wasn't being a friend to Rebecca.Naturally, it hurt her when Enid only wanted to hang out with her because Seymour blew her off. Rebecca did not lie to be malicious, but to protect herself, as she was beginning to see for the first time that perhaps their 'friendship' was based more on convenience than true affection. I can relate on this point, as people continually undervalue the importance of balance in their lives in terms of their relationships as a whole. If you only focus on one, the others will suffer, and you can't play people like fiddles and expect them to still be around when the fog clears. Part of discovering how to be happy is figuring out how to balance all the elements within it, instead of ascribing to the misguided belief that you can hand pick a few and that will be enough.The story seemed to stretch a little beyond its reach as Rebecca grew increasingly frustrated with Enid's attitude. Instead of Enid simply admitting she didn't feel she could be honest with her, she insulted her, causing Rebecca to lash out. This hurt Enid, penetrating the walls she thought she had in place, and her pain sent her fleeing to Seymour for comfort, succeeding in getting out of him what she wanted only to turn on her heels and run. She practically begged Rebecca to let her move in with her, only to disappoint her by not keeping her promise. I found it odd the two girls never hugged despite supposedly being best friends since childhood, and I was a little miffed by Rebecca's disregard for Seymour's feelings, coming off as more malicious than jealous, which seemed wholly unjustified.The title represents Enid feeling as though she's a ghost in a world filled with people. She feels invisible and inconsequential, something I think we can all relate to. She struggled through the whole film to figure out what she wanted instead of settling on complacency. Once she realized her only dream was to disappear, she had to find the courage to take that final step.Throughout the whole ordeal, Enid didn't seem to understand that her irresponsibility and feigned indifference had real consequences, and that her actions were hurting people. The end felt a little disjointed to me, as if they were trying to wrap everything up in a bow so we knew where we left each of the characters with little statement on the friendship she had taken for granted, which is what I found more interesting, especially considering the comic focuses more on both girls which I would've found to be more intriguing.FINAL VERDICT: More interesting that it appears, the in-depth look at what lies just beneath the surface of our lives and the intricacies of our relationships made for a profound watch, if only left feeling a little bewildered by the end.6.5 of 10.0

Considering the quality of the cast, the lack of cohesion in the interaction between them must have been quite hard to achieve, barely any interaction between Birch and Johansson had any fluidity or credibility to it.The lead character was weak, and is based on a very shallow and cold angst that would be a brief phase at most, her friendship had an even less believable foundation and with the exception of Steve Buscemi's character and performance, the entire film reminded me of cheap porn, without any of the sex scenes.Ironic is about the only thing I can say for this, though I doubt it was trying to be. It constantly took digs at the world of the arts, and yet it is only this world that will appreciate this style of film. I expect good reviews, as to give something like this a poor one would probably be considered uncultured in such circles. When it ended, or didn't as the case pretty much was (the pseudo ending 5 minute shorter would have been better), I was glad, solely as it was over.