Ghost World (film)

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Ghost World
Ghostworldposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Produced by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Based on Ghost World
by Daniel Clowes
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by David Kitay
Cinematography Affonso Beato
Edited by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Carole Kravetz-Aykanian
  • Michael R. Miller
Distributed by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • June 16, 2001 (2001-06-16) (SIFF)
  • July 20, 2001 (2001-07-20) (United States)
  • October 18, 2001 (2001-10-18) (Germany)
  • November 16, 2001 (2001-11-16) (United Kingdom)
Running time
 112 minutes[2]
Country <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • United States[1]
  • United Kingdom[1]
  • Germany[1]
Language English
Budget $7 million
Box office $8.8 million

Ghost World is a 2001 black comedy film directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas and Steve Buscemi. Based on the 1993–97 comic book of the same name by Daniel Clowes, with a screenplay co-written by Clowes and Zwigoff, the story focuses on the lives of Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johansson), two teenage outsiders in an unnamed American city. They face a rift in their relationship as Enid takes interest in an older man named Seymour (Buscemi), and becomes determined to help his romantic life.

The film debuted at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2001. It had little box office impact, but was critically acclaimed. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and has become a cult film.

Plot

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. Later they find him selling vintage records in a garage sale. Enid buys an old blues album from him, and they become friends. She decides to try to find women for him to date.

Enid has meanwhile been attending her remedial art class, and 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 called to account at work 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 is upset and goes to the convenience store where Josh works. Another customer ends up in a violent confrontation with Seymour, resulting in his being injured and hospitalized. Enid visits him in the hospital to apologize.

After everything that has occurred, Enid gives in to her childhood fantasy of running away from home and disappearing. She has seen an old man, Norman, continually waiting at an out-of-service bus stop for a bus that will never come. Finally, as Enid watches from across the street, Norman boards an out-of-service bus. The next day, while Seymour discusses the summer's events with his therapist, Enid returns to the bus stop and boards the out-of-service bus when it arrives.

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

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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."[3]

Zwigoff and Clowes presented Beato with the task of making a comic book look to the movie. They asked for a fresh technique: earlier examples of the form such as X-Men and Dick Tracy were dismissed as literal-minded and "insulting" to the art form.[4] According to Clowes, cameraman Beato "really took it to heart," carefully studying the style and color of the original comics.[4] 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."[4]

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.[4] 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."[4]

Themes

Ending and suicide theory

In a 2002 interview,[5] Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff were asked if the ending of the film adaptation was a metaphor for suicide. Daniel 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".[6]

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".[6]

Soundtrack

Ghost World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released June 20, 2005 (2005-06-20)
Genre Bollywood, string band, blues, jazz
Length 62:58
Label Shanachie

Script error: No such module "Music ratings".

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,[8] and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (1931),[9] as well as "Pickin' Cotton Blues" by the bar band, Blueshammer.[10]

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."[11]

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.

Ghost World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No. Title Performer(s) Length
1. "Jaan Pehechan Ho" (1965) Mohammed Rafi 5:28
2. "Graduation Rap"   Vanilla, Jade and Ebony 0:32
3. "Devil Got My Woman" (1931) Skip James 3:00
4. "I Must Have It" (cover of King Oliver, 1930) Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks 2:59
5. "Miranda" (1933) Lionel Belasco 3:02
6. "Pickin' Cotton Blues"   Blueshammer 3:35
7. "Let's Go Riding" (1935[12]) Mr. Freddie 2:55
8. "Georgia on My Mind"   Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks 3:11
9. "Las Palmas de Maracaibo" (1930) Lionel Belasco 3:15
10. "Clarice" (cover of Tiny Parham, 1928) Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks 3:29
11. "Scalding Hot Coffee Rag"   Craig Ventresco 3:02
12. "You're Just My Type" (cover of King Oliver, 1930) Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks 2:33
13. "Venezuela" (1931) Lionel Belasco 3:15
14. "Fare Thee Well Blues" (1930) Joe Calicott 3:12
15. "C. C. & O. Blues" (1928) Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley 3:08
16. "C-h-i-c-k-e-n Spells Chicken" (1927) McGee Brothers 2:59
17. "That's No Way to Get Along" (1929) Robert Wilkins 2:55
18. "So Tired" (1928) Dallas String Band 3:20
19. "Bye Bye Baby Blues" (1930) Little Hat Jones 3:10
20. "Theme from Ghost World"   David Kitay 3:58

