Ghost World (2001) on Netflix
Enid and Rebecca graduate high school as cynical outsiders with no plan beyond jobs and an apartment together. Enid prank-calls Seymour, a lonely record collector who advertised for a date.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.3/10131,838 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
Enid and Rebecca are best friends and cynical social outcasts finishing high school, with nothing settled for the summer but finding work and renting a place together. Enid's diploma is held back until she attends a remedial art class, where her teacher Roberta wants art to carry social meaning and dismisses Enid's drawings as light entertainment. Rebecca draws more attention from boys. The two spot a personal ad from Seymour, a middle-aged collector of old 78 records, and Enid phones him pretending to be the woman he hopes to meet. They watch him at a diner and follow him to his apartment, then find him selling records at a garage sale, where Enid buys a blues album. Enid also meets Norman, an old man who keeps returning to a bus stop that no bus serves.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ghost World (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Zwigoff and Clowes asked cinematographer Beato to give the film a comic-book look, rejecting X-Men and Batman as models and dismissing Dick Tracy as literal-minded and "insulting" to the art form; the final cut is deliberately slightly oversaturated.
- Zwigoff, a former documentarian, gave Ghost World languid, lingering shots and used so few extras that the city streets look intentionally empty; Clowes said this captures "this weird feeling of alienation in the endless modern consumer culture."
- Seymour's taste in old records mirrors that of director Terry Zwigoff, who is himself a collector of 78 RPM records; songs mentioned in the film, including ones by Lionel Belasco, reflect both the character and Zwigoff.
