To generalise life is shite!!! This is wonderfully
demonstrated by the character of Enid in Terry Zwigoff’s ‘teenage’ comedy Ghost
World (2001). She does not really fit and has chosen to live just
outside what is deemed normal; I suppose someone has to decide what is
classified as normal so people like Enid can live outside of it? It must be
wonderful to dye your hair green on a whim just to suit the clothes you decide
to wear when you get up in the morning. Maybe that’s why I felt an affinity
with this character, not because I have green hair but because I just loved the
way she sent out vibes which said “I don’t give a f**k” but just like most of
us she really did care or as the Scottish author William Mcllivanney put it ‘the price you pay for arriving at a
personnel vision is the loneliness of having to live with it’[1].
I’ve realised that one of the reasons for writing this blog is to prove to my
self that I actual exist!
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| The wonderful Thora Birch. |
Based on a comic book of the same name written by Daniel
Clowes, who co wrote the films screenplay with Zwigoff, it gives an insight
into the afore mentioned Enid (the outstanding Thora Birch) and her life long
friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) who have both just graduated from High
School and are about to set out on life’s twisted highway but nether really
know what turnings to take. They live in
a nondescript town, are more like sisters and are really comfortable with each
other that is until Enid meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi) a social outsider twice
her age, who collects rare 78’s. This meeting has repercussions on both the
girls.
This film is full of wonderful moments and so different from
the normal coming of age teenage drama. It’s populated with ‘real life
characters’ like Norman waiting at a deactivated bus stop every day for a bus
that never arrives, Enid’s father, a rather ineffectual parent, Josh who works
in a convenience store, Enid’s art teacher and Normans overweight flat mate all
written with great precision and meaning. The title came from some graffiti
that Clowes saw written on a garage door in Chicago, which has no real meaning,
but just could be the name of the neighbourhood in the nondescript town? It’s a film that proves sometimes a simple
story with an uncomplicated narrative can be a truly engrossing watch.
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| Seymour as played by Steve Buscemi. |
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