"ghost world" review

[Guest chirs3]

Ghost World

 

Starring: Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi, and some others whose names I want to forget forever and ever.

 

-----

 

Me and my dad found this movie just sort of sitting there. One copy, one box, amid a sea of other movies that we had no intention of seeing. We picked up the box and read quotes like "Uproariously funny!" and "A comic gem!"

 

DO NOT BE FOOLED

 

There is not a single laugh in this movie. At all. Ever. It is not even a comedy. It's a sad sad movie commenting on... something....

 

Apparently, the writing team of the WWF wrote, directed, and produced this steaming pile, because any semblance of a story is quickly lost in a flurry of poor performances, funny moments that aren't funny in the least bit, and a few good looking women.

 

If you're looking for something deep and meaningful, this might be what you want. I didn't find shit, because either it's too deep or it's too random, disoriented, and poorly done in every aspect.

 

I'm betting on the latter.

[Guest Brush with Greatness]

I'm sure that if you talked to the writers they would apologize for the lack of dick and fart jokes to appease your comedic tastes.

[Guest chirs3]

Ahaha.

 

Ha.

 

No.

 

No, I'm not much for the fart jokes and the penis jokes.

 

But they blew so many comedic spots in this movie, it's not even funny (no pun intended). Really, what was there to laugh at?

[Guest TUS_02]

Shit, there's plenty to laugh at.  That whole party scene with David Cross had me laughing for ages.  

 

I thought it was a great movie.  I laughed A LOT.  I don't really see how you can't find it funny.

[Guest the 1inch punch]

You didnt like this

 

You fuckin weirdo

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

TUS, when isn't David Cross funny?

[Guest TUS_02]

Touche.  I cannot answer that question since there is no answer for said question.

[Guest Kinetic]

"Ghost World" is a great movie.  Steve Buscemi yelling at pedestrians is a moment I will forever cherish.  Of course, if you were looking for an uproarious comedy, you might have been disappointed.  Much like the director's other film, "Crumb," the humor is pretty dark and subtle.  I'd suggest watching it again, now that your expectations are completely different, and actually appreciating it for the quality movie that it is.

[Guest areacode212]

Do you guys expect a Special Edition of Ghost World to come out in the near future? I would LOVE to own this DVD, but it would suck if it became obsolete in a year or so. Anyone know if the company that released it has a tendency to first come out with a plain-vanilla version, then release a Special Edition after a while? At any rate, I may give in and buy it anyway, but I'm just curious.

[Guest godthedog]

admittedly, it isn't very laugh-out-loud funny, but the subtlety & the characters were unbelievable.

 

my personal favorite movie of 2001, & will probably be one of my all-time faves.  i saw it at a perfect time, when i was thinking about my high school years, comparing them to now, & wondering what the hell happened with everybody and what it all meant.  it captures the teenage who-am-i-and-what-am-i-going-to-do-with-my-life mentality perfectly.

 

we're so clever...turning a thread of a bad review of 'ghost world' into the 'ghost world'-lovers' thread.

[Guest areacode212]

By the way, if you GW fans haven't read it yet, I highly recommend the Ghost World comic book. I read it a couple of years before the movie came out, on the advice of a co-worker, and it immediately became one of my all-time favorites, up there with Watchmen and Sandman. Most comic stores should have it--if not, try your local chain bookstore (in the "Graphic Novel" section).

[Guest]

I loved it. It wasn't uproariously funny, but it's nothing that should ever be mentioned in the same sentence as the WWF creative team in terms of quality. Ever. There were some great bits of humor here and there (the '50's diner with rap music, Al with his jerry curl, Seymour trying to push over that display case). Thora Birch was wonderful, the soundtrack was very good, and it all came together fairly well. It's not for everyone, but I found it to be far from a steaming pile. In fact, it's easily up there with Lord of the Rings as my favorite movie of last year.

[Guest]

Waldenbooks usually has a copy or two mixed in with the trades and single issues in my local store.

[Guest MDH257]

Ghost World was the best movie of 2001.

 

"Is it crazy for an oil company to care about the environment?"

 

I feel sorry for anyone who dosen't like it, they've missed out on something special.

 

I you haven't seen it, run to the video store and rent this movie.

 

BTW, I think it's safe to buy the DVD. I don't think MGM would spend the money on a special edition.

 

Steve Buscemi was screwed out of an Oscar nomination, it was the best performence of his career. At least he won the Independant Spirit Award.

[Guest Catfish Jake]

did anyone stick around long enough during the credits to see the outake at the end. its pretty funny. its in the convenience store when Buscemi tries to pull that shelf down and he cant get it and then he beats the shit out of Brad Renfro and the Nunchuck guy.

