Ghost World

It seems only natural that eccentric underground director Terry Zwigoff would follow up his acclaimed documentary of eccentric underground cartoonist R. Crumb with an adaptation of an eccentric underground comic book. But Ghost World is more than an adaptation--it truly looks and feels as if the pages of Daniel Clowes' 1990s teen alienation anthology have come alive. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson star as two misanthropic out-crowd teenage girls who drift apart after graduating high school into a loathsome, nondescript semi-suburban world of Starbucks and strip malls. Birch is pitch-perfect in her sardonic, anti-social waywardness, as is Steve Buscemi as an older geek and kindred outcast Birch befriends. Anything but a pat depiction of adolescent aimlessness or angst, this intelligent examination of the frustration borne of setting out on the road to self-discovery and coming to a dead end represents an extraordinary 180-degree turn from the kind of romanticized, sexualized, pat-on-the-head assembly-line teenager flicks cranked out several times a year in Hollywood. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—May 30, 2017—Criterion, 111 min., R, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2001's Ghost World features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary (by director Terry Zwigoff, comic creator and film co-writer Daniel Clowes, and producer Lianne Halfon), a new “Art as Dialogue” featurette with costars Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Illeana Douglass (42 min.), deleted scenes (10 min.), an extended excerpt from the featured 1965 Bollywood film Gumnaam with optional commentary (6 min.), and a booklet with an essay by critic Howard Hampton, a 2001 piece by Zwigoff on the film's soundtrack, and reprinted excerpts from Clowe's comic Ghost World. Bottom line: a characteristically excellent Criterion Collection edition for this fine film about alienated teens.]