Ghost World (film)

Plot summary

Best friends Enid and Rebecca face the summer after their high school graduation, with no plans for their future, other than to find jobs and live together. The girls are cynical social outcasts, but Rebecca is more popular with boys than Enid. Enid's diploma is withheld on the condition that she attend a remedial art class. Even though she is a talented artist, her art teacher, Roberta, believes that art must be socially meaningful and dismisses Enid's sketches as nothing more than "light entertainment".

The girls see a personal ad in which a lonely, middle-aged man named Seymour asks a woman he met recently to contact him. Enid makes a prank phone call to Seymour, pretending to be the woman and inviting him to meet her at a diner. The two girls and their friend, Josh, secretly watch Seymour at the diner and make fun of him. Enid soon begins to feel sympathy for Seymour, and they follow him to his apartment building. They later find him selling vintage records in a garage sale. Enid buys an old blues album from him, and they become friends. Around this time, Enid meets an old man named Norman who continually waits at an out-of-service bus stop for a bus that will never come.

She decides to try to find women for him to date. At Enid's art class, she persuades Seymour to lend her an old poster depicting a grotesquely caricatured black man, which was once used as a promotional tool by Coon Chicken Inn, the fried chicken franchise now known as Cook's Chicken, where Seymour works in corporate. Enid presents the poster in class as a social comment about racism, and Roberta is so impressed with the concept that she offers Enid a scholarship to an art college.

Seymour receives a phone call from Dana, the intended recipient of his personal ad. Enid encourages him to pursue a relationship with Dana, but she becomes unexpectedly jealous when he does so. Enid's and Rebecca's lives start to diverge. While Enid has been spending time with Seymour, Rebecca starts working at a coffee shop. Enid gets a job at a movie theater, so she can afford to rent an apartment with Rebecca, but her cynical attitude and reluctance to upsell concessions get her fired on her first day. The girls argue, and Rebecca abandons the idea of living with Enid.

When Enid's poster is displayed in an art show, school officials find it so offensive they force Roberta to give her a failing grade and revoke the scholarship. Enid turns to Seymour for solace, resulting in a drunken one-night stand. Seymour breaks up with Dana and is fired from his job when the Coon Chicken poster is publicized in a local newspaper. He unsuccessfully tries to contact Enid, only for Rebecca to tell him about Enid's prank phone call, describing the way they mocked him at the diner. Seymour, thinking that Enid is dating Josh, angrily goes to the convenience store where he works. Another customer ends up in a violent confrontation with Seymour, resulting in him being injured and hospitalized.

Enid visits Seymour in the hospital to apologize, and later reconciles with Rebecca. As Enid watches from across the street, Norman boards an out-of-service bus. The next day, Seymour, now living with his mother, discusses the summer's events with his therapist and attempts to get a fresh start. Meanwhile, Enid returns to the bus stop and boards the out-of-service bus when it arrives, giving into her childhood fantasy of running away from home and disappearing.

A post-credits scene shows an alternate version of Seymour's scene in the convenience store, in which he wins the fight and is not injured.

Cast

• Thora Birch as Enid
• Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca
• Steve Buscemi as Seymour
• Brad Renfro as Josh
• Illeana Douglas as Roberta Allsworth
• Bob Balaban as Enid's father
• Stacey Travis as Dana
• Dave Sheridan as Doug
• Tom McGowan as Joe
• Debra Azar as Melorra
• Brian George as the Sidewinder boss
• Pat Healy as John Ellis
• Rini Bell as the graduation speaker
• Ezra Buzzington as Al "Weird Al"
• Ashley Peldon as Margaret
• David Cross as Gerrold
• Patrick Fischler as the Masterpiece Video clerk
• Bruce Glover as Feldman, the wheelchair guy
• Teri Garr as Maxine (uncredited)

Production and technique

The film was directed by Terry Zwigoff with cinematography by Affonso Beato. Zwigoff and Ghost World comic creator Daniel Clowes wrote the screenplay together. Years later, Clowes admitted that writing the screenplay came with a significant learning curve. He recalled, "I started by trying to transcribe the comic into Final Draft. I figured that’s how you do an adaptation. Then I tried throwing everything away and writing an entirely new story that was very different from the book. And I synthesized those two things into a final screenplay. The actual film itself is very different from the script we wrote. We ended up jettisoning the last twenty pages and rethought the whole thing as we were filming. It was really held together by hair and spit."

