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Ghost World (2001)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
18 October 2001 (Germany) moreTagline:
Accentuate the negative. morePlot:
Enid and Rebecca are social outsiders who, after graduating from high school, play a mean prank on a middle-aged geek. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 24 wins & 27 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(24 articles)
Hardware Coming To DVD September 29th! (From Icons of Fright. 2 July 2009, 9:29 AM, PDT)
DVD Review: Junction
(From FilmShaft.com. 24 June 2009, 10:51 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
For those of us who tire of standard teen movies, here's the film to make our day. **** (out of four) moreUS TV Schedule:
| Thur. July 9 | 9:00 PM | LIFE |
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Thora Birch | ... | Enid | |
| Scarlett Johansson | ... | Rebecca | |
| Steve Buscemi | ... | Seymour | |
| Brad Renfro | ... | Josh | |
| Illeana Douglas | ... | Roberta Allsworth | |
| Bob Balaban | ... | Enid's Dad | |
| Stacey Travis | ... | Dana | |
| Charles C. Stevenson Jr. | ... | Norman | |
| Dave Sheridan | ... | Doug | |
| Tom McGowan | ... | Joe | |
| Debra Azar | ... | Melora | |
| Brian George | ... | Sidewinder Boss | |
| Pat Healy | ... | John Ellis | |
| Rini Bell | ... | Graduation Speaker | |
| T.J. Thyne | ... | Todd |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for strong language and some sexual content.Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
111 minLanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreCertification:
Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Finland:K-7 | France:U | Germany:6 (w) | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #37596)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The colorful Mexican movie posters in Seymour's room are authentic, and are by artist Ernesto Cabral. moreGoofs:
Continuity: When the art teacher, Roberta, is asking Enid to explain her Coon Chicken piece, she shifts from fumbling with her art book in the wide shot to having her arms spread away from the book in the close-up shot. moreQuotes:
Enid: God, what a bunch of retards...Rebecca: I thought Chipmunk-face was never going to shut up.
Enid: I know, I liked her better when she was an alcoholic crack addict! She gets in one car wreck and all of a sudden she's Little Miss Perfect and everybody loves her.
Rebecca: It's totally sickening.
more
Soundtrack:
Going My Way moreFAQ
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Ghost World (2001)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Funniest Scene | mnewlands |
| question | beabee |
| I apologize... | darkhero103 |
| a chick flick? | thecity_lights |
| Yet another theory (spoilers) | kincaid-5 |
| When was this movie set? | HiHowAreYou95 |
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GHOST WORLD / (2001) **** (out of four)
For those of us who tire of standard teen movies, here's the film to brighten our day. It's a monkey wrench in the cranks of the tedious genre that features actors in their mid-twenties portraying stereotypical high-school characters shamelessly indulging predictable plots of frivolous romance. Where most movies set in high schools find resolve in romantics, "Ghost World" dares to be different.
Yet it contains all the usual ingredients-aimless main characters, one-dimensional side characters, high school graduation, moronic parents, sexual revelations, a romance-but it tastes different. This movie doesn't believe high school is the root of youth complications; it knows that school isn't where the confusion lies-it's after graduation when the complexities begin.
The movie opens as a high school senior dances along with a music video. Sounds like a typical teenager? Well, not really. The music this girl listens to isn't exactly mainstream. Nothing about Enid (Thora Birch from "American Beauty") is ordinary.
The same goes for her best friend, Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson). She is slightly more focused than the aimless Enid, but, as they graduate from high school in the opening scenes, neither of them know what they want out of life.
Rebecca and Enid find interesting people to follow, exploit, and embarrass, just for their own leisure, but even this loses its edge. Making the most (or least) of their situation, the girls stumble upon an outstandingly pathetic personal ad. As a joke, they respond. However, when they meet this man, Enid becomes infatuated with him.
In their post high school days, Enid and Rebecca find themselves slowly drifting apart. Rebecca is eager to get an apartment and get on with her life, while Enid lives by the day, following one infatuation after another. As their attitudes gradually change from cynical to sober, Enid and Rebecca's emerging differences become blatantly obvious, but painfully realized.
"Ghost World" refers to the world in which these characters live, a town slowly being overcome by shopping malls and coffee shops; a town that slowly loses its distinctions and becomes a ghost of what it once was.
My small town of Mason, MI speaks for itself. Once a minuscule farming suburb of the state's capital, it's now a breeding ground for new subdivisions, factories, stores, gas stations, trailer parks, and businesses. Before you know it, it will be a densely populated city like the capital itself.
"Ghost World" makes harsh points, but it never loses its sense of humor. Enid is so full of bitter cynicism that we have to laugh. She indulges the dialogue. It's often tactlessly frank, savoring every opportunity to bash, thrash, ridicule, or insult anyone or anything for any reason.
Society tends to repress our caustic desire to insult a fellow man, but "Ghost World" doesn't hesitate. It takes a lot of risks, but never steps in the wrong direction. It connects us with these characters. They are so casually antisocial that we can't help but to love them. At times, the movie doesn't require dialogue. It simply examines the character's surroundings. We get to know these people so well, we know exactly what they're thinking before they say it. They are a part of our instincts to react on impulse.
But a character is only as good as the actor behind it. "Ghost World" features enormously engaging performances. Brad Renfro gives his nobody store clerk a raw blandness. Illeana Douglas injects a kind of controlled eccentricity into her role as an art teacher. Steve Buscemi creates a hopeless record player collector out of repressed emotion, and lack thereof.
Scarlett Johansson gives Rebecca a dry, depressed mood. Thora Birch steals the whole show with a straightforward, fearless performance. Although the movie never defines the relationship between Enid and Rebecca, the actors themselves make it clear. They create an enticing charisma that gradually turns to an awkward tension.
"Ghost World" captures part of our journey from childhood to adulthood with poetic grace and cynical wit. Though it's not really a coming-of-age film, where a young character finally takes a place in the world. Enid never finds her place, decides her future, or chooses a path. By the end of the story, she simply becomes aware of her possible options. This movie is just the beginning of her story.