...a small but truthful attempt to put into words and pictures the frustrations of being different, of growing up amidst confused relationships, of facing an impassive society, and of attempting to find oneself.
Birch´s performance is largely subtle and impassive (think MTV´s Daria). Her character expresses almost no feeling, or no feelings that she´s willing to display to the world. The actress is able to convey a wealth of inner detail in a blank look, a half smile, or a turn of the head. She´s really quite effective, easily embodying Enid´s sense of disappointment, for instance, that nobody appreciates her. When she dyes her hair green and dresses in old clothes, she complains that nobody is impressed: "Everyone´s too stupid" to recognize her "original 1977 punk-rock look."
But for me it´s Buscemi who carries the show. He finally escapes the shadow of all those creepy psychopaths he´s played to create a character who´s rounded and real. If you don´t see anything of Enid in your own personality, you will surely find a little of Seymour, the sad-sack loser, in there somewhere.
Video:
The movie itself modestly eschews pretense, and so does MGM´s image and audio transfer. This is about as ordinary as a new film can look and sound, with an anamorphic widescreen ratio measuring a standard 1.74:1 across my standard-screen HD television. Colors are bright enough most of the time but only so-so in terms of overall definition and sharpness. There is some minor grain in the darker areas of the picture, and there are too many dark areas for my taste; but to its credit it does a good job maintaining the integrity of closely spaced horizontal and vertical lines.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics are clear and clean in their front-channel stereo presentation, but they feed little information to the rear speakers. Not that there´s much need in a dialogue-driven story, but you should know this going in.
Extras:
The disc´s special features don´t amount to much, either. They begin with a short documentary, about twelve minutes long, called "The Making of Ghost World," which includes behind-the-scenes reports and interviews with the writer, director, and stars. The most interesting part comes toward the end when various of the filmmakers offer their opinions about the movie´s title. Next, there are four very brief deleted and alternate scenes, totaling only a few minutes altogether. Then, there´s a music video clip from 1965, "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" with Gumnaam, which forms a part of the movie´s opening sequence. Finally, there are a mere sixteen scene selections, and theatrical trailers for this and several other MGM DVD titles. English is the only spoken language provided, with subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. It seems shabby treatment for so worthy a film.
Parting Thoughts:
Is "Ghost World" a side-splittingly funny black comedy? No, not really, but it makes a number of droll and discerning observations about the human condition. Is "Ghost World" a tearjerker that will grab the heartstrings of most of its viewers? No, not really, because it never condescends to any such level of cheap sentimentality. Is "Ghost World" destined to become a cinematic classic of its kind? No, I doubt that as well; it´s probably too realistic and too painful to reach the mass audience a potential mainstream classic requires.
"Ghost World" is simply a small but truthful attempt to put into words and pictures the frustrations of being different, of growing up amidst confused relationships, of facing an impassive society, and of attempting to find oneself. If the film offers no easy answers to some of life´s most complex problems, it´s because there are none. With the honesty to tell us that, it may yet reach the level of a minor cult classic. At least I hope so. The movie is designated R for strong profanity and mild sexual situations, a pity given that the rating theoretically excludes most teens from seeing it.
But for me it´s Buscemi who carries the show. He finally escapes the shadow of all those creepy psychopaths he´s played to create a character who´s rounded and real. If you don´t see anything of Enid in your own personality, you will surely find a little of Seymour, the sad-sack loser, in there somewhere.
Video:
The movie itself modestly eschews pretense, and so does MGM´s image and audio transfer. This is about as ordinary as a new film can look and sound, with an anamorphic widescreen ratio measuring a standard 1.74:1 across my standard-screen HD television. Colors are bright enough most of the time but only so-so in terms of overall definition and sharpness. There is some minor grain in the darker areas of the picture, and there are too many dark areas for my taste; but to its credit it does a good job maintaining the integrity of closely spaced horizontal and vertical lines.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics are clear and clean in their front-channel stereo presentation, but they feed little information to the rear speakers. Not that there´s much need in a dialogue-driven story, but you should know this going in.
Extras:
The disc´s special features don´t amount to much, either. They begin with a short documentary, about twelve minutes long, called "The Making of Ghost World," which includes behind-the-scenes reports and interviews with the writer, director, and stars. The most interesting part comes toward the end when various of the filmmakers offer their opinions about the movie´s title. Next, there are four very brief deleted and alternate scenes, totaling only a few minutes altogether. Then, there´s a music video clip from 1965, "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" with Gumnaam, which forms a part of the movie´s opening sequence. Finally, there are a mere sixteen scene selections, and theatrical trailers for this and several other MGM DVD titles. English is the only spoken language provided, with subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. It seems shabby treatment for so worthy a film.
Parting Thoughts:
Is "Ghost World" a side-splittingly funny black comedy? No, not really, but it makes a number of droll and discerning observations about the human condition. Is "Ghost World" a tearjerker that will grab the heartstrings of most of its viewers? No, not really, because it never condescends to any such level of cheap sentimentality. Is "Ghost World" destined to become a cinematic classic of its kind? No, I doubt that as well; it´s probably too realistic and too painful to reach the mass audience a potential mainstream classic requires.
"Ghost World" is simply a small but truthful attempt to put into words and pictures the frustrations of being different, of growing up amidst confused relationships, of facing an impassive society, and of attempting to find oneself. If the film offers no easy answers to some of life´s most complex problems, it´s because there are none. With the honesty to tell us that, it may yet reach the level of a minor cult classic. At least I hope so. The movie is designated R for strong profanity and mild sexual situations, a pity given that the rating theoretically excludes most teens from seeing it.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]9527[/release]