I re-watched one of my favorite movies the other night, Ghost World, with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi. This 2001 movie is the story of a rebellious girl named Enid (Birch) who has trouble adjusting to adult life after high school graduation. She becomes friends with an eccentric curmudgeon and collector of old records and pulp art named Seymour (Steve Buscemi) who is much older than her. She tries to get him hooked up with a woman closer to his age but becomes jealous when he does. It leads to predictable but eminently watchable complications between Enid and Seymour...

When I told my friend ZP that I'd watched the movie again, he said, "Oh, so you're resuming your fantasy romance with Thora Birch." Yes, I have to admit, I love her in this role...I know she was in American Beauty, but I didn't like that movie much and she didn't make a strong impression on me there. But in Ghost World, she creates a simultaneously cranky and lovable female character of supreme appeal...

I identify with Seymour and his desire for Enid, and also with his suppressing his attraction to her as a ridiculous idea since he's so much older than she is. I've been in situations like that with much younger women, especially in the stripclubs. But I also identify with Enid--because I also had a hard time adjusting to adult life after high school and even college, and didn't want to take things seriously for the longest time. Sometimes I think I still don't...

Anyway, I wish Thora would make some more movies. Better yet, I wish she'd appear again as Enid in a sequel to Ghost World! That's really what I'd like to see. More Enid!

Here are two links to nice pix of Thora. One is with an interesting review of Ghost World from a site called Cinema 100, and the other is from an academic site discussing the various points of "mise en scene," or film direction. In the first shot, Enid wears a catgirl mask she buys at an adult book store--how damn cute is that?? In the second, she's talking with Seymour about his rare collection of 78 rpm records.

You have to see this movie. Although the ending is a little ambiguous--and melancholy, from my point of view--overall it's a modern gem with all the star power of the great Hollywood classics.

Cinema100

MiseEnScene