Retro Review: Ghost World

By Less Lee Moore

I first saw Ghost World when it hit theaters in 2001. I had just turned 30 and going through a particularly tumultuous period, questioning my choices in pretty much every aspect of my life… like you do when you are about to turn 30.

Realizing that I related to deeply to Enid and Becky, two young women who had just graduated from high school, scared me a little bit. How could I have so much in common with fictional characters that were so much younger than me?

Watching Ghost World again, the emotions wash over me like waves, as do some key realizations. It’s not that I’ve mellowed with age; on the contrary, I’ve become bolder, more confident, and able to succinctly express my opinions about all the bullshit I hate in this world. But Ghost World, after all these years, still totally gets me.

Sure, it’s a part of me that I’m not always proud of, the cynical, misanthropic part. Enid seems like a real bitch sometimes, flaking on her alleged best friend, becoming pals with someone as a joke, isolating herself from any kind of social circle, and preventing herself from acquiring gainful employment (or a high school diploma) because she just can’t keep her mouth shut. She might be selfish and immature, but damn it, if I don’t relate to her.

Yet I understand Becky, too. Her jealousy of her friendship with Enid and her frustration over Enid’s apparent refusal to face the future are both sadly familiar. Becky is realistic, though, and understands that she has to do something with her life, even if it for right now it means working at a crappy coffee shop and being enamored of colored plastic drinking glasses (hey, who isn’t?).

Seymour is like some twisted, future male version of Enid. He’s still cynical and misanthropic, and lives a lonely existence, but he’s at least got a steady job… even if working there has required him to sell part of his soul, thus making him even more cynical and misanthropic. It’s the struggle.

If you haven’t seen Ghost World (or read Daniel Clowes’ original, brilliant comic), you might think I was describing the most depressing movie of all time. But Ghost World is funny as hell, albeit in an insidiously subtle way.

Imagine showing Ghost World to someone like Seymour’s ill-fated girlfriend Dana. She probably wouldn’t understand why the scene in the sports bar with Blueshammer is so ridiculously hilarious and true to life. Real talk: I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime’s worth of scenes like that, and the only way to deal with it is to laugh at the mind-numbing banality of other people.

As much as Ghost World caricatures people, those people are never portrayed as completely hopeless (except maybe Doug). Take for example, art teacher Roberta Allsworth, who appears at first to be incredibly pretentious, but turns out to be one of Enid’s biggest advocates.

Despite her flaws, Enid isn’t a caricature of a bad person, or even an actual bad person. She just doesn’t fit in and doesn’t always know the best way to express herself when she does care about things. The terrific score from David Kitay underscores so much of Enid’s angst, evoking emotion without ever resorting to Lifetime movie music clichés.

For a film that came out more than a decade ago—before reality TV, before social media, before YouTube, and before the co-opting of basically every cool, underground thing that exists—Ghost World is still as meaningful and beautiful as it ever was, perhaps even more so now than ever.

Toronto residents! If you haven’t seen Ghost World in a while or if you’ve never seen it on the big screen, you’ll get your chance tonight at the Carlton, where The MUFF Society is putting on a screening of the film at 7:00 p.m.