Ghost World (2001)

Synopsis: Enid, Thora Birch, hates the world, and she hates it with a passion. We see her live a short period in her life right after high school. The story follows her as she goes through the motions of every day life while criticising everything and everybody. To her, the world is dead, and she has almost lost all hope in humanity until she meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi) who is so similar to her that it's frightening. The catch is that he's about 30 years older than she is and he, unlike her, has given up all hope in modernity and lives alone with his 1978 vintage records. That's pretty much all this movie has in terms of plot. It's pretty much about Enid's perspective on life and society and it's a grim one indeed.

Why You Should Watch It: Do you hate the world? Does the world hate you? Do you hate everyone in the world and the only person you ever thought you could always count on abandoned you for one of the losers you have always hated? If that's the case then come on down! The cinematography is very bland and at first the movie might seem a bit dull but that's exactly what the director, Terry Zigwoff was going for. This is the story of every outcast girl or guy who hates the world because they feel that they are better for it or that the world is just too fucked to even bother living in. It's a bit hard to categorize this film let alone pick out a few things in the film that makes you wanna watch it. It definitely isn't a film for everyone. It's slow paced, plenty of dialogue, plenty of walking, and the plot is driven heavily by filling in the gaps and trying to guess what the character is going through.

Things to Watch Out For: This film starts out as a criticism of mondernity and the pretentious nature of people in modern society. But that's only the surface as this film is really about what happens to someone when they don't live at all. An important quote in the film is when some random guy goes up to another random guy and says "You can't hit a home run without swinging the bat". It's a crude analogy but it's one that defines Enid's way of living her life especially when she's in art class. She goes around smashing everyone and everything without trying anything because she just assumes that it would not be worth it. She constantly talks to the few people that she bothers with assuming that they would always understand, and without spoiling the plot, let's just say that in life, there are no constants that we can forever rely on and if you don't adapt to the changes because of fear or whatever, then everything around you will change and soon you will eventually be left with nothing .

Things You Don't Expect: The entire nature of the film is quite unexpected but other than that uhh...Scarlett Johansson is in it again and this time she doesn't get naked or makes out with anyone.

Final Score: 6.8