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Ghost World cast: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, and Steve Buscemi director: Terry Zwigoff 107 minutes (15) 2001 Icon VHS rental Also available to rent or buy on DVD [released 20 May] RATING: 9/10 reviewed by Mike Philbin |
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Enid is a lifetime loser. She will never fit in. She will never get a date. A displaced individual with a deadpan delivery that is pure, shimmering allure.
Ghost World opens as our heroines, Enid and Rebecca (Birch and Johansson) graduate High School - and their lives as adults can begin. Well, this is not quite the case. The common practise among High School graduates is to shift out to an Institute of Higher Learning and continue the party. Not this pair. They lounge around in coffee shops looking for mischief and this is how Rebecca gets a job in a coffee shop. Enid enrols in an art class at Summer School. And slowly, but surely, they begin to grow up in very different ways.
Enter Seymour (Buscemi), a middle-aged man whose only solace in life is a record collection of old blues and swing 78s. Enid's fascination with this style-free social misfit becomes the most charming onscreen relationship ever. Will they, won't they, end up living together like the Odd Couple until the end of time. The film ends and you go, 'wha...?'
Better even than American Beauty for its portrayal of imminent adulthood in a cracked America. Cinematic poetry. Win this title - enter our prize draw!