Reel critics

Allen MacDonald

Director Terry Zwigoff’s new film, “Ghost World,” reflects the

personality of it’s protagonist: a sarcastic-shell protecting a sweet

core.

The tag line is “accentuate the negative,” and from the first frame

“Ghost World” stays true to its promise. Played with subtle grace by

Thora Birch (so superb in American Beauty), Enid is a high school

graduate floating aimlessly in the haze of of post-high school monotony.

The promise of excitement and anticipation of the “real world” has turned

out to be an anticlimactic lie.

Enid is struggling to come to terms with a new, adult world that her

sharp wit and acerbic tongue can no longer keep safely at bay. Enid and

best friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johanssen of “The Horse Whisperer”) have

long found comfort on the social fringe, proudly embracing their

rejection as a badge of honor while sneering, judging and criticizing

others as a way of hiding their own devastating insecurity and fear of

the world. In order to avoid making decisions and commitments, Enid takes

action with inaction.

Enid’s stagnation has put a strain on their friendship. While Rebecca

tries to make life easy on herself by dutifully pursuing a job and

apartment, Enid quietly rages against the mundane, refusing to conform,

but ending up nowhere in the process. They now seem to have only the past

in common, while the future threatens to rip their bond apart.

The most compelling story thread involves Enid’s relationship with

older man, Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a quiet loner who is a kindred spirit

to Enid, but is old enough to recognize there is nothing romantic about

being an aging eccentric who spends a large amount of time obsessing over

his rare record collection.

Zwigoff, whose last film was the documentary “Crumb,” doesn’t seem

comfortable staging fictional scenes. As a result, “Ghost World” has an

amateurish feel that most viewers will find grating. But like “Crumb,”

Zwigoff excels when he sets his characters loose to explore a world

inhabited by freaks and geeks.

Based on co-writer Daniel Clowes’ comic of the same name, the film

version of “Ghost World” relies little on plot, instead allowing the

characters to propel the story. Despite being bookended by a clunky

opening and closing, “Ghost World” succeeds by firing darts of aching

truth at the audience.

* ALLEN MacDONALD, 28, is currently working toward his master’s degree

in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.