Zwigoff and Clowes presented Beato with the task of making a comic book look to the movie. They asked for a fresh technique from earlier examples such as X-Men and Batman; Dick Tracy specifically was dismissed as literal-minded and "insulting" to the art form. According to Clowes, cameraman Beato "really took it to heart", carefully studying the style and color of the original comics. The final cut is just slightly oversaturated, purposefully redolent of "the way the modern world looks where everything is trying to get your attention at once".

Zwigoff also added his individual vision to the adaptation, particularly in his capture and editing of languid, lingering shots, a technique derived from his experience as a documentarian. Another notable touch is his minimal use of extras in the film, making the city and its streets intentionally empty – Clowes notes approvingly, "It captures this weird feeling of alienation in the endless modern consumer culture."

Themes

Ending and suicide theory

In a 2002 interview, Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff were asked if the ending of the film adaptation was a metaphor for suicide. Clowes replied, "Yeah, it could be. It's hard to figure out why people have that response. The first time I heard that I said, 'What? You're out of your mind. What are you talking about?' But I've heard that hundreds of times". Zwigoff expanded on his views in a 2021 interview, saying: "Many interpreted it to mean Enid died by suicide [...] I personally thought of the ending as more positive: that she’s moving on with her life, that she had faith in herself".

Birch, on the other hand, stated: "Honestly, it’s a sad film, to me... I have a very dark view of where that story is leading, unfortunately".

The phrase "catch the bus," or CTB, was used in the 90's to refer to committing suicide.

Soundtrack

Music in the film includes "Jaan Pehechan Ho" by Mohammed Rafi, a dance number choreographed by Herman Benjamin from the 1965 Bollywood musical Gumnaam which Enid watches and dances to early in the film, and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (1931), as well as "Pickin' Cotton Blues" by the bar band, Blueshammer.

There are songs by other artists mentioned in the film, including Lionel Belasco, which are reflective of the character Seymour, and of director Terry Zwigoff. Zwigoff is a collector of 78 RPM records, as portrayed by Seymour. Other tracks are by Vince Giordano, a musician who specializes in meticulous recreations of songs from old 78 RPM records.

Referenced in the film is R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, a band that Zwigoff played in. Enid asks Seymour about the band's second album, Chasin' Rainbows, and Seymour replies, "Nah, that one's not so great."

Missing from the soundtrack album are "What Do I Get?" by Buzzcocks, which can be heard when Enid dresses up like a punk, and the song "A Smile and a Ribbon" by Patience and Prudence.

Shailendra (lyrics) Daniel Clowes (lyrics) Stuart Gorrell (lyrics)

Release

Ghost World premiered on June 16, 2001, at the Seattle International Film Festival, to lower than average recognition by audiences, but admiration from critics. It was also screened at several film festivals worldwide including the Fantasia Festival in Montreal.

Following the film's theatrical exhibition in the United States, Ghost World was released on VHS and DVD format via MGM Home Entertainment in early 2002. Additional features include deleted and alternative scenes, "Making of Ghost World" featurette, the Gumnaam music video "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", and the original theatrical trailer. The film was released on Blu-ray on May 30, 2017, by The Criterion Collection, with a 4K transfer, interviews with the performers, and audio commentary.

Box office

With a limited commercial theatrical run in the United States, ''Ghost World'''s commercial success was minimal. The film was released on July 20, 2001, in five theaters grossing $98,791 on its opening weekend; it slowly expanded to more theaters, reaching a maximum of 128 by the end of the year. It went on to make $6.2 million in North America and $2.5 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $8.7 million, just above its $7 million budget.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 165 reviews, with an average score of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With acerbic wit, Terry Zwigoff fashions Daniel Clowes' graphic novel into an intelligent, comedic trip through deadpan teen angst." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 90 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote: In his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott praised Thora Birch's performance as Enid: In his Chicago Reader review, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: However, Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer disliked the character of Enid: Kevin Thomas, in his review for the Los Angeles Times, praised Steve Buscemi's portrayal of Seymour: Time magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote:

Michael Dean of The Comics Journal addressed the concerns of comics fans head-on:

Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating. Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Ghost World is a movie for anyone who ever felt imprisoned by life, but crazy about it anyway." In her review for the LA Weekly, Manohla Dargis wrote, "If Zwigoff doesn't always make his movie move (he's overly faithful to the concept of the cartoon panel), he has a gift for connecting us to people who aren't obviously likable, then making us see the urgency of that connection." In Sight & Sound, Leslie Felperin wrote, "Cannily, the main performers deliver most of their lines in slack monotones, all the better to set off the script's wit and balance the glistering cluster of varyingly deranged lesser characters." In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote, "It is an engaging account of the raw pain of adolescence: the fear of being trapped in a grown-up future and choosing the wrong grown-up identity, and of course the pain of love, which we all learn to anaesthetise with jobs and mundane worries." Several critics referred to the film as an art film.

Accolades

Legacy

Ghost World topped MSN Movies' list of the "Top 10 Comic Book Movies", it was ranked number 3 out of 94 in Rotten Tomatoes "Comix Worst to Best" countdown (where #1 was the best and #94 the worst), ranked 5th "Best" on IGN's "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies", and Empire magazine ranked the film 19th in their "The 20 Greatest Comic Book Movies" list. It is considered a cult film. It was added to the Criterion Collection in 2017.

References

References

1. (June 20, 2001). "''Ghost World'' (15)". [[British Board of Film Classification]].
2. "Ghost World (2001)". [[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]].
3. McKittrick, Christopher. (March 23, 2017). "Wilson: A Walking Id". Creative Screenwriting.
4. Hall, Emily. (July 19, 2001). "The Humanity of Failure". [[The Stranger (newspaper).
5. Clowes, Daniel. (20 February 2002). "Question and answer session with Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff following a screening of Ghost World at the 2002 Comics and Graphic Novels Conference".
6. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ghost-world-film-thora-birch-interview-b1815277.html Ghost World at 20: ‘In an era of teen comedies and American Pie, this was an antidote’] 3-17-2021, ''[[The Independent]]''
7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/02/04/suicide-chat-room-mead-theatre/
8. Griffith, JT. "Ghost World – Original Soundtrack". [[Allmusic]]. [[Rovi Corporation]].
9. Emerson, Jim. (June 14, 2006). "FROM 'GUMNAAM' TO 'GHOST WORLD' TO... 'LOST'?". [[Rogerebert.com]].
10. Garwood, I. (2016). "The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media: Integrated Soundtracks". Springer.
11. Marcus, Greil. (2007). "Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music". Duke University Press.
12. Gabbard, Krin. (2004). "Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture". Rutgers University Press.
13. "Freddie Spruell discography". wirz.de.
14. Truitt, Eliza. (July 2001). "A Ghost World Preview". [[Slant Magazine]].
15. Head, Steve. (July 26, 2001). "GHOST WORLD COMETH". [[IGN]].
16. (January 31, 2002). "Ghost World". [[DVD Talk]].
17. Thompson, Luke Y.. (May 26, 2017). "Blu-ray Review: The Ground-Breaking, Post-Ironic 'Ghost World' Comes To Criterion, As It Deserves". [[Forbes]].
18. "Ghost World". [[The Criterion Collection]].
19. {{mojo title. ghostworld. Ghost World
20. {{rotten-tomatoes. ghost_world. Ghost World Accessed January 27, 2023.
21. {{Metacritic film Accessed July 18, 2023.
22. Ebert, Roger. (August 3, 2001). "''Ghost World''". [[Chicago Sun-Times]].
23. Scott, A. O.. (July 20, 2001). "Teenagers' Sad World In a Comic Dimension". [[The New York Times]].
24. Rosenbaum, Jonathan. (August 10, 2001). "Women of Substance". [[Chicago Reader]].
25. Sarris, Andrew. (August 5, 2001). "So You Wanna Be a Country-and-Western Star: More Like 'Ghastly World'". [[The New York Observer]].
