Scarlett Johansson is the sexiest chick in the world. if she got any more sexy i would become a raging rhinoscerous and bust down my house.

What possessed someone to make this movie? It wasn't at all interesting or funny. Did i get the wrong movie or something or does everyone else just have no taste? My advice: forget the critics, they have no idea what the definition of a good movie is. Also, do youself a favor and don't see this movie... unless of course your an insomniac. In that case, this movie will put you to sleep no problem!… Expand

What a boring piece of crap! Zero plot, weak characters...I can't believe this pile is getting good reviews! So bland I just turned it off, didn't even care how it ended. What a waste of time!

Thora Birch is the coolest!

Its the story of my life! thats all i have to say, it made so much sense and was so close to reality, i was just AWSOME, and the person who goes by "BEING"........you obviosly have no taste in anything.. ha!

I luv josh (brad renfro).

A film that is unsettlingly pleasurable.

A funny, complex, witty, intellegent, breathtaking approtch to the alienation that many youths with brains feel upon coming of age in our all-you-can-eat blandfest of a society. The negative reviews of this film say more than the positives really: "Never have i seen such believable yet original characters. Never have i learned so much about the mind of the teenage girl. Never have i been so bored." The fact is, many people are so used to being led through the nose through all the cliches of filmaking that when an honest and original film comes along, they have trouble keeping up. Still, it's not as good as the comic. But as an insult, that ranks up there with not getting a Nobel prize.… Expand

The thing about this movie is the screenplay. The movie spends no time at all with Brad Renfro's part, which was the most interesting. The movie is predictable and boring as hell.

Gordon T. is right about young women; this was my life in high school (albeit far more interesting, colorful, and well-dressed). I can't say much that the reviewers haven't, but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and left with my head spinning; it took several hours to feel like I'd returned to the rather mundane place from which I'd come.

A carefully-observed riot. If you loved "Crumb," you'll love this, too. In some ways, it's almost a sequel; Birch's and Buscemi's characters have much in common with the subject of Zwigoff's earlier work, the tone and humor are similar, and the director even includes a number of knowing winks to "Crumb" as well. Thankfully, characters not as artistically sensitive are still portrayed with good humor, subtletym and empathy. Bob Balaban and Illeana Douglas are a hoot in supporting roles. One of my favorite films of the year.… Expand

Ghost World is a story of teen age alienation for the current age. Enid and her friend Rebecca have graduated from high school and are truly at lose ends trying to answer the question, "What next?" Thora Birch is excellent as Enid, a girl in search of her life and who she is. She is ever so close to her girl friend, Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), and then she isn't. All this is extremely painful, but then much of what happens at age 18 is painful. Ghost World has to be the ultimate Steve Buscemi vehicle. He plays Seymour, a nerd's nerd and obsessive collector of obscure blues 78's. He wears long monochromatic shirts even as he lives a very monochromic life. The art direction is noteworthy. There is a hysterical Indian video to which Enid is dancing during the opening credits and which is available in full on the DVD. Rooms are a vivid green, intense orange and burnt red. This is an uneven movie, which given the small intentions of the movie, is more forgivable than would be in a more pretentious ambitious movie. There is some unfunny stuff between a Pakistani quick mart store owner and a crazy numchuk wielding American. The end is ambiguous...[Ed: Potential spoiler omitted.]… Expand

This is a movie for teens! It's really really cool...the language and everything, every teen will find it funny. I liked it cuz it relates to the teen world. WARNING: do not watch it with your parents. Not for children.

OK, this film is definitely worth seeing, but I think all the critical slobbering over this film raised my expectations way too high. The acting's excellent, and I know Buscemi won some Critics Awards for this role, but after seeing his performance, he definitely deserved an Academy Award nomination, if not the Oscar itself. Quite different from his other roles, and he doesn't take the easy way out by being the "stereotypical" nerd.… Expand

OMG What a fuuny movie.. i haven't laughed harder .. hey josh this is seymore ( DROP) ... OMG.. Thora Birch played her best ever in this movie .. Dear Josh... We Came by to F*** you but you were not home.. there for you are gat.. signed tiffany and amber..i loved this movie.. and for all who hated it and thought that it had no plot or bad characters.. you're retards.

Isn't it interesting when a movie offends a certain lifestyle, and then the people who live that lifestyle go to metacritic and try to make some lame excuse to give such a low score?

Among one of my favorites, I have watched this movie over many times and it never seems to get old. Birch's witty, sarcastic sense of humor exactly fits mine, and she (along with Johanson, and Buschemi) gives a very real and unforgettable performance. This is a great movie. One that is very hard to find.

