I like Terry Zwigoff’s movie Ghost World and it was recently the 10th anniversary of its release. Starring Thora Birch & Steve Buscemi as Enid and Seymour, plus Scarlett Johansson (how many people remember that she was Enid’s friend?), Illeana Douglas & Bob Balaban. I’m sure I’d get a lot more out of it if I were a comic book person, because there are so many insider references, but I still think it’s interesting, fun but also sad.
Of course I want to slap Enid silly through much of the movie. The girls are both alien to me. I empathize with Seymour, not completely, but more. He certainly had his faults but he was a real person, not a phony, snarky hipster wanna-be.
I know a lot of people don’t like this movie because the characters are often irritating, mean and clueless. That’s kinda the point there, but if you’re going to bitch, please don’t get too nasty.
It’s still funny and surprising to me that it was nominated for an Adapted Screenplay Oscar. It’s hard to believe that this little quirky movie was pitted against the mighty The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. They both lost to A Beautiful Mind, which shows you how brain-damaged a lot of folks in AMPAS are.
Even though I like it, Ghost World isn’t my favorite movie by Terry Zwigoff (that link is to an interesting article/interview in AV Club). In fact it’s next to last. The first 3 keep changing places, but my ranking right now would be:
Crumb (1994)
Bad Santa (2003)
Louie Bluie (1985)
Ghost World (2001)
Art School Confidential (2006)
We saw Louie Bluie, a delightful documentary about the musician Howard Armstrong, in the theater when it was released thanks to a Siskel & Ebert review. We loved it and saw Armstrong a few times in concert. We had to wait 9 years until Zwigoff’s next film, the stunning documentary Crumb. And what can I say about Bad Santa? It’s a perfect film. I never got into **Art School Confidentia**l. I thought maybe I’d have to see it again, but I never have.
IMDB lists his next movie as something called Happy Days, but that article/interview (from last year) says it fell through. He says he’s working on a couple of projects but he doesn’t want to talk about them.
This thread is a good excuse to post this fun thing:
“Jaan Pehechaan Ho” (the crazy Bollywood movie scene Enid dances to at the beginning of Ghost World)
To change the subject a bit toward Gumnaam, that Bollywood movie, here’s an interesting thing someone said about it on IMDB:
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