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Ghost World
MGM / UA


8.3

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 91 votes
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FILM:

BOOKS:

Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes

MPAA RATING: R for strong language and some sexual content

Starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, and Illeana Douglas

Based on the well-known comic, Ghost World tells the story of neo-cool Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johansson) who, faced with high school graduation take a hard look at the world they wryly observe and decide what they really want. (MGM / UA)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Daniel Clowes (also comic book) Terry Zwigoff
DIRECTED BY:	Terry Zwigoff
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 5, 2002 Video: February 5, 2002 Theatrical: July 20, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	111 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Birch and Buscemi each earned Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

100

The New York Times Dana Stevens

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."

100

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A buoyant, funny, and disarmingly humane comedy of beautiful losers in revolt.

Slate David Edelstein

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A character so real and poignant (yet hysterically funny), she'll linger for months or years.

Time Richard Corliss

In this arid landscape, the edifice of Ghost World, with all its acute insolence, stands out like the Taj Mahal.

Newsweek Jeff Giles

In the hearts of losers, Zwigoff’s found a real winner.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

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.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Smart, surpassingly odd, extremely funny and mysteriously endearing at the same time.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Zwigoff pulls off something in Ghost World that seems a minor miracle -- he creates someone with a complex inner life.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Funny, insightful, unpredictable and blessed with pitch-perfect performances, Ghost World is one of the year's best movies.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Whatever portion of the alienated teen angst championship Thora Birch left unclaimed after ''American Beauty,'' she nails down brilliantly in Ghost World.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

As hip, funny and truthful a sleeper as has ever flown under Tinseltown's radar.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's a loneliness at the heart of this world, and Ghost World, that's really touching -- and a bit scary, too.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Ghost World draws super, natural performances.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Ghost World is above all a disquieting consciousness-raiser.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This mordantly funny, emotionally piquant depiction of post-adolescent angst also has its roots in the graphic novel format.

Variety Ken Eisner

By sharp turns poignant, disturbing and hysterically funny.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

Despite the presence of several sublimely cracked actors and some of the most abrasive white-trash caricatures since "Raising Arizona," Birch totally owns this movie.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The results are both savagely funny and poignant for anyone who's ever had a friendship that felt like their only connection to the outside world.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Bests most other teen comedies right off the bat. If you got a kick out of "Crumb," this film will crack you up.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In his first fiction feature, Zwigoff doesn't forget to bring the funny. But he doesn't bring enough poetry.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

What I did like unreservedly was the acting. Enid, as enacted by the sometimes astonishing Birch, is one of the more convincing, no-nonsense teens in recent movies.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Has social, psychological, and ultimately mystical overtones that raise it leagues above most other teen-centered comedies.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 91 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bob E gave it a10:
Story, acting, soundtrack, visuals, casting, all just about brilliantly perfect.

rzzzzz gave it a10:
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.

James L. gave it a2:
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.

Sam D. gave it an8:
i liked it but sometimes it was a little, bleh. it was very depressing.

Kevin E. gave it a9:
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.

John A. gave it a10:
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.

thewiseking gave it a9:
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.

Ghost World MGM / UA

Ghost World
MGM / UA