26. Thomas, Kevin. (July 20, 2001). "Lives Stifled by Mediocrity in 'Ghost World'". [[Los Angeles Times]].
27. Arnold, Andrew D. (July 20, 2001). "Anticipating a ''Ghost World''".
28. Dean, Michael. (2001). "Ghost Story". [[The Comics Journal]].
29. Gleiberman, Owen. (July 27, 2001). "Devoutcast".
30. Dargis, Manohla. (July 26, 2001). "Everyone's Too Stupid!". [[L.A. Weekly]].
31. Felperin, Leslie. (December 2001). "''Ghost World''". [[Sight & Sound]].
32. Bradshaw, Peter. (August 13, 2001). "''Ghost World''". [[The Guardian]].
33. Carney, Ray. (2006). "Selected Masterworks of Film Art: Viewing Recommendations Submitted By Site Readers (Under Construction—Please Send Suggestions/Corrections to the Mailbag)".
34. (2007). "Film and Comic Books". Jackson, Mississippi: [[University Press of Mississippi]], pp. xiii, 141, and, 150.
35. (2017). "The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel". [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge Companions to Literature.
36. (2012). "Bad: Infamy, Darkness, Evil, and Slime on Screen". [[SUNY Press]], SUNY Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video.
37. Beaty, Bart. (2008). "David Cronenberg's A History of Violence". Toronto: [[University of Toronto Press]], Volume 1 of Canadian Cinema, p. 29.
38. Price, Matthew. (14 September 2001). "''Ghost World'' Creator Finds Success in Film, Graphic Novel". The Oklahoman Media Company.
39. Chocano, Carina. (6 December 2000). "Daniel Clowes".
40. Savlov, Marc. (17 August 2001). "Teen Angst Turns a Page".
41. (2009). "'Girl Power': Girls Reinventing Girlhood". New York, New York: [[Peter Lang (publisher).
42. Morton, Drew. (2016). "Panel to the Screen: Style, American Film, and Comic Books During the Blockbuster Era". Jackson, Mississippi: [[University Press of Mississippi]], p. 101.
43. (December 4, 2015). "The 74th Academy Awards - 2002". [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]].
44. "AFI Announces Nominations for AFI Awards 2001". [[American Film Institute]].
45. (January 16, 2002). "Chicago Film Critics Association Announce Their Nominees!". [[PR Newswire]].
46. Elder, Rob. (February 26, 2002). "Chicago critics pick 'Mulholland Drive'". [[Chicago Tribune]].
47. (January 25, 2002). "Empire Awards: Nominations Announced". [[Empire (magazine).
48. "Ghost World". [[Hollywood Foreign Press Association]].
49. (June 18, 2001). "DAILY NEWS: Moretti at Miramax; Atlanta Fest Wrap; Seattle Winners; NY Film/Video Fest". [[IndieWire]].
50. Munoz, Lorenza. (January 9, 2002). "Spirit Awards tilt toward true independence". [[Chicago Tribune]].
51. Gumbel, Andrew. (March 25, 2002). "Oscar alternative gives better idea of lasting success". [[The Independent]].
52. King, Susan. (December 16, 2001). "'Bedroom' Is Top Pick of L.A. Film Critics". [[Los Angeles Times]].
53. (December 19, 2009). "Past Awards". [[National Society of Film Critics]].
54. Taylor, Charles. (January 7, 2002). "'Mulholland Drive' takes best picture in critics' awards". [[Salon.com]].
55. Lyons, Charles. (January 6, 2002). "Nat'l Crix shift into 'Drive'". [[Variety (magazine).
56. (December 14, 2001). "Critics Group Names 'Mulholland' Best Film". [[The New York Times]].
57. (December 19, 2001). "Hedwig and the Angry Inch scores six Golden Satellite nominations". [[The Advocate (LGBT magazine).
58. (May 29, 2014). "PAST AWARD WINNERS". [[Toronto Film Critics Association]].
59. (February 8, 2002). "Writers Guild nominations tip A Beautiful Mind". [[The Guardian]].
60. "Twenty-Third Annual Young Artist Awards 2002". [[Young Artist Awards]].
61. Morgan, Kim. ["Top 10 Comic Book Movies"](https://hardcorequeen.wordpress.com/2003/03/01/top-10-comic-book-movies/ ). [[MSN]].
62. Giles, Jeff. "Comix Worst to Best".
63. Goldstein, Hilar. "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies".
64. "The 20th Greatest Comic Book Movies". [[Empire (film magazine).
65. (October 8, 2013). "Scarlett Johansson again named 'sexiest woman alive' by Esquire". [[Reuters]].
66. Curtis, Tony. (2011). "Historical Dictionary of American Cinema". Scarecrow Press.