Ghost World (film)
Encyclopedia
Ghost World is a 2001 comedy-drama film
directed by Terry Zwigoff
, based on the comic book
of the same name
and screenplay by Daniel Clowes
. The story focuses on the life of two teenage friends, Enid and Rebecca, who are outside of the normal high school
social order
in an unnamed American city.
) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson
) during the summer after their high-school graduation. The girls are both social outcasts, but Becky is more popular with boys than Enid. Enid's diploma is awarded on the condition that she attend a remedial art class. Even though she is a talented artist, her art teacher, Roberta (Illeana Douglas
), believes art must be socially meaningful and dismisses Enid's sketches as "light entertainment".
Shortly after graduation, the two girls see a personal ad in which a lonely man named Seymour (Buscemi
) asks a woman he met recently to contact him. With Becky at her side, Enid makes a prank phone call to Seymour, pretending to be the woman and inviting him to meet her at a diner, and when he goes there, the two girls secretly watch and make fun of him. However, Enid begins to feel sorry for him, so a few days later they follow him to his apartment building, where they find him selling vintage records in a garage sale. Enid buys an old blues
album from him, and she and he gradually become friends. One of her favorite activities is trying to find women for him to date. Meanwhile, Enid has been attending her art class. In order to please Roberta, Enid persuades Seymour to lend her an old poster depicting a grotesquely caricatured black man, which was once used as a promotional tool by the fried-chicken franchise where Seymour holds a middle management
position. In class, she presents the poster as a social comment about racism, and Roberta is so impressed with the concept that she later offers Enid a scholarship to an art college.
At this point, Enid's and Becky's lives have seriously diverged. While Enid has been spending time with Seymour, Becky has found a job and become more interested in clothing, boys, and other material things. Enid finds a job so the girls can rent an apartment together, but she is fired after only one day. Finally, Becky gives up on looking for an apartment with Enid after their personal differences erupt in an angry argument. Sometime after Enid loses her job, Seymour receives a phone call from Dana (Stacey Travis
), the woman he had written to in the personal ad. Enid encourages him to develop a relationship with Dana, but becomes jealous when he begins avoiding Enid to spend time with Dana. At the end of the summer, Enid's and Seymour's lives fall apart. 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; when Enid discovers she has lost her scholarship, she visits Seymour for solace, resulting in a drunken one-night stand
. Seymour then breaks up with Dana before realizing he has no chance with Enid, and loses his job after the poster is displayed in a newspaper. Becky tells Seymour about Enid's phone prank, and he becomes hospitalized after attacking a boy who was with the girls at the time.
Finally, Enid gives in to her childhood fantasy of running away from home. Throughout the film, she has periodically spoken with an old man named Norman who was waiting at an unused bus stop for a bus that never arrived. After quitting her new job and meeting with Seymour in the hospital, Enid sees a bus finally arrive to pick up Norman, and the next day, while Seymour discusses the summer's events with his therapist, Enid goes to the bus stop and gets on the bus when it arrives. The film ends as the bus drives away.
, to lower than average recognition by audiences, but admiration from critics. It was also screened at several film festivals all over the world including the Fantasia Festival
in Montreal
.
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 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.
and an 88 metascore on Metacritic
. Film critic Roger Ebert
gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor". In his review for The New York Times
, A.O. Scott praised Thora Birch's performance: "Thora Birch, whose performance as Lester Burnham's alienated daughter was the best thing about American Beauty
, plays a similar character here, with even more intelligence and restraint". Kevin Thomas, in his review for The Los Angeles Times, wrote, "Buscemi rarely has had so full and challenging a role, that of a mature, reflective man, unhandsome yet not unattractive, thanks to a witty sensitivity and clear intelligence". In his review for The Chicago Reader
, Jonathan Rosenbaum
wrote, "Birch makes the character an uncanny encapsulation of adolescent agonies without ever romanticizing or sentimentalizing her attitudes, and Clowes and Zwigoff never allow us to patronize her". Time
magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote, "Unlike those shrill, hard-sell teen comedies on the other screens, Ghost World never becomes the kind of empty, defensive snark-fest that it targets. Clowes and Zwigoff keep the organic pace of the original, and its empathic exploration of painfully changing relationships".
