Ghost World (2001)
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Written by Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff, based on the comic book by Clowes
Starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas

Features:

• Deleted and alternate scenes
  
• "Making of" featurette
  
• "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" music video from the film Gumnaam (appears during the opening of the film)
  
• Theatrical trailer
  

Anamorphic: No.

My Advice: Rent It.

High school is over. Enid and Rebecca (Birch and Johansson) have been friends for forever, and now they're entering what passes for the real world. Rebecca has plans to carry out their dream of living together, but Enid seems to be drifting. They can, however, agree to criticize and harass the denizens of their particular little burg. However, when a crank phone call they instigate brings them into contact with the eccentric vinyl-loving (that's a reference to albums, BTW, not clothing) Seymour (Buscemi), what follows is just a precursor to the changes that could possibly tear apart their friendship.

This is a strange, twisted, lovely little film. The unnamed city where this all takes place is as much a character as any of the leads: it spawns everything from a nunchaku-wielding redneck to rappers celebrating high school graduation to to an art teacher who likes the expression one can achieve with coat hangers. There are quite a number of instances where blatant strangeness takes place on screen, evoking those barking guffaws which inevitably frighten the neighbors. Luckily, the film is not an out and out comedy. It's merely showing the absurdity of being thrust into the world of adulthood, which just so happens to be ridiculously amusing for those of us who have already been through that.

The one major critique I have of the film itself is that it ended too late. A delightfully surreal moment towards the end should have been the closer, but instead the film lingers about five minutes too long. A shame, because I think it makes the ending a little too much "on the nose". And my one last comment is: "Holy God, is that Teri Garr?"

As for the disc itself, the deleted and alternate scenes are pretty lackluster...all four of them. There are two different takes on the altercation with the aforementioned Doug (Dave Sheridan) in the parking lot of the convenience store, and an alternate take of Buscemi at his "party" trying to sell some of his records. It's only the brief bit with Illeana Douglas at the art exhibition that is amusing.

Also of note is the featurette, which is better than most. It actually has the writer, director and cast commenting intelligently on their choices for the film and not simply reiterating bits about the film we already know, having seen it. But most interesting is the full clip from the Indian film used at the beginning of the film, "Jaan Pehechaan Ho," from the film Gumnaam, released in 1965. Even moreso than when I saw this at the start of Ghost World, I must wonder about the physical well-being of the dancers involved, since all they do is shake their limbs, their heads, their entire bodies--so much so, I can't imagine takes lasting longer than a minute or so. After that, they'd probably get so dizzy they'd have to sit down and have a glass of water or something.

The film is most worthy, although sadly lacking in something I was really looking forward to: commentaries. One with Clowes and Zwigoff and then one with the cast would have been superb. For example, I've read somewhere that Clowes got the idea from seeing the words "Ghost World" as graffiti. I wanted to know more about this, about the film, the inspirations, and whatnot. But that's nothing new. I always want that. The hunger is more pronounced when the film is as rich as this one, though. Fans of the film or the comic should pick this disc up, but especially fans of Buscemi, who was stellar.