412 - Ghost World, United States, 2001. Dir. Terry Zwigoff.

Friday, February 16, 2018

412 - Ghost World, United States, 2001.  Dir. Terry Zwigoff.

Enid and Rebecca are graduating from high school.

Finally.

Now they can stop seeing and having to talk to all those phonies.  Forever.

Now what?

Life is boring.  Unless its purpose is to stand aloofly and comment with ironic mockery.  Then it is funny.  And sad.

At least they have each other.  They can agree that nothing else is worth getting excited about.  Only ridiculing.  And they can ridicule together.

Except that even they are starting to grow in different directions.  Rebecca gets a job.  And wants a nice apartment.

Enid is supposed to room with her.  But she hates every location Rebecca likes.  They are too normal.  Rebecca is threatening to become too normal.  Oh no.

They sit in the booth of some stupid new 50s diner and read the personal classified ads.  A man ran into a woman.  He felt something.  Did she?  If so, please call me.

Enid and Rebecca have the perfect prank.  Who is this loser?  We will call him.  We will pretend to be the woman.

They leave a message.  Enid purports to be the woman.  Yes! she says.  I felt something too!  Meet me at this time and place.  She gives the stupid 50s diner as the place.

They wait for him.

Sure enough, he arrives.

And this sets off a chain of events that will change everything.

There is one thing Enid can count on in life.

Norman.

He sits patiently at the Bus Stop awaiting for the bus to arrive.  She informs him that bus service ceased two years ago.  He remains undaunted.  Day after day, night after night, he sits patiently awaiting the bus.

Whenever she passes, there he is.  At least she can count on that.

Enid hides a fantasy of escaping life one day.  Of taking off and disappearing.

But she never counted on meeting Seymour.

An odd bird that out-odds even her.

Thora Birch plays Enid.  She had just come off a star-making role in the Oscar-winning American Beauty (1999).

Scarlett Johansson plays Rebecca.  You may have heard of her.

Steve Buscemi plays Seymour.  He is perfect for the role.

Illeana Douglas plays Roberta Allsworth, the Summer school art teacher.  Hilariously.  In a time when political correctness was still on the outside trying to force its way in.  And people still made fun of its foolishness.  Before they gave in to it.

Bob Balaban plays Enid's dad.  And he loves her.  He does his best to understand and communicate.  You may think of Bob Balaban as being from the Christopher Guest movies.  But he has done so much more.  We just saw him in Moonrise Kingdom (2012).  He comes from a family dynasty in Hollywood history.

Terry Zwigoff is an original voice.  He made documentaries Louie Bluie (1985) and Crumb (1994).  And the art film Art School Confidential (2006).  Somehow he also directed Bad Santa (2003).

Now, about that childhood fantasy. . . .