Entertainment Weekly
gave the film an "A-" rating and 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 L.A. 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". Sight and Sound magazine's 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". However, in his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris
disliked the character of Enid: "I found Enid smug, complacent, cruel, deceitful, thoughtless, malicious and disloyal. Worst of all, she's rarely funny and never charming ... Enid's favorite targets are people who are older, poorer or dumber than she is, which is to say that the California wasteland fashioned by Mr. Zwigoff and Mr. Clowes seems made up almost entirely of stooges for Enid and Rebecca to tease and taunt".
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 best and 94 was worst)., ranked 5th "Best" on IGN
's "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies", and Empire
magazine ranked the film 19th in their "The 20th Greatest Comic Book Movies" list.
Music in the film includes "Jaan Pehechan Ho
" by Mohammed Rafi
, a dance number from the 1965 Bollywood
musical Gumnaam
(which Enid watches and dances to early in the film), and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James
in 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
himself, who 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. Track 14-19 are not in the film, being selections from Zwigoff's collection.
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 is "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
...
Nominated
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
directed by Terry Zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
, based on the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
of the same name
Ghost World
Ghost World is a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized in issues #11 through #18 of Clowes's comic book series Eightball, and was first published in book form in 1997 by Fantagraphics Books...
and screenplay by Daniel Clowes
Daniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
. The story focuses on the life of two teenage friends, Enid and Rebecca, who are outside of the normal high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
social order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
in an unnamed American city.
Plot
The film follows the lives of best friends Enid (Thora BirchThora Birch
Thora Birch is an American actress. She was a child actor in the 1990s, starring in movies such as All I Want for Christmas , Patriot Games , Hocus Pocus , Now and Then , and Alaska . She came to prominence in 1999 after earning worldwide attention and praise for her performance in American Beauty...
) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
) during the summer after their high-school graduation. The girls are both social outcasts, but Becky is more popular with boys than Enid. Enid's diploma is awarded on the condition that she attend a remedial art class. Even though she is a talented artist, her art teacher, Roberta (Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer.-Background:Douglas is a granddaughter of the actor Melvyn Douglas and his first wife, artist Rosalind Hightower, and has said that her grandfather's performance in Being There, in particular, was influential on her own...
), believes art must be socially meaningful and dismisses Enid's sketches as "light entertainment".
Shortly after graduation, the two girls see a personal ad in which a lonely man named Seymour (Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
) asks a woman he met recently to contact him. With Becky at her side, Enid makes a prank phone call to Seymour, pretending to be the woman and inviting him to meet her at a diner, and when he goes there, the two girls secretly watch and make fun of him. However, Enid begins to feel sorry for him, so a few days later they follow him to his apartment building, where they find him selling vintage records in a garage sale. Enid buys an old blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
album from him, and she and he gradually become friends. One of her favorite activities is trying to find women for him to date. Meanwhile, Enid has been attending her art class. In order to please Roberta, Enid persuades Seymour to lend her an old poster depicting a grotesquely caricatured black man, which was once used as a promotional tool by the fried-chicken franchise where Seymour holds a middle management
Middle management
Middle management is a layer of management in an organization whose primary job responsibility is to monitor activities of subordinates while reporting to upper management....
position. In class, she presents the poster as a social comment about racism, and Roberta is so impressed with the concept that she later offers Enid a scholarship to an art college.
At this point, Enid's and Becky's lives have seriously diverged. While Enid has been spending time with Seymour, Becky has found a job and become more interested in clothing, boys, and other material things. Enid finds a job so the girls can rent an apartment together, but she is fired after only one day. Finally, Becky gives up on looking for an apartment with Enid after their personal differences erupt in an angry argument. Sometime after Enid loses her job, Seymour receives a phone call from Dana (Stacey Travis
Stacey Travis
Stacey Travis is an American actress whose films include Earth Girls Are Easy , Hardware , The Super , Traffic , and Ghost World . Travis starred on the comedy TV series Just Say Julie from 1989–1992 where she played a variety of characters...
