Metascore
88 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
  1. 100
    I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor.
  2. A buoyant, funny, and disarmingly humane comedy of beautiful losers in revolt.
  3. 88
    As hip, funny and truthful a sleeper as has ever flown under Tinseltown's radar.
  4. 90
    Let the unsettling secrets of this outrageously funny and steadily engrossing meditation on the life of two high school misfits after graduation catch you by surprise. It's that good.
  5. Smart, surpassingly odd, extremely funny and mysteriously endearing at the same time.
  6. Buscemi makes Seymour into a character you simply want to see again and again. He's the most appealing, amusing "loser" anyone could ever share old records with.
  7. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    Ghost World draws super, natural performances.
  8. There's a loneliness at the heart of this world, and Ghost World, that's really touching -- and a bit scary, too.
  9. If, like me, you've been wondering how Terry Zwigoff, the brilliant documentary filmmaker who made "Crumb," would negotiate his shift to fiction filmmaking, here's your answer: brilliantly.
  10. 88
    A unique bond still develops between the two outcasts, leading to an unexpected resolution that ends this subtle, deeply humane movie on an ambiguous, but unmistakably hopeful, note.
  11. Funny, insightful, unpredictable and blessed with pitch-perfect performances, Ghost World is one of the year's best movies.
  12. Ghost World resists convenient closures and summaries and some may take issue with its open-endedness. But anything else would have been phony, and Enid would never have stood for it.
  13. A funny, sad, scary and ultimately tragic coming-of-age drama/black comedy that skillfully -- and uncompromisingly -- creates its own world and uniquely pessimistic vision.
  14. 90
    Offers an exquisite tour of the twilight zone between high school and the so-called real world, as well as between bohemian subculture and the even stranger culture of America at large.
  15. 90
    Keep your "Lara Croft" and your "Shrek": For me, the summer's reigning icons are Enid, Thora Birch's geek goddess in Ghost World, and her action-movie analogue.
  16. A character so real and poignant (yet hysterically funny), she'll linger for months or years.
  17. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    90
    In this arid landscape, the edifice of Ghost World, with all its acute insolence, stands out like the Taj Mahal.
  18. 100
    It's surely the best depiction of teenage eccentricity since "Rushmore," and its incisive satire of the boredom and conformity that rule our thrill-seeking, individualistic land, and also its question-mark ending, reminded me of "The Graduate."
  19. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    88
    Whatever portion of the alienated teen angst championship Thora Birch left unclaimed after ''American Beauty,'' she nails down brilliantly in Ghost World.
  20. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    90
    Pitch-perfect -- not just the most enjoyable movie of the year but the first (after Crumb) to get the tone of a certain strain of "underground" comic right.
  21. 90
    Zwigoff pulls off something in Ghost World that seems a minor miracle -- he creates someone with a complex inner life.
  22. Reviewed by: Jeff Giles
    90
    In the hearts of losers, Zwigoff’s found a real winner.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 134 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 68
  2. Negative: 14 out of 68
  1. Hands down, the best movie of the 00's thus far. One of the greatest films ever made, a masterpiece. The career best performances for Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi. Funny, touching, moving, and just enough of a mean streak to elevate it, without enough to hurt it. One of the best films ever to measure whether or not someone is a film fan, or just looking for mindless entertainment. The former will love this, the latter should go watch trash like Transformers 2. Full Review »
  2. The movie provides the most outrageous sense of humour, but in a positive way. The humour in the film was deeply touching in a way that the viewer would not expect from this kind of film. The storyline was so outrageously distinctive compared to the othe ther teenage films. The protagonist of the movie was very well acted with such an original acting. My favorite teenage film so far ^^. Full Review »
  3. I don't know what all the critics are raving about. The movie's not bad, but it can be very boring. It has interesting characters and decent performances but the screenplay fails to really do anything entertaining with any of them. It's not particularly funny either. There's maybe one or two points in the movie that may get a slight chuckle but that's about it. It has a unique type of charm about it but it's a very slight kind of charm. It could have been a lot better. I'm sorry but I found it overrated. Full Review »