[Guest chirs3]

Wow, seems I'm the minority.

 

I could see when some moments SHOULD have been funny... the Yogurt scene, the drink-upsizing scene, the crack about reggae, etc.

 

But they just didn't make me laugh. Or smile. Or chuckle. They were blown.

 

All of those spots and quite a few more should have been done by Daria (the MTV girl). Completely deadpan, straight face, no emotion. So many scenes could have been made funny like that.

 

Instead, they gave us a protagonist that's... well, to put it quite frankly, a whiny bitch. "Why can't I do what I wanna do? Life sucks, you don't know anything, blah."

 

You generally don't want to have viewers hating main characters, unless they're the villain of the story, and unless I missed the memo, Thora wasn't the villain of the movie.

[Guest chirs3]

Rap in the 50's diner I saw coming a mile away.

 

As for Al's hair, I really didn't think it was funny.

 

Buscemi's tackling the shelf might have been good had that nunchuck-wielding comedy-killing freak not interrupted him. Oh the humor. I can't control the laughter. Aha. Ha. Ha.

 

And, upon your recommendations, I watched it again.

 

I would retract part of my comments if I thought the movie was GOOD. If I thought maybe they just mislabeled it as a comedy, and it really was a deep meaningful disillusioned-youth movie.

 

But I really didn't see anything to like about it. At all.

 

Oh well.

[Guest TUS_02]

For someone who seemingly dispised this movie... you were quite quick in watching it again.  

 

Nothing was blown.  Everything that was meant to be funny.... was funny.  I thought all parts were done extremely well.  Buscemi kicked many ass.  Thora Birch was great as normal and Scarlett Johansson was a great supporting actress and seemingly got snubbed in the Oscars (in my view)

 

...and I don't see how you could have hated Thora's character.  But different strokes for different folks I guess.

[Guest chirs3]

I watched it again so quickly because I knew it couldn't be worse the second time around, and I might see what you guys were talking about.

 

I didn't.

 

It's easy to hate Thora's character - she's a bitch. She's a bitter, spiteful, whiny bitch.

[Guest godthedog]

she's not a bitch & she's not whiny.  she, like most smart people i know in the suburbs, just can't stand hypocrisy and stupid people.  she and scarlett amuse themselves by making fun of said hypocrisy and stupid people.  my friends do this, it's fun.  when you're young and idealistic, it's very easy to get fed up with all the bullshit that's thrown at you.  you basically have two options: conform, or lash out.  she, like myself, has chosen the latter.

[Guest chirs3]

Not whiny? If I recall her conversation with Seymour correctly, she complains about not being able to do whatever she wants.

 

And I get the whole "stupid hypocrites should be made fun of", but to work properly, it should be done (much like this movie's "humor") like Daria. Get a character who is smart and witty, not a whiny bitter bitch, to run that shtick.

 

She and Scarlett amuse themselves by acting exactly like people at my school - these people being the ones who drink, smoke, and fuck before their sixteenth birthday. Really, come on. "Dear Josh, we came by to fuck you. You weren't here, therefore you're gay." That so fits the making fun of stupid people bit. [/sarcasm]

[Guest godthedog]

i have a feeling this thread may never end.

 

we'll have to agree to disagree on whether thora birch is smart & witty or bitter & bitchy.  daria's character always annoyed me, i personally thought enid as a character was a lot more funny, likable, & well-developed.

 

there were a couple references to thora birch not being a virgin, but aside from that, the impression wasn't given that they amuse themselves by smoking, drinking or fucking.  she didn't sleep with seymour to amuse herself, she did it because she had a crush on him.

 

and they like fucking with josh, how does that necessarily make them shallow?

[Guest chirs3]

What I mean is, they behave in the exact same manner as the scum of REAL society does... if Thora and whats'her'face were supposed to be trashing stupid people and hypocrites, why were they acting like stupid people and hypocrites?

 

And I didn't say that made them shallow (though Lord knows they are).

 

Thora's character was not one I could sympathize with, and I'm a little troubled that so many people can. She whined that she couldn't do whatever she wanted, she holed up and sulked when things didn't go her way, she was a complete bitch to her best friend, she fucked a guy just because she had a crush on him (was that supposed to be a romantic moment?), and as I stated before, she generally acted like every stupid person I know (which are the people she's supposed to be making fun of, I thought).

[Guest MDH257]

1.) I don't think Enid and Seymore sleeping together is supposed to be a romantic moment. The audience and Enid know that it was a mistake right away.

