Ghost World
Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes

James Redick

Despite the trite horror title, Ghost World has nothing in common with campy scare flicks.

Rather, the film focuses on Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca's (Scarlett Johansson) plight following high-school graduation. They exist in a world of their own, removed from their peers and parents. Rather than engage in strip mall society, they stand back and develop a razor sharp wit to mock their peers mercilessly.

The plot, however, deals with the quickly encroaching realisation that they have to function somehow. Rebecca slowly assimilates and the film switches focus to Enid as she befriends an obsessive record-collecting geek, Seymour (Steve Buscemi), and begins to realise what long term alienation is like when you're over 30.

As Enid's life spirals out of control-because of her refusal to concede to the world and take the straight path-her options close on her and she is confronted with a common conundrum: sink or swim.
Ghost World's script is seamlessly written by Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes (the movie is based on Clowes' graphic novel of the same name) and is able to wind Enid and Rebecca's humour with the hopelessness of their situation. It's both hilarious and depressing and you feel simultaneously repulsed by their heartlessness and pitiful for their inability to find a fitting niche in the plastic landscape. It is easy to identify with the characters on the screen and root for their isolation while identifying with the difficulty of their situation. The world trounces each and every one of Enid's small victories because she refuses to play by the rules.

The final resolution that Enid, Seymour and Rebecca make is that they cannot live in a ghost world functioning apart from reality-regardless of what they do, it constantly impinges. Each character copes in his or her own way. The film is a wonderful depiction of contemporary isolation and is chilling in a way no campy horror movie ever is.