Rating: NNNN
GHOST WORLD (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) is an adaptation of the graphic novel by author Daniel Clowes and director Zwigoff, whose first feature was the documentary Crumb. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson won Toronto Film Critics Association citations as best lead and supporting actors of 2001 playing high school graduates wandering aimlessly through a summer before entering the real world. Ghost World is marked by a high level of hip attitudinizing, particularly in the heroines’ dismissal of everyone who doesn’t achieve their level of anomie, and it’s hard to like a movie whose characters’ principal stance toward the world is condescension. That said, there are some superb performances here, especially from a hangdog Steve Buscemi as a man absorbed by his interests, all of which he hates, and Ileana Douglas, hilarious as an art teacher who believes that art should engage the important issues of the day and honestly perceives a pile of coat hangers (“It expresses my feeling about a woman’s right to choose”) as superior to a well-executed pencil sketch. NNNN (January 3, Fox January 3-6, Bloor January 4-8, Music Hall January 7-8, Revue January 9, Kingsway)
