Ghost World
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
- comedy
- drama
The story
Two quirky, cynical, teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives following high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle-aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.
What it’s like
Flat, washed-out suburban daylight and sun-bleached strip-mall colors give this film a deadpan, faintly sickly look, with compositions that hold on empty diners, bus benches and bedrooms full of thrift-store clutter while the camera lets awkward silences run. The score is sparse and jazzy, old 78s and Skip James-style blues drifting through the rooms, and the overall mood is wry, melancholy and quietly funny, the sort of bittersweet ache that comes from watching young people feel too smart for the world around them. It moves at a loping, conversational pace, with the rhythm of two friends bickering across a long afternoon. Intensity is low: there is no violence, and the sexual content is verbal and mostly awkward rather than explicit, with some crude language, a few uncomfortable social situations and a sad, lonely undertow rather than any real threat. It suits a grey weekend, a late-night comfort watch, or anyone who wants a character-driven film about outsiders, friendship coming apart and the uneasy process of growing up. It is for viewers who enjoy dry, observational humour and tender, unsentimental portraits of misfits.
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