Ghost World

Rating:
Summary: Movie with a Message
Review: This is definitely an entertaining movie, but although it leaves an impression of being a deeply personal and poignant story, it actually succeeds in reflecting a few broader truths and points of social concern.

The pivot of the story is Enid and her boredom and alienation. Although it's easy to see her condition as 'existential' and somehow profound on the personal or spiritual level, it all boils down to her inability to find a role, either through love and (by implication) marriage and having children, or through work and career. This failure is not so much her fault as society's.

The only jobs on offer are low paid service jobs (pop-corn seller at the multiplex) that she is too intelligent for, while the only career that might fulfill her mentally -- the artistic one that briefly opens up to her -- is closed off by a 'politically correct' backlash against her artistic honesty.

The message here is:(1) be stupid and work in a dull service job, or (2) be clever and get a higher status job but at the cost of being a bland, disimulating, two-faced chimer without much integrity.

This leaves only the personal realm through which to find a role, in Enid's case, men. The two relationships open to her are Josh a young guy working in a convenience store and Seymour an assistant manager at the offices of some restaurant chain.

The twists and turns of the plot just go to show how unsuitable both of them turn out to be. Josh is just a dumbed down, unskilled, and downtrodden shop boy clearly lacking the intellectual depth that Enid requires. Seymour, on the other hand, has the intellectual depth, but as an office drone, ultimately lacks the courage and physical manliness to fill the role required.

Rather than being groomed by society to fill balanced, healthy, natural roles, the people in this movie are either mentally emasculated (Josh), or physically emasculated (Seymour) or have their intelligence or integrity insulted (Enid) by the roles society offers them, all in the name of serving banal service industries or political correctness.

Read in the right way, this is a film with a revolutionary, possibly extreme right wing message about the necessity of men being men and women being women, and not existing as fodder for the service economy and as brainwashed sheep of political correctness.



Rating:
Summary: WRY, RIVETING ACCOUNT OF TEEN ANOMIE
Review: Never heard about this one, but ended up glued right through to its end. Great find! A dark comedy about a teenager's frustration with setting out on the road to self-discovery and coming to a dead end.

The dialogue is nimble, the music apt, and the screenplay a refreshing change from the pat assembly-line teenybop flicks cranked out several times a year by Hollywood. The plot is peripheral, it's the characters and a fluid narrative that take center-stage.

As delightfully droll but cynical 17 year-olds facing the first challenges of adulthood -- leaving home, getting a job, finding a love life -- the two female protagonists do a fabulous job of coming across as outsiders among their peers never quite trying to "fit in".

In what begins as a harmless goof, one of them finds herself drawn to schleppy forty-something Seymour (Buscemi), a regular Joe and collector of 78rpm records. You know Buscemi from character roles in a bunch of popular movies, including Reservoir Dogs; all pent-up cynicism and inherent geekiness, he couldn't be more perfect in this role.

Thrown in are other interesting caricatures of some pretty credible small town characters, notably an art teacher who got more inane with every highfalutin bit of art she expounded on high school kids.

Thankfully, the movie resists the temptation of convenient closures so some may take issue with how it all turns out for the teenage girl and the middle age geek. But it feels more real this way.

What a marvellously done film. Rent it pronto, even the credits are worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Needs some improvement
Review: But I guess it's okay to occasionally watch anyway. Some of it gets boring, though. There isn't that much significance in the opening song. It's just a regular movie with no special effects because that's not the kind it is and I suppose I like it a little bit at least. I've never read the comic book because I had never heard of it before. This isn't really much of a review. It's just me talking about my brief issues with this mediocre film....... did I mention the "special effects" thing already?? If this has is supposed to be comedy, then the filmmakers should have had something better to do. This movie is okay. It's not great, but it's something to watch if you're bored.

Rating:
Summary: Aren't we all freaks?
Review: Enid isn't normal - she wouldn't want to be. Neither are her friends. Rebecca, Enid's best friend, isn't so sure of what she's looking for. Enid is strong. She decides to search for her dreams. Rebecca looks to find safety. Who will succeed?
An excellent comic adaption with great actors!

Rating:
Summary: Top entertainment
Review: Having enjoyed the first Terry Zwigoff film (Crumb), and the Graphic Novel 'Ghostworld', on which this is based, my expectations were high. The film does not disappoint in the least, working on a range of different (though rather downbeat) levels.

What was most interesting, and impressive, for me was the fact that the film deals with all the material in the original source 'Ghostworld' within the first 1/3 of the movie, and yet far from running out of steam, if anything, it ups the ante. This is visually stunning, and with some of the best dialogue outside of a Tarantino flick.

eg. Enid: Oh my god. It's him. He's insane.
Rebecca: We should follow him home.

Enid: So, what was all that about enlarged holes and tight cracks?

A stellar, almost perfect cast (especially Steve Buscemi and Scarlett Johansen), and a fine score, this is a must-see film. If you have read the original graphic novel, it will be that much more entertaining.


Rating:
Summary: Deep, Dark, and Captivating
Review: Thora Birch and Scarlett Johanson shines as recent high school graduates who are undergoing a transition to the "adult" or grown-up world. Scarlett Johanson has moved onto working at a coffee shop (like Starbucks???) and getting her own apartment. Meanwhile, Thora Birch as Enid is still playing pranks on unsuspecting strangers and stuck in art class she must repeat in summer school. A case in character study, Enid, a lost ghost in this world, who view others as "losers" ultimately gets a dose of her own medicine and finds out her cynical, critical views had made her one of the biggest losers of all. Wonderfully told film of a story that appears dark and cynical itself, but is really a morality lesson.