Ghost World 2001
A poorly chosen title since it has nothing to do with Ghosts, Ghost World is really about a social outcast girl who has just graduated high school. She is very jaded and says of a guy she may like (but can’t bring herself to admit) “He’s the opposite of all the things I hate the most". It’s fun for a while as she and her best friend interact with other people and share their wry observations, banding together against everything that is normal.
She finds a personal ad addressed to a stranger and pretends to be that stranger on the phone so she can set up a meeting. She ends up fascinated by the victim, played by Steve Buscemi, a lonely geeky middle-aged collector of jazz and blues 78’s. She decides to become his personal dating service and he enjoys getting the attention.
On this level the movie was decent with interesting characters and a unique perspective that puts this movie into its own kind of category (and anything this unique makes it instant paydirt for raves from film critics). But I think where the movie fails is that the main character distances herself from the people that care about her until she’s all alone. It’s always fun until someone gets hurt and as she makes the dumb choices and mistreats people around her I stopped liking the movie.
Still it’s different and kind of funny. Though not as bitter as American Beauty a lot of comparisons can be made between the two (and not just because the daughter of American Beauty is the main character here). The two movies could be set on the same street with all the same self-imposed angst. There are some good characters here, including the two girls. Steve Buscemi finally gets a chance to flesh out a character who is weird but not creepy.
Apparently the whole movie is based on a modern comic book series. Not Richie Rich or Archie or even Batman, but the ones that the geeky social misfits read (and write). I’ve never been a fan of that media and, maybe because the movie is true to its source material, I wasn’t real crazy about this.
I’ll give it a C+