In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based on where my interests lead me and what’s available from my local public library.
By their own account, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are the coolest of the cool in their little corner of Nowheresville, USA. They’ve just graduated from high school and have no particular plans for the future: while their classmates are headed off to college or pursuing interests like acting, they’re content to put their efforts toward perfecting their personas, mainly through quirky cultural choices (Bollywood videos, retro clothes), the exchange of barbed witticisms, and generally looking down on anything and everything in their immediate vicinity.
Initially director Terry Zwigoff, who also cowrote the screenplay with source material author Daniel Clowes, seems to share in Enid and Rebecca’s view of their surroundings (the location is never identified in the film, but this film was shot in and around Los Angeles, mostly in locations not particularly distinctive or noteworthy). An opening pan across the nondescript exterior of Enid’s apartment building reveals adults with blank stares who appear to have given up on life (a shot echoed early in Edgar Wright’s 2004 Shaun of the Dead, although no zombies will appear to liven things up in Enid and Rebecca’s world). Their high school graduation ceremony is so predictably platitudinous and the after-party so thoroughly lame that even the most grown-up viewer can’t help but sympathize at least a bit with their choice to reject the world around them and take refuge in their own assumed cleverness.
As the film progresses, Zwigoff begins to separate Enid and Rebecca’s perceptions of the world from the view he presents to us, making it possible to view them more critically and question some of their judgments. The characters of the two girls also begin to differentiate, with Enid doubling down on her penchant for cruelty (Steve Buscemi’s character Seymour, whose role was expanded from the source graphic novel, takes the worst of it) while Rebecca finds a job and is more interested in getting on with creating an adult life for herself. Because Enid is the central character, we learn much more about her, including that she has some some artistic talent that might profit from development (Sophie Crumb created the sketches we see), should she choose to focus her energies on something positive for once.
The changing point of view is probably the most interesting thing about Ghost World, although it offers many more immediate pleasures as well. Birch and Johansson both fully embody their characters, with their polished performances belying their young ages (18 and 15, respectively, when the film was made). Bob Balaban has a nice turn as Enid’s father, Illeana Douglas is suitably daffy as Enid’s art teacher, and Buscemi delivers a memorable performance in a role he heartily disliked. Cinematographer Affonso Beato creates a look that’s true to the original graphic novel without screaming “comic book movie!” and production designer Edward T. McAvoy (who also appears as the “Satanic” character in an early scene) includes lots of details that create a realistic yet slightly unreal world. In addition, you can read the progression of the two central characters in the clothes they wear, thanks to apt choices by costume designer Mary Zophres. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 872
Technical details: 111 min.; color; screen ratio 1.85:1; English.
Edition reviewed: DVD
Extras: audio commentary with Terry Zwigoff, comic creator Daniel Clowes, and producer Lianne Halfon; short documentary “Art as Dialogue” featuring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Illeana Douglas; deleted scenes; excerpt with commentary from Gumnaam (1965) including the dance sequence featured in the opening sequence of Ghost World; the film’s trailer; and booklet with essay by critic Howard Hampton with excerpts from the comic Ghost World and essay by Terry Zwigoff on the film’s soundtrack.
Fun Fact: The Coon Chicken Inn was a chain of restaurants founded in Salt Lake City in 1925 and also opened branches in Seattle and Portland OR. The logo was just as offensive as what you see in this film, and design of the original restaurant has to be seen to be believed. The Salt Lake City branch lasted the longest, closing in 1957.
Parting Thought: If you want to know what the final sequences “means,” there are plenty of people on the internet dying to tell you. Personally, I like the fact that many interpretations are possible and none are definitive.
