GHOST WORLD A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2001 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
Would somebody just give Steve Buscemi an Oscar® already?
Although this weasel-y character actor has over 70 movies to his credit he's still not a household name. His face, however, is instantly recognizable, a cross between Willem Dafoe and John Waters on a good day--arched brow, thin hair, slightly crooked teeth. Buscemi almost always improves any movie he's in, whether it's an uncredited turn in an Adam Sandler comedy ("The Wedding Singer," "Billy Madison") or a classic Buscemi creation itself: Chet the Bellhop in "Barton Fink," Mr. Pink in "Reservoir Dogs," Map to the Stars Eddie in "Escape from L.A.," Garland "The Marietta Mangler" Greene in "Con Air," and now simply Seymour in "Ghost World."
Buscemi is never likely to be mistaken for a leading man, but he's come about as close as it gets in Terry Zwigoff's film. Zwigoff's previous feature was the 1994 documentary "Crumb" (about the underground artist Robert Crumb) and with "Ghost World" the director has once again gone thumbing through the world of comic books for his cinematic inspiration (the film is based on the popular underground rag of the same name).
Seymour isn't exactly the star of "Ghost World" but he's the catalyst at its very special center, a social misfit who greatly affects the relationship between two high-school outcasts (played by Thora Birch--the daughter in "American Beauty"--and Scarlett Johansson--the daughter in "The Horse Whisperer"). Birch and Johansson fulfill the promise they showed in their earlier work and the character of Seymour is, perhaps, Buscemi's best work to date.
And that's saying a lot given the many memorable characters he's given us over the years.
Enid (Birch) and Becky (Johansson) are best friends who have just graduated from high school. Whereas Becky is responsible and quickly finds a job to pay for the apartment she hopes to share with her "neo cool" friend, Enid--a counter-culture rebel through and through--has different ideas. As a prank, the girls respond to a personal ad by arranging a bogus meeting in a tacky diner with a middle-aged loser (Buscemi), but Enid soon becomes so obsessed with the man, a self-deprecating collector of old blues 78s, that it begins to threaten her friendship with Becky.
"Ghost World" is slow moving and thoughtful and worth savoring, as director Zwigoff (together with Daniel Clowes, creator of the original comic book) unearth the frustrations and discontentedness experienced by individuals--here two teenage girls--reluctantly forced to face reality. The performances in the film are all excellent, from the three leads to almost all of the supporting players (including Bob Balaban as Enid's ineffectual father, Illeana Douglas as an art teacher with pretensions, and Teri Garr--in a scene not much longer than the one in the trailer--as Maxine).
These are indelible, finely-etched characters that, together with Enid, Becky, and Seymour (especially Seymour), stick with us long after the film is over.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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