Rating: 
Summary: Spoiler Alert
Review: I loved this movie -- right up until the last two scenes. Remember when the older man finally gets up and boards a bus and vanishes, and the look on Enid's face as the camera faded out? That, I thought, was the perfect ambiguous ending. But it didn't end there. I would almost bet money that the studio said the audience needs a bit more resolution after that. So we see Seymour in counseling(?) with his mother (whom we hadn't even met) outside the door, and then we see Enid at the same bus stom boarding a similar bus and riding off into the distance (a cliche unworthy of the rest of the movie, and anyway, where did she get the money to do this?). Terrific movie, but I'm guessing studio interference kept it from ending on a perfect note.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best "coming of age" movies in a loooong time!
Review: I first saw "Ghost World" the 2nd semester of my senior year of high school. I thought that it was okay. To be honest,I didn't really pay attention to the whole movie. I thought that these girls were so bitter, condescending and unlikable. That was my verdict until I re-rented it after I graduated from high school.
Many things had happened since I graduated from high school. I lost my connection with some of my best friends and was alone for a long time, being subtly pressured into doing what my parents were suggesting about college and life.
I re-rented "Ghost World" and this time I paid attention. I'm glad that I did.
The story focuses on two teenage girls just graduated from high school. They're outcasts, and have caustic attitudes about almost everything in their lives.
Enid is the cynical, cutting, witty anti-heroine of this "Ghost World." Rebecca is her droll counterpart. They do almost everything together from pestering their friend Josh (Brad Renfro), following people who look like "Satanists," and patronizing Al the waiter at the local Wowsville, an "authentic" chain of 50's diners. One day they decide to play a trick on Seymour, a "loser" guy who places a personals ad in the newspaper.
As the summer progresses, they grow up and apart as Rebecca acquires a job and an apartment whilst Enid becomes friends with Seymour, whom she bonds with because Seymour like herself can't relate to "99.9% of humanity." As the real world looms closer for Enid she is left with two alternatives: succumb to the "Ghost World," or be an individual like Seymour and be miserable because of it.
This movie is great for two reasons: 1.It contains 3-dimensional teenagers who think about other things besides prom. 2. It's a subtle historic portrait of Anytown, USA where corporations are slowly dulling the rich culture that once defined these towns.
Terry Zwigoff did a great job with this film.
Thora Birch is on target as Enid. She's never showy with her performance. She captures the contradictions of Enid, a young woman who despises the mainstream lifestyle, but isn't quite sure of what kind of lifestyle she wants for herself. Scarlett Johansenn (I think that's how you spell it) is so funny as Rebecca. She's so droll that you expect her to fall asleep at any moment. Steve Buscemi is always great. The scene in the bar with Seymour and the woman who likes Blues Hammer is heartbreakingly funny.
A great film with biting humor and vulnerability.
Rating: 
Summary: Long live people who can't relate to 99% of humanity!
Review: From the conspiratory frowns of disdain between Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlet Johansson) at the graduation scene, to when they both give the finger at the graduation sign outside the school, we see that our two heroines are not the typical ordinary Generation Y-ers. Both don't want to go to college like many of their peers. Rebecca at least has some vague idea, such as moving out of her parents' home and saving enough from work to get a place of her own as a first move. She does get a job at a coffee shop, where she learns about customers. "Some people are okay, but mostly I feel like poisoning everybody." Sounds like me at work.They spend their first weeks of freedom following people whom Enid thinks might be Satanists, going to Wowsville, "the Taj Mahal of fake 50's diners" complete with a waiter they nickname Weird Al, and make caustic comments about their conformist peers, such as Melorra, a bubbly extraverted dingbat from high school whom they mimic behind her back." With some female cajoling, they get Josh, a guy they like to torment, to drive them places. The note they leave on his apartment door is funny! Their lives begin to diverge when they play a practical joke on Seymour (Steve Buscemi) at Wowsville. They follow him home and later, Enid buys an old blues-country record at his garage sale, of which she's totally enthralled by Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman." From then on, she hangs with him, slowly pushing Rebecca to the sidelines. Seymour's a reclusive eccentric, collecting memorabilia from the 1930's and 1940's. Like Enid, he isn't comfortable with mainstream life. "I can't relate to 99% of humanity." he tells her, to which she replies, "I can't relate to humanity either but it's not completely hopeless." His statement of not being in the same universe rang a chord inside me. Another time, he asks her, "You think it's healthy to obsessively collect things? [You] can't connect with other people so you fill your life with...I'm just like all these other collector losers." Fits me to a tee. Enid (with her ever-changing glasses) really has a blast at Anthony's, an adult shop, laughing and pointing at