 

2.) I didn't think that the movie was making fun of stupid people, I thought it was making fun of people who don't question the status quo (people who think that the best movies are the ones that make the most money, never bothering to listen music that isn't played on the radio or MTV, etc.).

 

3.) I can understand someone hating the movie if they don't like the Enid character. Your enjoyment of this movie is going to depend on if you like the lead characters.

[Guest chirs3]

...and I don't see how you could have hated Thora's character.

 

 

 

she, like most smart people i know in the suburbs, just can't stand hypocrisy and stupid people.  she and scarlett amuse themselves by making fun of said hypocrisy and stupid people.

 

That's just why I hated Thora's character - she didn't make fun of stupid people.

 

She made fun of people we feel sorry for, or should, with the exception *maybe* of Josh. Really, come on, she prank calls Seymour to the diner so they can laugh at him. She ridicules an old man on a bench who we have no reason to think is stupid (and in the end, is shown to be right).

 

If you want to see a smart person ridiculing a stupid person, I again point you to Daria. Daria can make fun of Kevin, captain of the football team who couldn't tie a velcro shoe, because he really is stupid, and more importantly, he deserves a little ridicule.

 

Seymour was not stupid. By any stretch of the imagination. And he most certainly didn't deserve it. That didn't stop Thora.

 

Thora got off on making fun of people that really didn't need to be made fun of. That's why it wasn't funny.

 

If she had humiliated the guy who kept pissing her off... I forget his name... the one who commented on her punk outfit... THEN I might've laughed. That guy was a prick.

 

Insulting stupid people is often very funny. Daria could take Enid to school on that subject. Enid thought she was superior to everyone else, and in an attempt to make it so, she surrounded herself constantly with people she deemed lower than her (Seymour, Josh, Bench-man).

 

And where does she end up? Alone on the bus, having burned all bridges behind her with Seymour and Whatsherface.

 

I'm supposed to be rooting for this person?

[Guest Kinetic]

For every reason you've mentioned, it was a great movie.  There were no cookie-cutter characters or clear heroes and villians.  That's what real life is like.  There's no line drawn in the sand between smart people and stupid people.  And the subtext, which was really played down in the film, about how major corporations are turning suburbs into identical cages for their commerce bitches...that was brilliant.

[Guest]

I loved Ghost World.  It was one of the most original and intelligent movies I have seen in a while.  Thora Birch really shines in these independent movies, so she should avoid the mainstream crap she seems to pick (Dungeons & Dragons).

 

The fact that they make fun of black & white video art is enough reason for me to love Ghost World.

[Guest chirs3]

For every reason you've mentioned, it was a great movie.  There were no cookie-cutter characters or clear heroes and villians.  That's what real life is like.  There's no line drawn in the sand between smart people and stupid people.

 

But for those very same reasons, I think, it was an absolutely awful comedy. In comedies, especially the ones where there's lots of insulting people going on, you generally want to root for somebody. You want to be like "Man, I hope so-and-so gives Mr. X what's coming to him". I was rooting for Seymour and What'sherface by the movies end, but Seymour I was busy feeling sorry for and What'sherface didn't get much time for comedy.

 

I understand completely the goodness of characters that aren't cookie-cutter, but to say this movie's heroes and villains weren't clear isn't exactly accurate. Some people on this thread have been treating the spiteful, whiny, cruel little wench Thora like a hero, when she was perhaps the villain of the movie. And if this is supposed to be a comedy, where you laugh at things the main character says/does, you don't want people thinking "God damn, what a bitch".

[Guest Kinetic]

I understand completely the goodness of characters that aren't cookie-cutter, but to say this movie's heroes and villains weren't clear isn't exactly accurate. Some people on this thread have been treating the spiteful, whiny, cruel little wench Thora like a hero, when she was perhaps the villain of the movie. And if this is supposed to be a comedy, where you laugh at things the main character says/does, you don't want people thinking "God damn, what a bitch".

That's why it was good, though.  I try not to go into any movie with preconceived notions of what characters are supposed to do and act like in certain genres, because that's a formula and formulas are fucking boring.

 

But, of course, the function of movie studios is to make money.  Movies that dare stray from the beaten path in terms of character types are inherently unprofitable.  Your views on this are probably similar to that of most people who have seen this movie who can't relate to Thora Birch's character on some level.  But I can, so it worked for me.

[Guest chirs3]

I suppose I can live with that answer.

 

I don't think, though I can't say for a certainty (as in its a fact) that it's a good movie. But it puzzles me that people can find most of what Thora did to be funny.

 

If I ever get money... and talent... I'm going to make a Daria movie and steal a bunch of scenes from this one... The yogurt scene, the drink upsizing scene... yea, that's the ticket.