Release

Ghost World premiered on June 16, 2001, at the Seattle International Film Festival,[13] 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.[14]

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, Gumnaam music video "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", and the original theatrical trailer.[15] 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.[16][17]

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.[18] 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.[18]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 164 reviews, with an average score of 7.80/10. 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."[19] On Metacritic, the film received a score of 89 based on 31 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[20]

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.[21]

In his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott praised Thora Birch's performance as Enid: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.[22]

In his Chicago Reader review, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.[23]

However, Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer disliked the character of Enid: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

I found Enid smug, complacent, cruel, deceitful, thoughtless, malicious and disloyal... Enid's favorite targets are people who are older, poorer or dumber than she is.[24]

Kevin Thomas, in his review for the Los Angeles Times, praised Steve Buscemi's portrayal of Seymour: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.[25]

Time magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.[26]

Michael Dean of The Comics Journal addressed the concerns of comics fans head-on: "Those with higher expectations – and, certainly, Ghost World purists – are likely to experience at least a degree of disappointment. Some of the comic's air of aimless mystery has been paved over with the semblance of a Hollywood plot, and to that extent, the movie is a lesser work than the comic. But it's still a far better movie than we had a right to expect." According to Dean: "The injection of a relatively trite plot situation into Ghost World's more enigmatic stream of events is perhaps forgivable, since the film might otherwise never have been produced. Its greatest sin, the misappropriation of Enid's longing, is not so forgivable, though the overlap between Zwigoff's distaste for modernity and Enid's distrust of social acceptability makes it almost palatable. In any case, we want to forgive it, because so much is right about the movie."[27]

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."[28] 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."[29] 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."[30] 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."[31] Several critics referred to the film as an art film.[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Academy Awards March 24, 2002 Best Adapted Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Nominated [42]
American Film Institute January 5, 2002 Screenwriter of the Year Nominated [43]
Featured Actor Steve Buscemi Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics December 16, 2001 Best Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Runner-up [44]
Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Runner-up
Best Supporting Actress Scarlett Johansson Runner-up
Chicago Film Critics Association February 25, 2002 Best Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Nominated [45]
Best Actress Thora Birch Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Won [46]
Empire Awards February 5, 2002 Independent Spirit Award Terry Zwigoff Nominated [47]
Golden Globes January 20, 2002 Best Actress – Comedy or Musical Thora Birch Nominated [48]
Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Nominated
Golden Space Needle Award June 2001 Best Actress Thora Birch Won [49]
Independent Spirit Awards March 23, 2002 Best First Feature Terry Zwigoff Nominated [50]
Best First Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Won [51]
Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association December 15, 2001 Best Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Runner-up [52]
National Society of Film Critics January 4, 2002 Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Won [53]
Best Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Runner-up [54][55]
New York Film Critics Circle December 13, 2001 Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Won [56]
Satellite Awards January 19, 2002 Best Actress, Comedy or Musical Thora Birch Nominated [57]
Best Supporting Actor, Comedy or Musical Steve Buscemi Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Association December 20, 2001 Best Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Runner-up [58]
Best Actress Thora Birch Won
Best Supporting Actress Scarlett Johansson Won
Best Supporting Actor Steve Buscemi Runner-up
Writers Guild of America March 2, 2002 Best Adapted Screenplay Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff Nominated [59]
Young Artist Awards April 7, 2002 Best Family Feature Film - Comedy Ghost World Nominated [60]

Legacy

Ghost World topped MSN Movies' list of the "Top 10 Comic Book Movies",[61] 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),[62] ranked 5th "Best" on IGN's "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies",[63] and Empire magazine ranked the film 19th in their "The 20 Greatest Comic Book Movies" list.[64] It is considered a cult film.[65][66] It was added to the Criterion Collection in 2017.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ghost World at 20: ‘In an era of teen comedies and American Pie, this was an antidote’ 3-17-2021, The Independent
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ghost World at Box Office Mojo
  19. ↑ Ghost World at Rotten Tomatoes Accessed January 27, 2023.
  20. ↑ Ghost World at Metacritic Accessed January 27, 2023.
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  33. ↑ Ian Gordon, Mark Jancovich, and, Matthew P. McAllister, "Introduction," and, Martin Flanagan, "Teen Trajectories in Spider-Man and Ghost World." In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Stephen Weiner, "The Development of the American Graphic Novel: From Will Eisner to the Present". In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Henry Giroux, "The Ghost World of Neoliberalism: Abandoning the Abandoned Generation." In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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