What do you do if you're disgusted and disillusioned with most everything in life, but there's just enough goofy, fun stuff in the world that you love and treasure to keep you from simply killing yourself to end the misery?
That seems to be the central question that Enid (Thora Birch) has to confront in Ghost World. She's a quick-witted and intelligent girl freshly graduated from high school, with copious disdain for most of society and its accompanying values, but a healthy appreciation for weird people [like the shirtless nunchuck-wielding mullet dude Doug (Dave Sheridan)] and unusual items. Her best friend Becky (Scarlett Johansson) seems to share most of these feelings, but she's still plugging along, getting a job and looking for an apartment, preparing to move on with life, while Enid is resisting the whole concept. Then there's Seymour (Steve Buscemi), the misfit record collector Enid met while playing a cruel anonymous joke on him, but has since befriended and become slightly obsessed with, to the point of alienating Becky. When Enid's attempts to play matchmaker with the lonely Seymour start to prove surprisingly successful, she finds herself even more isolated than she was when she was just a dour, snarky little snot to everyone, the astute and comically incisive nature of her observations notwithstanding.
Now one might wonder how a film that won a bunch of awards for its screenplay could be underrated, but it still doesn't get enough recognition as one of the best comic-book movies ever made, as it's based on a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, and frankly, it just doesn't get watched enough. Director Terry Zwigoff does a fantastic job of translating these characters to the screen, giving us a strong female protagonist/antihero in Enid, the caustic and bitter yet hilarious and fun girl played with aplomb by Thora Birch, who should really be getting a lot more work. This is also the film that put Scarlett Johansson on the map, even if she was pre-buxom and more disaffected and snarky than she is now. You have Zwigoff to thank for Scarlett, and I'm sure he'd say "you're welcome."
Watch the trailer for Ghost World.
Also, check out Terry Zwigoff's other adaptation of a Daniel Clowes graphic novel, Art School Confidential.
Remind yourself of Thora Birch's greatness in American Beauty.
