Ghost World by Terry Zwigoff

Okay, trendy teenage cartoon with grrls turns into a movie! Hurray! Lots of amusing fashion, great glasses, very nice acting from our main actress Thora Birch. The story really has that wandering, restless vibe that we all felt after graduating high school. The plot centres around this restlessness. Enid sets out to tease a nerd, Seymour, who has placed a personal ad she finds especially pathetic. From this starting point she gets more and more embroiled in the man's life. He's a compulsive record collector - don't we all know him? His obsession with 7/8's had me snickering lots and I also thoroughly enjoyed Enid's art class. Her art instructor is also someone we've all encountered, the feminist prof who will rip one student to shreds while praising a tampon in a teacup to high heavens.

I've never read the comic strip this film was based on, but I can imagine it well. There is an odd, halting pace to this film that takes a lot of getting used to, as if each shot starts as a still and then buckles into action. Keeping the comic idea in mind, it is a stylistic twitch that is sorta acceptable, but for someone who isn't thinking along those lines it makes you want to slap the actors to get moving. I saw this one in a theatre, and think that in restrospect I would have enjoyed it more at home, where I could just stop and rewind over my favourite bits. What am I trying to say? Oh, funny pace, a bit uneven, and some very nice moments.[JL]

www.ghostworld-themovie.com

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