), the woman he had written to in the personal ad. Enid encourages him to develop a relationship with Dana, but becomes jealous when he begins avoiding Enid to spend time with Dana. At the end of the summer, Enid's and Seymour's lives fall apart. 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; when Enid discovers she has lost her scholarship, she visits Seymour for solace, resulting in a drunken one-night stand
One-night stand
Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
. Seymour then breaks up with Dana before realizing he has no chance with Enid, and loses his job after the poster is displayed in a newspaper. Becky tells Seymour about Enid's phone prank, and he becomes hospitalized after attacking a boy who was with the girls at the time.
Finally, Enid gives in to her childhood fantasy of running away from home. Throughout the film, she has periodically spoken with an old man named Norman who was waiting at an unused bus stop for a bus that never arrived. After quitting her new job and meeting with Seymour in the hospital, Enid sees a bus finally arrive to pick up Norman, and the next day, while Seymour discusses the summer's events with his therapist, Enid goes to the bus stop and gets on the bus when it arrives. The film ends as the bus drives away.
Cast
- Thora BirchThora BirchThora Birch is an American actress. She was a child actor in the 1990s, starring in movies such as All I Want for Christmas , Patriot Games , Hocus Pocus , Now and Then , and Alaska . She came to prominence in 1999 after earning worldwide attention and praise for her performance in American Beauty...
as Enid, an alienated teenage girl — intelligent, witty, artistic, cynical, sarcastic and a keen observer of the world around her. - Scarlett JohanssonScarlett JohanssonScarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
as Rebecca, Enid's best friend, also alienated though slightly less so. - Steve BuscemiSteve BuscemiSteven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
as Seymour, Enid’s partner in loneliness; a record collector, only Seymour can understand Enid’s trouble with individualizing herself while, at the same time, trying to find some happiness because he has had the same problem all of his life. - Brad RenfroBrad RenfroBrad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut in 1994 at age 12 in the lead role of Joel Schumacher's The Client, going on to star in 21 feature films, several short films, and two television episodes during his career. Much of his later career was marred by a pattern of...
as Josh, the unhappy convenience store clerk, whom Enid and Rebecca enjoy tormenting. Low-key and mature, he often disapproves of the two girls' pranks but is usually cajoled into going along with them. - Pat HealyPat HealyPat Healy was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Glen Rovers and is an internationally acclaimed sportsman in tennis, cricket, squash, volleyball and rugby. Healy was also a member of the Cork senior inter-county team in the 1950s...
as John Ellis, an abrasive employee at comic book store Zine-O-Phobia who sometimes sells offbeat videos to Enid. - Illeana DouglasIlleana DouglasIlleana Douglas is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer.-Background:Douglas is a granddaughter of the actor Melvyn Douglas and his first wife, artist Rosalind Hightower, and has said that her grandfather's performance in Being There, in particular, was influential on her own...
as Roberta Allsworth, Enid's art teacher. Affected and pretentious, she nevertheless comes to Enid's defense when Enid is attacked for her politically incorrectPolitical correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
found artFound artThe term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
project. - Bob BalabanBob BalabanRobert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...
as Enid's kind but ineffectual father. - Stacey TravisStacey TravisStacey Travis is an American actress whose films include Earth Girls Are Easy , Hardware , The Super , Traffic , and Ghost World . Travis starred on the comedy TV series Just Say Julie from 1989–1992 where she played a variety of characters...
as Dana, Seymour's love interest; is attractive and likable, but her conventional tastes bore Seymour and he eventually dumps her. - Teri GarrTeri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
(uncredited) as Maxine, the girlfriend of Enid's father. Enid dislikes her, as she does most adults. - Dave Sheridan as Doug, an eccentric loiterer who frequently clashes with Josh's boss at the convenience store.