This is definitely my favorite movie of all time. I am very picky about what movies I like. Another one of my favorite movies "CHASING AMY" almost ties with "GHOST WORLD". I've been a Daniel Clowes fan for a long time now. He and Crumb are my idols; among other indie cartoonists..but anyways; Ghost World is a fantastic movie. It may not have a solid plot or "Memorable" characters (to some), but neither does life, y'know? And life is all over the place and full of adolescent drama that seems stupid to the onlookers. And when you're gone, nobody remembers you... So the movie really amazed me. I was sucked in from the first time I saw it... I find myself wishing that Clowes (and Terry?) will put out more of his comics in film form. David Boring. Like a Velvet Glove Pussey... Something...any of them would be great.… Expand

This movie is just so amazing, and while some could argue there is not much of a plot (even though there is), the performances of Birch, Johannson, Buscemi, and all the others make you wonder how this movie recieved only 1 academy award nomination (Best Adapted Screenplay), and it didn't even win.

This movie captured female adolescence so well, I was forced to have the same reaction to the movie I would to the two female teenager's unrelenting snootiness: LET ME OUT!!! I agree with A Gabor- BORING. Seymour is breath of fresh air in this otherwise suffocating movie, but alas, he grows boring too.... If you have to watch this movie,do yourself a favor and skip the first 15 minutes.

One of my favorite movies.

One of my favorite movies.

Beautifully cynical and hilarious.

This film gets better with each viewing. My initial impression was that it was overly droll and too full of teenage ennui. However, with each reviewing (thanks to the indie film channels) I have really come to appreciate just how brilliantly this film captures what it is like to not quite fit in, in an age when hip/hop, ignorance, misogyny and thuggery have completely hijacked the popular culture.… Expand

Story, acting, soundtrack, visuals, casting, all just about brilliantly perfect.

Great insight into young women and life in general. Well-written and acted.

Smart, funny offbeat comedy with characters you feel for. A proverbial breath of fresh air. Go see it. Fans of "Bridget Jones' Diary" will like this one.

Despite a plodding pace, the insight into the world of alienation of a tennager is frightening. Buscemi is a great "nebbish" moral center and Birch is pathetic and scary, extraordinarily acted. Whatever the filmaker intended the abstract ending to mean, it resolved nothing in a total anti-Hollywood way. Disturbing fun?

Ambiguous ending doesn't dampen the offbeat and touching film about those with out of the mainstream good taste who just don't quite fit in. See it!

Boring and uninspiring, I kept looking at my watch wondering when it would end. The acting was great but it was not enough to make this film even remotely interesting. It was all about a girl who needs to grow up and get a life.

This movie had so much potential. Too bad it was totally wasted. Nothing develops, and the movie ends. Don't waste your time.

Heartbreaking, sweet and tender, Ghost World is one of this year's quieter pleasures. Easily the best film ever made from a comic book.

Unless you're an angsty adolescent with "issues," chances are this film will bore the pants off you. And this is coming from someone who usually loves these kind of indie flicks.

This movie works so well so often. It may lose points in some circles for its very white cast and very white feel, but those points were made up to me as soon as Steve Buscemi appeared on camera. He is as good as any other actor in any other role, consistently, in this movie, and his lost-in-loserdom chemistry with Thora Birch makes this one for the books. Instantly made my top ten.

Never have i seen such believable yet original characters. Never have i learned so much about the mind of the teenage girl. Never have i been so bored. I dont understand why film was chosen as the medium to portray this idea. There existed not one visual element. As for the script. There is not one trully funny part. Acting and the desperate hope that something would develop were the only things that got me through this movie.… Expand

Best..movie..ever!

I love this movie! It is the way my friends and I live our lives!

To watch the paint dry is more interresting than watching this movies how the hell did people like this movie. I fell asleep it was so bad. if you like this movie go and get a life!

Ummm.....this movie was horrible....I am confused by the high scores.

Loved " Crumb " I understand his Robert Crumbs wife drew the pictures from Enids scrapbook!? The mullett dude could have been in it more, but he stole every scene he was in...And now we know the orgins of Cook's Chicken! :) Hilarious Stuff, & Thora's HOT!

Love the non-conformist attitude that Enid has. She represents someone or something that everyperson has been at one point in their lives. Warning, this movie is not for the shallow.

Rife with finely observed details about eccentrics and loners, bittersweet in its empathy for confused and resigned lives, Ghost World is one of finest films about the relationship between a grown-up dug into his little niche and a talented, highspirited, but disaffected young woman in danger of falling thru the cracks. Most artistic or bohemian types are thus endangered, but some manage to demarcate their private cultish domains. The depiction of this world, which is fascinating with all its cultural/historical artifacts and pathetic as a trap for morose, stalled lives, is insightful, avoiding both judgment and puffery. Directed by Terry Zwigoff (Crumb)who has an affection for this milieu. … Expand

This was the Best Movie of the Year 2001!