the paraphernalia inside, much to the discomfort of the other shoppers. And check out that sexy leopard mini and black blouse she's wearing. Rowr! Brilliant dialogue peppers this gem of a movie. Enid uses her usual sarcasm on her job at the theatre, to a popcorn customer who wants extra butter: "Smothered in delicious yellow chemical sludge." Seymour makes a commentary on racism in America: "People still hate each other, they just know how to hide it better." At the high school graduation we first see Enid in her red gown. She's also dressed in red at the end of the movie, coming full circle, meaning, that yes, she has gone through a lot during the few months after high school, but in a sense, she's still where she is, alienated by the rest of society. Contrary to what I've heard or read, Scarlet Johannsson makes an excellent compliment to Thora Birch. She's more reserved and more knowing on what's expected of her now. Thora Birch is a marvel as Enid, unsure what she wants, as she undergoes a transition period that takes her into the unknown. However, Steve Buscemi's Seymour made me think, "Is this really the same guy who was Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs and that guy 'who was funny-looking in a general sort of way' in Fargo? WOW!" So for those of you who don't relate to the rest of humanity in a major way, whose disillusioned lives are full of enlarged holes and tight cracks, this movie's especially for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: To hear most people talk about Ghostworld one would assume that the film is some kind of cult classic. Not so. For a start the pacing of the film is way too slow (it takes forever for anything to actually happen), the characters are given very little depth or believability, and at times border on caricature. Steve Buscemi (Seymour) as always is good value, Thora Birch (Enid) reprises her alienated/cynical teen shtick from American beauty and Scarlett Johansson (Rebecca) begins strongly but fades inexorably to become by the end an almost tangential character. The few genuinely funny moments that are here are bogged down in a slow moving, muddled and anemic plot. The biggest frustration about this entire film is that one senses that there was a funny, well observed movie in here somewhere. Scenes like those in the general store, Seymours date at the "jazz club" and his being stood up at the diner are all well done, but they only serve to juxtapose those scenes which work less well. And hey if your going to be basing a movie on a one dimensional character you could choose someone else, maybe the shirtless guy in the store. He did have about 50% of the good lines after all.
Rating:
Summary: this movie rocks
Review: this movie...rocks. thora birch is a total babe. tis a movie about what life as a teenager is about. this movie also features steve buscemi, whom i also enjoy his work. thora birch is also in dungeons and dragons, or that is what my friend tells me). but this movie is cool, its an underground punk movie, kind of like welcome to the doll house was
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, funny, intelligent
Review: 'Ghost World' is extremely hard to classify. It's certainly not another teen movie; in fact it's the exact opposite of what we learned to expect from that category. Calling it a comics flick would also give a very wrong idea of what it is. It's certainly not a comedy, but it's not really a drama either. If you really must know what kind of film is it, think in the direction of 'Daria' but more intelligent, sensitive and with three-dimensional characters (not only physycally). Or, more accurately, three three-dimensional characters making their way in a two-dimensional world of cardboard and plastic. The movie does have some very nice comedic moments, but it's more important traits are its atmosphere and symbolisms. It's beautiful and sensitive and creates a mesmerising atmosphere, Making for a superb adaptation of Daniel Clowes's original graphic novel (though the story itself has little to do with that of the source). The directing (Terry Zwigoff in his first non-documentry) is masterful and very original and unique, the dialogue is sharp and intelligent (quite a lot of it is taken directly from the novel, but the rest is in very much the same spirit), and the actors are all superb; Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi as the more sophisticated characters make a fantastic job. They are strenghtened by the wonderful, mostly hilerious cartoonish stereotypes that surround them, like Enid's father (Gosford Park's Bob Balaban), the creepy John Ellis (Pat Healy), the pretentious art teacher (Illeana Douglas), and the abnoxious Melorra (Debra Azar). A wonderful movie all around. There is a change, though hardly unnoticed, happenning in the cinema world. More than ten years after the artistic revolution in comics, the graphic novel is finally being appreciated as a potential source for films, starting with the Hughes Brothers' excellent adaptation of Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell', soon followed by this adaptation of Daniel Clowes's classic. (With any luck, we might also see in the near future another Moore masterpiece, 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', brought to the big screen, as well as Frank Miller's groundsbreaking 'Batman - Year One'). Having been lucky enough to be in NY at precisely the time these two movies came out, I was thrilled to see the novels on which they were based in book stores... Some say comics is dead; i think it's just heading into a new phase.
Rating: 
Summary: slow and not thought provoking
Review: I rented this movie based on a recomendation because I was looking for a quirky comedy. I was feeling a bit down, and wanted something to cheer me up. This was NOT the movie that I should have gotten. The movie dragged on. It was so slow, that it wound up making me MORE depressed, because I felt like a loser just watching the movie. One of the reviewers compared the dialog to Daria. I disagree, as Daria is about 30x funnier than this thing. I'm guessing that all the good reviews are from people that relate to the main character. I'm a bit confused why that's enough, because it seems that the main character doesn't have anything good about her. The movie does not portray her in a good light at all; it serves only to seem to point out WHY she is a loner, rather than showing that loners don't have to be pathetic geeks. If I related to her, I would have been offended that she was portrayed in the very stereotypical way that every other movie out there does for the misfit. The only difference is that she's the main character rather than some side bar and that there aren't "popular" kids as a focus.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Solid About "Ghost World"
Review: Ghost World is the kind of movie you love to hate, at least if you're me that is. The people I can see enjoying this movie are bitter, outcast teenagers who resemble the two main characters, and seem to be the exact audience this movie was made exclusivly for. The film chronicles the adventures of two young women who have a tendency to be sarcastic and bitter towards everything and anything. The films plot lacks any direction and the ending is worthless. The film gets 2 stars for decent acting and a few interesting segments. An alright movie to rent on a rainy night, but certainly not seeing more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Cynical, But Entertaining View of Today's Teenagers
Review: GHOST WORLD is an intelligent and somewhat subversive comedy. It's cynical tone plays like an updated version of a Billy Wilder movie. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson are fine in their respective roles. Some of the things that the young women do in this film are not nice, but smack of reality. Steve Buscemi was also good as a blues fan that has all but given up on love. On a side note, it was so refreshing to see different blues artists explored via Buscemi's character than the standard "Top Ten" in other films that make reference to blues artists. Skip James is just one of the fine blues musicians mentioned in the film. If you're looking for an intelligent movie with teenage age characters as the leads, this one is a good bet. Also, expect to hear some excerpts of some fine, underappreciated blues recordings.
Rating:
Summary: "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" is the best opening song!
Review: What a wonderful surprise this movie is, unlike your typical teen angst dilemmas Ghost World showcases the world of the outcast. Yet in her own eyes Enid (perfectly cast Thora Birch) is not an outcast but merely someone who is above all the bland and boring that is mainstream. Her best friend Rebecca (Scarlet Johansson) shares her view as they torture other losers and find their true identities. Enid's world view changes when she meets an older nerdish fellow named Seymour (Steve Buscemi), she soon finds her relationship with Rebecca slipping as a whole new world opens to her in his world of antique records and pop art. It is also apparent that Enid is just not ready to become mainstream in a world where everything is a Ghost World of imitation and mundane Terry Zwigoff's world is a wonderful change from the super cool yet boring as hell popular kid movies where the big worries are the prom and if Freddie Prinze, Jr will get the girl. Ghost World is for the other crowd who didn't care about the popular kids and is a welcome change. Thora Birch captures Enid so perfectly with her caustic attitude and self-loathing persona. Steve Busecimi is great as usual in portraying Seymour as a sensitive loner who is content to live in his world of classic jazz and blues nostalgia. Yet the minor characters add weight to the film in their rich diversity, from Josh (Brad Renfro) who is the [reciepient] of Enid's constant badgering to the extremely funny antics of white [lower class citizen] Doug (Dave Sheridan) who makes a scene at a local convenience store. Bob Baliban, Terri Garr and Illeana Douglas turn in great performances in cameos roles that are well suited to their unique talents. There are the usual goodies on the DVD yet the best item is the 6 minute clip from the Indian movie Gumnaam that Enid is watching and dancing too in the films opening. The song "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" is one of the best opening songs to any movie and is such a catchy tune even if it is in Hindi.
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