- Tom McGowanTom McGowanThomas "Tom" McGowan is an American actor, known for his recurring roles on Frasier, as KACL station manager Kenny Daly; Everybody Loves Raymond, as Ray's friend Bernie; and on The War at Home, as Dave Gold's friend Joe. McGowan also appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm as a disgruntled fan of Larry's...
as Joe, a housemate and garage-sale partner of Seymour's. - David CrossDavid CrossDavid Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...
as Gerrold, the Pushy Guy - Brian GeorgeBrian GeorgeBrian George is a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents, who typically plays guest roles for characters of South Asian descent. Perhaps his most famous role is as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.-Early life:...
as the irritable Greek owner of the convenience store where Josh works - credited as "Sidewinder Boss" - Debra Azar as Melorra, an aspiring actress who graduated with Enid and Rebecca
- Rini BellRini BellHonorine Bell is an American actress. Bell was born in Rome, Italy and spent most of her childhood in Europe before her family relocated to the United States where she grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended Louise S. McGehee school. She is named after the French Saint Honorine. Her...
as the self righteous, handicapped graduation speaker - Ezra BuzzingtonEzra BuzzingtonEzra Buzzington is an American character actor for film and TV.With over 40 film credits to his name, Ezra Buzzington has been referred to as "the Dennis Hopper of underground cinema". He's played characters ranging from "Weird Al the Waiter" in GHOST WORLD to "Goggle" in THE HILLS HAVE EYES...
as Weird Al, a nickname Enid and Rebecca give to their waiter, Allen, because his hair style reminds them of "Weird Al" Yankovic"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
. BuzzingtonEzra BuzzingtonEzra Buzzington is an American character actor for film and TV.With over 40 film credits to his name, Ezra Buzzington has been referred to as "the Dennis Hopper of underground cinema". He's played characters ranging from "Weird Al the Waiter" in GHOST WORLD to "Goggle" in THE HILLS HAVE EYES...
additionally appears in Art School Confidential, another film directed by Terry ZwigoffTerry ZwigoffTerry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
also based on a short story by Daniel ClowesDaniel ClowesDaniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
. - Ashley PeldonAshley PeldonAshley Peldon is an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Peldon was born in New York City, New York. Along with her sister Courtney, she worked as a child actor....
as Margaret, another student in Enid's art class, the teacher's petTeacher's Pet-Film:* Teacher's Pet , a 2004 animated musical based 2000 TV series* Teacher's Pet , a 1958 romantic comedy film* Teacher's Pet , a 1930 two-reel comedy short-Television:...
.
Release
Ghost World premiered on June 16, 2001 at the Seattle International Film FestivalSeattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
, to lower than average recognition by audiences, but admiration from critics. It was also screened at several film festivals all over the world including the Fantasia Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
With a limited commercial theatrical run
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
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 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.
Critical reaction
The film's critical reception has been highly positive; it currently has a 92% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and an 88 metascore on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor". In his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, A.O. Scott praised Thora Birch's performance: "Thora Birch, whose performance as Lester Burnham's alienated daughter was the best thing about American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
, plays a similar character here, with even more intelligence and restraint". Kevin Thomas, in his review for The Los Angeles Times, wrote, "Buscemi rarely has had so full and challenging a role, that of a mature, reflective man, unhandsome yet not unattractive, thanks to a witty sensitivity and clear intelligence". In his review for The Chicago Reader
The Chicago Reader
The Chicago Reader is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded in 1971 by a group of friends from Carleton College...
, Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
wrote, "Birch makes the character an uncanny encapsulation of adolescent agonies without ever romanticizing or sentimentalizing her attitudes, and Clowes and Zwigoff never allow us to patronize her". Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote, "Unlike those shrill, hard-sell teen comedies on the other screens, Ghost World never becomes the kind of empty, defensive snark-fest that it targets. Clowes and Zwigoff keep the organic pace of the original, and its empathic exploration of painfully changing relationships".
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film an "A-" rating and Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
wrote, "Ghost World is a movie for anyone who ever felt imprisoned by life but crazy about it anyway". In her review for the L.A. Weekly, Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
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". Sight and Sound magazine's 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
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 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". However, in his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
disliked the character of Enid: "I found Enid smug, complacent, cruel, deceitful, thoughtless, malicious and disloyal. Worst of all, she's rarely funny and never charming ... Enid's favorite targets are people who are older, poorer or dumber than she is, which is to say that the California wasteland fashioned by Mr. Zwigoff and Mr. Clowes seems made up almost entirely of stooges for Enid and Rebecca to tease and taunt".