The performances are certainly fine, as Birch, Johansson and Buscemi all are fine actors. But this movie drags a little bit during the first half and drags unbearably in the second half. There doesn't seem to be a point, and getting rid of Johansson in the last third of the movie is a huge mistake. A bore...what were the critics thinking?

Acting was good, but ultimately not enough to make this movie really worth watching. Seems to me like a movie that exists for existing's sake.

How can someone say "seems to me like a movie that exists for existing's sake" about this movie. The story follows the comic work of Daniel Clowes, known for being one of the best graphic novelists in America. He even wrote the screenplay. Click over to the book review section on this site and read the reviews for one of his other works, 'Ice Haven'. The acting was the only redeeming quality? I bet that's why it recieved Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best adapted screenplay, right? b/c of the acting. The original story certainly didn't rely on acting to be compelling and respected. Just because you don't understand or can't relate to something doesn't mean that it "exists for existing's sake". I suspect J T is someone who is not well read. If you are someone who appreciates art, read Peter M and Alex C.'s reviews. If you would rather watch typical BS coming from hollywood, JT and C. Monster's reviews will better guide you.… Expand

What a supremely funny, entertaining and moving film this is. Thora Birch is an amazingly underrated actress. I hope she will soon get as much recognition as her co-star Scarlett Johansson already has. No question, that Birch is the better actress.

I can't believe Birch was nominated for a Golden Globe for this. I saw Ghost World in the theater, and I wasn't the only one laughing at scenes that were supposed to be touching. Poorly acted, poorly directed, and far less imaginative than it thinks it is. A big disappointment from Zwigoff; an even bigger letdown that the critics seem blind to the movie's myriad flaws.

This is a really really deep, intriguing and subtly poignant movie. The movie well deserves the score by the critics (if not higher). Those who says this movie is boring either because they don't watch it as if they are reading literature, which mean that there are symbols, metaphors, and imagery which need to be looked closely and analyzed in order to see a greater picture, or because they are just too lazy to use their brain, which mean they rather let their brains be entertained (like when they watch those brainless, shallow mainstream blockbusters or those empty, mundane shows on television) than to make it think, which, in turn, would cause them too much pain since their brains have not been working for so long. C. Monster said that “There doesn't seem to be a point, and getting rid of Johansson in the last third of the movie is a huge mistake.” He must have been very busy looking for Johansson so that he could not see the point! The movie is NOT ALL ABOUT “a girl who needs to grow up and get a life” as Q Being sees it. Maybe that is just ALL what Q Being can see. I think there are three central themes portrayed in the movie or at least three is what I discover so far: DEATH, AUTHENCITY, and IDENTITY. Death here certainly is a figurative death, the death of passion, of real authenticity, the death of life in such a busy, conventional, conformed, sexual (the adult shop, the trivial question) and fearful society which is filled with blinded, dead people who choose not to be alive. The scene of the coffee shop where Becky (Scarlett Johansson) works shows us a lot. The guy in the wheelchair who later is revealed by Becky that he does so only because he is lazy and who answers the trivial question about an organ, which is “slightly about the uterus on the female,” to get a free coffee, and a woman who orders the coffee and cuts off Becky’s talk to her by starting with the word “NO” both show us how cold, unfriendly and dead the world is. Everybody is so busy and so caught up with their lives and jobs and personal issues that they just don’t care for each other. There are only three people who are alive in the movie but are considered as boring, weird, or even dead people by the society: Enid, Seymour, and the old man waiting for the “cancelled” bus. If you look closely the scene in which Enid and Becky talk to the old man, you will notice that the old man blocks out part of the phrase “not in service”, making it look like “NOTICE”; and near the left upper corner of the chair there is a word “LIFE”; both of them making “NOTICE LIFE.” Seemingly, only Enid, Seymour and the old man can see and live their lives when others fall into conformity and the certain lifestyles that the society designs for them. Then, at the end, the empty bus serves as the metaphor of the gateway for those people like the old man and Enid to escape to the world they belong to rather than living in such a dead world full of ghosts. However, the movie also gives you a second option, which Seymour chooses, is to stay and try to adjust in the dead, structural world. He comes back with his mother and sees the physiologist. That’s what you ARE SUPPOSED TO DO when you are old and do not have a wife/ girlfriend. You have problems. Go to your mother or see the doctor. Enid is brave. She chooses to follow the wise old man, leaving this world and finding her belonging world. The idea waiting for the bus is also nice. Mostly in life we are so busy going out and looking for something that we really need or want and we can never see it (Enid and Becky’s games of following people, and trying to look for something); maybe sometimes, we should just sit down and then it will come to us. The movie starts off when the girls graduate high school. This is a good start because after high school, people must find for themselves new identities, deserting their old identities/ lifestyles which were found in high school. Becky stands for all those people. She tries to conform herself. She finds a job, an apartment. She tries to follow the rules at her job (this is just speculation since she is not fired constantly like Enid is) and to fit in. In the coffee shop scene, she tells Enid that “you’ll get totally sick of all the creeps and losers and weirdoes” and Enid responses that “but those are our people” and then Becky acts like she is uncomfortable or upset with that idea. Or when they talk about the neighborhood, Enid says: “This is such a weird neighborhood,” and Becky replies: “This is a totally NORMAL, average neighborhood”; Becky no longer sees what Enid sees anymore because they are both so different now. Becky already adapts herself to the dead world; then both of the girls feel alienated from each other. Lastly, the authenticity smeared by the modern world is also the central theme in the movie. The thing that separates Enid from everyone is her sense of authenticity. She hates the obnoxiousness, the phoniness of the people around her who try to conform. When she dyes her hair, she is trying to find back the old true “1977 original punk rock look,” “not modern punk” and Becky, who is already changed, does not “get it either” like the rest of other people in the shop. Theme about authenticity is also portrayed in the fake “authentic fifties diner” Wowsville or in the bar in which Seymour and Enid are. The lady Seymour talks to says that if he wants to listen authentic blues, he should listen to Blue Hammers; or the rock band on stage say that they is going to play some authentic blue that “is gonna ROCK your world.” There are also many other interesting things in the movie such as Enid is mostly in RED clothes all the time. Red represent for fire, energy, passion, or blood. Also, “Seymour” sounds like “sees more”. So Seymour definitely “sees more” of the world and himself than Enid does. After all, this is a great movie if you choose to invest your brain energy to it. In fact, all the good movies require thinking and analyzing. James L says: “an even bigger letdown that the critics seem blind to the movie's myriad flaws.” The blind one here obviously is not the critics. I don’t even want to comment on JBJ’s or Huge’s comments. Purely brainless! And to Stef C: it is not that you got the wrong movie or people have bad taste; it is that you cannot see what other people can see; and that’s what makes you different from the critics or other thinking people. And to JT, the movie obviously does not exist for YOUR existing’s sake but rather for other intellectual’s existing’s sake. After all, GREAT MOVIE!!!… Expand

