Writers: Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff
Cast: Tora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi
With only the plan of moving together after high-school, two unusually devious friends seek direction in life. As a mere gag, they respond to a man's newspaper ad for a date, only to find that it will greatly complicate their lives and their relationship.
The film opens on an unexpected note with the opening credits featuring an yesteryear Bollywood disco song. The film is basically about friendship if you look from the perspective of the relationship between the two girls in it. Most of what we call as friends are merely acquaintances who become part of our lives for a brief while as we move across various stages of life. As we move from one stage to next, we lose them from our life in a conscious manner or just by not bothering to keep in touch. Finishing school and the time after that is the first time that we do this process and since it is first time, it happens over a longer period of time. By the time we finish graduation, it happens a lot quicker and after post-graduation it will be quite swift. Whoever that stay out of the cull list remain as friends for life, probably. It is a phenomenon that doesn't get looked at enough in films and Ghost World does essentially that even though it is not limited to that. Film is told mainly from the perspective of Thora Birch's character centering on her relationship with her best friend from school and the older Steve Buscemi character. Birch being the weirder one out of the two and Johansson is the more normal one who will go on to have a normal sort of life. That transition happens over the course of the film.
Overall, it is a very good watch and is like 'Napoleon Dynamite' with girl characters. Which reminds me that I should watch that film again (Vote for Pedro!!!). Thora Birch already had her big break with 'American Beauty' while this one came before Scarlett Johansson's breakout role in 'Lost in Translation'. Steve Buscemi is someone who is famous for playing type cast kind of roles and it was good to see him playing a character which was very much against his type. I haven't seen any other film of Terry Zwigoff's who hasn't really made too many films.
Rating: 3.5/5
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