Recently, hidden within the innumerable slew of
clichéd, bland studio films came a smaller
production, Ghost World, an adaptation of
Daniel Clowes’ comic book of the same name.
Following the summer exploits of two teenage girls
directly after their high school graduation, Ghost
World approaches a level of film sophistication
that can only be classified as cinematic beauty.
Starring American Beauty’s Thora Birch as the
cynical non-conformist Enid, and The Horse
Whisperer’s Scarlett Johansson as the slowly
maturing Rebecca, Ghost World relives the
relatable age-old process of separation and growth
between two lifelong friends, as well as blatantly
depicting current society’s pseudo-caste system.
Staying true to Clowes original vision (Clowes’
co-wrote the screenplay with director Terry Zwigoff),
Enid and Rebecca are portrayed as two “misfits,”
anxious to separate themselves from the pointlessness
of public school. When that finally happens, however,
the two friends find themselves at a critical
juncture, particularly Enid who realizes that she isn’t
quite ready to discover who she truly is, and what
life, in all its normalcy, has in store for her.
As the story begins, both friends display a deeply
sardonic behavior about the world around them and its
inhabitants. Progressively, however, Rebecca is slowly
entering the realm of adulthood: looking for
apartments in boring, typical suburbs, wishing to
spend money on expensive clothes and colored plastic
cups, and getting a job at a Starbucks-like latte
shop. While Rebecca is evolving post-high school, Enid
is quite literally held back; she must first complete
a remedial summer school art class before receiving
her final outage from public education. This begins
the first signs of disattachment between Rebecca and Enid, as one is willing, even anxious, to progress in
life while the other remains within the mold that she
has already set for herself.
Reading a community newspaper, Enid and Rebecca decide
to fraudulently answer a personal ad placed by a man
searching for the woman that he ran into on a prior
occasion. Pretending to be that woman, Enid arranges
for the man to meet her at a diner. Thus enters the
character of Seymore, a reclusive collector of old
blues and ragtime 78s, played to perfection by Steve
Buscemi. While Rebecca immediately classifies him as a
dork, Enid sees in him the antithesis of everything
she hates. Beginning a friendship with Seymore, Enid launches a campaign to find him a date. While
Enid remains connected to the world of “freaks and
losers,” (describing them as “her people”), the
rift grows between her and Rebecca. Enid can’t
understand why Rebecca is so committed to living out
their childhood plan of living together, and Rebecca
grows angry at Enid’s refusal to keep a job or plan
for the future. Slowly, Seymore, a man who “can’t
relate to 99% of humanity,” becomes to Enid what
Rebecca used to be.
There are many deep nuances in the film that, while
not readily apparent, lend themselves to critical
analysis. For example, the newspaper in which the
personal ad appears marks the beginning of Enid’s
relationship with Seymore, and the beginning of the
end of her relationship with Rebecca. At the film’s
conclusion, it is this same newspaper that once again
plays a critical role in the lives of all three
characters. Much like all brilliant screenplays, even
the smallest detail can hold tremendous significance,
however muted it may seem. While the story works
regardless of how many small points are picked up on, it
is altogether brightened by the inclusion of such deep
underlying elements.
Although it is unfair to hold one film against
another, I don’t think it affects the film adversely
to mention that there are certain similarities between
Ghost World and 1999’s Academy Award
favorite, American Beauty. However, these
parallels don’t exist in plot or characterization,
rather they occur more so in style and presentation.
Both American Beauty and Ghost World use
music to convey the mood of the characters, and both
use a subtle main soundtrack to add in the film’s
overall delivery. Ghost World’s main theme, a
delicate balance of single-stroke piano keys mixed
with an accompanying orchestra playing staccato,
probably does more to assist the overall delivery of
the story than any recent film’s soundtrack since American
Beauty. Furthermore, the beautiful
character-driven cinematography of both films is
overtly remarkable, and stands apart from the
more simple MTV-style camera-work unfortunately
prevalent with so many of the current theatrical releases.
Due to the limited release of Ghost World in
movie theaters, many people will experience the film
for the first time on DVD. Delivered in wide-screen
fashion, the film is as clean as one would expect from
a digital product. The coloring, perfectly rendered
on the DVD, is particularly relevant because of the
film’s brilliant use of colors. The sound, also of
great importance, as mentioned, is clean and
remarkably portrayed in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound, with subtitles available in English, French,
and Spanish.
However, while the release shines on the technical
aspects, the DVD is fairly disappointing when it comes
to its extras. Whereas recent DVD releases have
contained a myriad of features, behind-the-scenes
documentaries, and other such fare, Ghost World
presents a pitiful four alternative/deleted scenes, a
ten minute-long featurette, the movie’s trailer, and
the full music video of an 1960s Indian song used in
the film. And that’s it. Most surprising is the
complete lack of a commentary track. With a film as
truly deep and personal as Ghost World, it
should almost be required that Clowes and Zwigoff walk
us through their thoughts and interpretations. At a
period when even direct-to-video DVD releases contain
commentary tracks, it’s inexcusable for none to
exist on the Ghost World disk. While it should
be hoped that a later “special edition” will
resolve this issue, it should have been included with
this release.
Extras notwithstanding, while it’s only January,
it will be hard to argue that there could be a better
DVD purchase this year. The pure brilliance of the
film means that it could be released with no extras at all
and still receive the highest recommendation. It’s
certainly guaranteed that owners of this release will
subject their disks to repeated viewings, and you
can’t say that about many recent films.
With an exceptional screenplay, and acting
delivered to perfection, Ghost World is a
masterpiece in every sense of the word. Buy it. Watch
it.
