Enid and Rebecca are respectable fuck-ups-funny and efficacious in all their interactions, but lacking any sort of inertia to truly prove they’re that much better than everyone (and the stereotypes) they hate. Yet the angst that Enid and Rebecca exhibit is excruciatingly relatable on a molecular level, particularly in the face of rose-colored representations of 17-year-old girls being at the opportune precipice of the rest of their lives, whether this involves their academic success, burgeoning beauty or romantic desirability. This is also a dichotomy entrenched in Gen X despondency, empathetically employed by Zwigoff and co-writer Clowes.
#GHOST WORLD FREE#
Of course, Enid and Rebecca represent the conflict intrinsic to this transition from youth to adulthood-that of fearful clinging to one’s established comfort versus the desire to break free from the tired existence of adolescent aimlessness. Enid begins to get cold feet over actually going through with growing up and becomes obsessed with dorky record collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi) while Rebecca embarks on perusing the real estate section and securing employment for a plan that has become worryingly one-sided. Unfortunately, the girls’ myopic view of the world begins to slowly eat away at their pleasant plot. Neither Enid or Rebecca plan on going to college, instead opting to go through with their BFF fantasy of getting jobs and renting an apartment together downtown. While the gesture indicates a healthy (if excessive) ire for their high school experience, this pessimism is also targeted toward the future. As the ceremony concludes, the pair join their classmates in rushing out of the building with haste-incongruent with their peers, Enid and Rebecca rip off their caps and stomp them on the ground, sealing the defiant action with two middle fingers directed at the building.
#GHOST WORLD CRACK#
“I liked her so much better when she was an alcoholic crack addict,” scoffs Enid. Enid and Rebecca chortle and roll their eyes as their recent wheelchair-using classmate makes a painfully cliched speech about the perils of driving under the influence. The duo’s defining cynicism is made immediately clear during their high school graduation ceremony, a decorous milestone in which they have no interest. As opposed to focusing on superhuman ability and surface-level feminism, Ghost World’s main characters are listless, lewd and lonely-traits that bring Enid Coleslaw (Thora Birch) and her best friend Rebecca (Johansson) into the upper echelons of frankly defiant on-screen young womanhood. On the contrary, Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson’s breakout film venture is the true coming-of-age celluloid comic: Crumb director Terry Zwigoff’s adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World. For teenage girls looking to dabble in the realm of comic books and their cinematic adaptations, it would appear that blockbuster offerings à la Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and the recently-hyped Black Widow are the end all be all.
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