It's a great look into teenage life. The best part is the lack of special effects. Making Ghost World a GREAT movie.

Touched.

Great acting, great dialogue, fine sense of color, sharp social commentary (something sorely lacking in most Hollywood tripe) - the best movie to come out in some time. Shows how to make a great movie without relying on special effects and other such distractions.

At last, someone makes the name "Thora" fashionable. Here there's another great movie she's in. Ebert's right: let's all hug this movie.

This Movie Sucks.

Thora Birch is my fantasy. My boyfriend went down on me while I watched Thora on this film.

A wry, witty slice of life. This movie comes in second on the great non-conformists chart (After Rushmore, which if you liked Ghost World you really should see!).

Never get tired of watching this movie. One of my all time favorites. Thora Birch is AMAZING!

basically I agree with what most other people said. I was slightly confusing at the end but an overall enjoyable trip thats worth revisiting again and again.

i liked it but sometimes it was a little, bleh. it was very depressing.

most satisfying comedy in recent memory. original, deft and knowing. baby, even the losers get lucky some times, but in this film they're just too genuine and compelling to allow themselves to be Spielberged into some corny gift wrapped resolution.

One of my favs. and I don't like bad movies :)

If you are a person that can not relate to the rest of society than you may just end up relating to this film. Two friends finish school, both social outcasts, but one friend chooses to assimilate into society in order to getand the other chooses to stay at the fringe and mock it. A great film about living in a society you despise and life after high school.

Much like Zwigoff's "Crumb," this movie exists wholly in a field of its own, and its constant eccentricities give it all the more power to captivate the viewer. Aside from being perfectly casted, the scripting/editing really give the movie its edge, as many of the characters are defined by one-liners and quick shots.

If the central character is supposed to be sympathetic, I don't get it. She's an annoying, self-absorbed brat possessed of an undeserved case of ennui. Scarlett Johansson is also surprisingly uninteresting, leaving very little to focus on. The only (mildly) interesting moments in the film involved minor characters. Definitely a movie only another self-absorbed teenager could love. Unless you have a very high threshold for boredom, skip it… Expand