Ghost World

[Dan]

This movie is about two girls, Enid and Rebecca (Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson), who, as the movie starts, are graduating high school. They're basically total outsiders at their school, but they're the sort of kids who sit in the back of the class and make fun of everyone else while deep inside they desperately want to fit in. Rebecca is anxious to get into the work environment and impress the local landlords by pretending to be a fine upstanding citizen so they can get an apartment together. Enid, on the other hand, is a vehement misanthrope and refuses to change herself to others' liking. Eventually, Enid meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi), another misanthrope who substitutes human contact with an unhealthy obsession with old blues records. They become fast friends, despite the fact that she's eighteen and he's in his forties, and much to the dismay and jealousy of Rebecca. In a lesser movie, this would be a weird romance story, but this movie chooses rather to simply let the story evolve in a very natural way. I think I liked this movie so much because I identified with the main characters so much, plus the fact that Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson are two of the most beautiful young actresses out there today. Though the film ends on a really down, bleak note, it's a really great one and it actually has some very funny moments, too. I give it 3 1/2 stars.