Legacy
Ghost World topped MSNMSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
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 best and 94 was worst)., ranked 5th "Best" on IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies", and Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine ranked the film 19th in their "The 20th Greatest Comic Book Movies" list.
Soundtrack
The score to Ghost World is composed by orchestrator and arranger David Kitay, an excerpt of his work for the film is heard on the last track of the soundtrack album.Music in the film includes "Jaan Pehechan Ho
Jaan Pehechan Ho
Jaan Pehechan Ho is a popular song, composed by Shankar Jaikishan, lyrics by Anand Bakshi, sung by Mohammed Rafi, from the 1965 movie Gumnaam, directed by Raja Nawathe, produced by N N Sippy and starring Manoj Kumar & Nanda .-The Video:...
" by Mohammed Rafi
Mohammed Rafi
Mohammad Rafi , was an Indian playback singer whose career spanned four decades. He was awarded National Award and 6 Filmfare Awards. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri awarded by the Government of India....
, a dance number from the 1965 Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
musical Gumnaam
Gumnaam
Gumnaam is a 1965 Indian horror thriller film directed by Raja Nawathe, starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The film became a box office hit...
(which Enid watches and dances to early in the film), and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James
Skip James
Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
in 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
Lionel Belasco
Lionel Belasco was a prominent pianist, composer and bandleader, best known for his calypso recordings. According to various sources, he was born either in Barbados or in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; he grew up in Trinidad, the son of an Afro-Caribbean mother and a Sephardic Jewish father...
, which are reflective of the character Seymour, and of director Terry Zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
himself, who is a collector of 78 RPM records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, as portrayed by Seymour. Other tracks are by Vince Giordano
Vince Giordano
Vince Giordano is a musician, arranger, and leader of the New York-based Nighthawks Orchestra. Giordano specializes in the jazz styles of the 1920s and early 1930s. Giordano and the Nighthawks have contributed to a number of films and he is especially noted for orchestrations featured in the...
, a musician who specializes in meticulous recreations of songs from old 78 RPM records. Track 14-19 are not in the film, being selections from Zwigoff's collection.
Referenced in the film is R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders are a string band playing songs from, and in the style of, the 1920s. Their three 33⅓ rpm albums, all recorded in the 1970s on the Blue Goose label, were titled R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders , R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 , and R....
, 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 is "What Do I Get" by Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton in 1976, led by singer–songwriter–guitarist Pete Shelley.They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, pop punk and indie rock. They achieved commercial...
, which can be heard when Enid dresses up like a punk, and the song "A Smile and a Ribbon" by Patience and Prudence
Patience and Prudence
Patience and Prudence McIntyre, known professionally as Patience and Prudence, were two sisters who were a young singing act in the 1950s.-Career:...
...
Awards
Won- Chicago Film Critics Association—Best Supporting Actor (Buscemi)
- Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actress (Birch)
- Independent Spirit Award for Best First ScreenplayIndependent Spirit Award for Best First ScreenplayThe Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-1990s:1994*David O...
(Clowes and Zwigoff) - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting ActorIndependent Spirit Award for Best Supporting ActorThe Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. Alan Arkin is the only winner to have won both this award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor the same year.-1980s:...
(Buscemi) - L.A. Film Critics Association—Best Screenplay (Clowes and Zwigoff)
- New York Film Critics Circle—Best Supporting Actor (Buscemi)
- Toronto Film Critics Association—Best Actress (Birch)
- Toronto Film Critics Association—Best Screenplay [Runner-up] (Clowes and Zwigoff)
- Toronto Film Critics Association—Best Supporting Actor [Runner-up] (Buscemi)
- Toronto Film Critics Association—Best Supporting Actress (Johansson)
Nominated
- 74th Academy Awards—Best Adapted Screenplay–Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff
- Golden Globe Awards—Best Actress—Musical or Comedy–Thora Birch
- Golden Globe Awards—Best Supporting Actor–Steve Buscemi
- American Film Institute—Best Screenplay–Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff
- American Film Institute—Best Supporting Actor–Steve Buscemi
- Independent Spirit Award—Best First Feature–Terry Zwigoff
- Writers Guild of America—Best Adapted Screenplay–Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff