Has anyone seen Ghost World yet?

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Is it any good?

― Kris, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You beat me to this thread -- I haven't seen it, but right now this takes the cake as being the one movie per six months I actually want to see in the theaters. I haven't read the whole Clowes original yet, but what chapters I came across in _Eightball_ were striking enough.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i saw it. it was really great. thora birch is a cute one.steve bucemi as a record club ner that only listens to 30s jazz was heart warming and i wanted to fuck thora birch through the whole thing.

― chaki, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

she looks like my ex-girlfriend in that. whereas enid in the comic didn't.

― ethan, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I saw it and I loved it. I've only heard 2 people say that they were somewhat disappointed out of the 20 or so I know who've seen it.

― Nude SPock, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, it is very good. I mean, I actually cared about the characters (well, Enid and Seymour). I'm very glad as well that it was made now rather than when Eightball and the like were at their peak -- what would have been another "slacker" film ended up being something much sweeter and more touching coming on the heels of the post-irony, pro-prosperity late 1990s. Or something like that.

Oh, the studio's first chioce for Enid was...wait for it...Jennifer Love Hewitt.

― scott p., Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hope it comes out here soon! Maybe they will make a film of David Boring too!

― jel, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's really good. And odd. The pacing and editing is all slightly... off. At first I wasn't sure if this was intentional, but it must be because the pacing and timing is SO consistent. The punchlines come a beat too late. Or not at all. Or at the beginning of the joke instead of the end. Quiet awkward moments. Small details and glances; you wonder why the film's pointing them out? And as you roll along the weight of those details really comes home. I think many ppl on this board will appreciate the attitude about art, what is it, what's worth noticing.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

your description makes me think of 'the king of comedy'. that's a very good thing.

― ethan, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought it was grate, except for maybe the ending. And Thora Birch is the new girl of my dreams. Admittedly she looks like the old girls of my dreams, but what can I say.

― Josh, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

I saw it last night. Don't know the comic, but I loved the film. Peters out in a weird way towards the end (and I don't even understand what was happening in the final scene with Steve Buscemi) but yeah - really great character drama. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson are err... very attractive. The convenience store scenes reminded me of Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith, but in like, a good way. Oi give it foive.

― Nick, Friday, 2 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Myself and Thompson agree on Ghost World. Very well played, funny and interesting - but the subtext and ending are very poor. Fundamentally the films message appears to be if you are a misanthropist and mess with people you will end up with no friends (no disagreement there). So I worry about the film - and Enid in particular - being cluthced to the bosom of a certain kind of adolescent & post-adolescent girl because the ending is so vague. I certainly read it as a hopeful ending which is more than this character deserves. Where is the mystery bus going? Maybe it would be better to see her six moths later on the streets of some big faceless city...

Very interesting movie though. Oh and Nick - the final scene with Buscemi is back at his mothers with him undergoing therapy.

― Pete, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

who is the fakepunk scottish twat on c5 who reviewed GW by reeling off a rubbish parody of posh-review talk "a postmodern parablew deconstructing the anomie of blah blah" (cept i bet he doesn't know the word anomie): he then said, "I lived this, so I don't want to go and see a film about it". He is less punchable than David Smith, but only just.

― mark s, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeh, agree on the slightly unpleasant aftertaste of the sub-text / ending (altho is surely only a kind of side-effect of imposing a narrative on fragments, which otherwise was v successful, I think). I was expecting resolute 'no hugs, no message', but it was more like message but no hug (??); tho what message there was I read less as be misanthropic = chase your friends away than the energy and bile to hate life's clutter (people and things) can only be maintained from a safe distance; when you move in close you can't help but find the good in humanity (or something), ie the logic of the Enid/Seymour arc.

Also I missed Josh from the comic, especially the scene where Enid goes to his flat and fucks/doesn't fuck him, and then he ends up with Becky - that was mutedly heartrending; also not mainly about Josh (who is by the way lovely in the strip) but about the Becky-Enid friendship, the dying-fall dynamic of which I think got a bit lost in teh Seymour plot, and that was a shame.

― Ellie, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No. Fuck Harry Potter.

― Graham, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I shall go to see it tomorrow. I shall probably report back.

Looking forward very much to wanting to fuck Birch throughout.

― Ally C, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blimey.

― RickyT, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yowza. i mean, i heart thora and all...

― jess, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

birch is weighty melons girl from Am Beauty right?

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thora birch is what i imagine all my crushes to look like. (bad black dye job + glasses = swoon.)

― jess, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jess this implies you get crushes on people w/o knowing what they look like. Are you some kind of INTERNET FREAK?

(Apologies if you are blind.)

― Tom, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wot r the point of being my eyes?

(you question my internet freakatude on a webboard, ewing?)

― jess, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Scarlett Johanssen is far sexier. However I refuse to be drawn into this level of criticism.

I see what you mean Ellie, but I'm not convinced there is a logic to the Enid/Seymour relationship - and an unfortunate side-effect of the film being about these characters is that what might appear a logicval extrapolation of events without any wider consequence. Becky seems harsh in the film when she expresses concern about the amount of time Enid spends with Seymour - whereas this would be a pretty normal reaction.

― Pete, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I'm not convinced there's a good side to the Enid / Seymour relationship. The point where Enid turns up looking for sympathy and self-validation, and then settles for sex at the expense of Seymour's own feelings is a horribly familiar scenario, and one which has no good side. They both feel rubbish afterwards, but the consequences are only really visited on Seymour. The Enid / Seymour narrative, read straight (although I think the film maybe invites us to choose between a redemptive / destructive understanding of it when Seymour finds the courage to leave his duff relationship -- or does he do it to pursue Enid?) seems pretty consistent -- girl messes with boy's head, but that's OK, because that's what certain types of girls do, and it's not their fault, because it's only a symptom of their insecurity. This seems to perpetuate some terrible myths: particularly that what you do as a result of your insecurities is not your responsibility.

― alext, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wow alex, great post. you put your finger on the nagging feeling I had when it was over.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 19 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't seen it yet. But I shall probably like it.

― james, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I liked it, despite initially thinking it was going to be pretty much Daria: The Movie.

― David, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I saw it last night and agree with what a couple of other people have said that it's good except for the dodgy ending (the message appears to be "Yes, it's very funny and all to be cynical and misanthropic but DON'T PUSH IT!")

― jamesmichaelward, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I did go and see it last week. It was good, which was disappointing because I wanted it to be great and it wasn't quite. Birch was wearing big boots mostly (major turn-off) and was dancing badly. Her cynicism seemed almost overplayed and false at times, or possibly just annoying. I'd need to see it again to work out exactly what was wrong with it, but I did enjoy it nonetheless.

― Ally C, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i certainly didn't get the same impression of the ending of this film as a few here. enid's still looking for something to be and be part of. though her friend is making connections, she has not and so she drifts on looking for something to connect with. that's maybe not a standard film resolution, but it's the only one that does justice to that sort of character.

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 26 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I couldn't help but think "Hmm.. I did this better when I was in high school" but the Seymore character was touching for some reason. Maybe because when I'm 40, I'll probably have a party with 2 people and we would talk about stupid obscure records all night. Hell, I could get a head start and do that right now.

― Honda, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thora Birch seems to be the new Christina Ricci. Well she reminds me of Ricci. I saw her in the mediocre The Hole.

― helen fordsdale, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Honda, what did you do better at high school?

― Nick, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My problem with the film was that, rather than being a film ABOUT adolescent snootiness, it was kind of adolescent and snooty itself - there was no attempt to put the central characters attitudes up against any competing values - most everyone else (the art teacher, the suits in Seymour's gf's office, the other schoolkids) was a preposterous caricature. That said, there was lots to enjoy about it, mostly on the level of art direction (including, Ally, the clompy boots - RAWR).

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I just meant that, at times, the movie felt like a sub-par take on my high school experience. The whole up-middle-finger, eye-rolling, hypersarcastic, cynical backlash to suburbia/highschool/etc.... The movie tried to capture this, but I really felt it was a little over- done or awkward and unconvincing. For instance, the "what is she? black now?" line in reaction to the obvious ditz girl's "funky!" didn't seem to come out right.

― Honda, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't understand what Edna is on about here. Just because there aren't significant characters representing very different values it doesn't mean the film doesn't examine those values. If you need to put in terms of 'values' at all. When did you become such a moralist, Edna? It explores outsiderdom, friendship, compromise very well without having to 'give the sqaures a fair crack'.

I read the comic the other day. Seymour is a just a cameo character! Interesting.

― Nick, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Meh, when did you become such a pedant, Nick? I just felt that the directorial point of view was overly identified with the misanthropy of the central character (Enid Coleslaw anag Daniel Clowes is no coincidence)- I don't think that makes for interesting drama, it just becomes extended moaning. But maybe that's just me.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...and, strictly speaking, my contention is not *moralist* but humanist, cf Renoir: "everyone has their reasons".

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick did a degree in pedantry - didn't you notice. And I agree with him, the isolationism of the world we are seen is partially the point of the movie, such misanthropy is an isolationist position. When we actually see Enid interacting with the outside world her point of view is severely diluted (we don't sympathise too much with her when she loses her job because we all know you need to swallow your pride & kow-tow to the man to some small degree if you want to earn money). ALso a lot of the times Enid actually isn't all that funny, just snidey and blinkered.

Key point an awful lot of bigots are bigots for the very reason that they do not really interact with the world they are irrationally distrustful of. (Look at Dave Q & the underclass).

― Pete, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

Wow I totally wanted to hump thora throughout the movie. Couldnt take my eyes off those ripe melons man! wow. and the red dress gave me a hard...Oh yea and the movie was good too.

― seymour, Sunday, 3 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

I just rented Ghost World and agree Scarlett Johansson was so hot through the movie. Probably just me remebering old girlfriends but damn I wanted to fuck her. Enough of that, about the movie I think I liked the art teacher the best, I just cant figure out why all art teachers are fat dumbasses, femenists or smoke way to much pot or all of those combined. I mean dont get me wrong but my old art teacher used to smell like pot almost every morning. Also the evolution of the characters made it a great movie. How they begin and end Im not gonna get into because thats way to much to write about.

― LosWoozle, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

six months pass...

can we call you weird al?

yes, I suppose you could.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 17 November 2002 20:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I saw it recently and am very upset by the fact that Tracer Hand told me on the phone, quote, "See Ghost World, that girl reminds me of you."

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 17 November 2002 21:49 (twenty-three years ago)

i saw it w. sistrah becky and dr vick and they fell abt in synchronised hilarity when agreeing that seymour = me HAR HAR HAR

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 18 November 2002 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

is he called seymour? god it wz nearly a year ago we saw it too

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 18 November 2002 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I got the dvd. It's really good. Can't compare it to the original comic though. I never read it. That guy who hangs out at the 7-11, cracks me up. Its really funny. But its sweet, not as..."mean spirited" as you might think. Scarlett Johanssen is sexxy. Birch is alright, I guess. Good music too.

― Juan (Juan), Monday, 18 November 2002 00:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's a terrific film, though I found the ending a touch less affecting than in the wonderful comic.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 18 November 2002 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Ally: Enid or Rebecca ? (if Enid we are DEFINITELY getting engaged, as I adore her)

I agree about the ending, but that could just be because I hated so much to see it end. I'm still waiting for the full three-hour cut of this film. Ghost World Redux, where are you?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 18 November 2002 05:18 (twenty-three years ago)

i think ally looks a little bit like enid, but not really

― ron (ron), Monday, 18 November 2002 05:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't see it. Whoever said she looked like Tina Fey was spot on, though.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 18 November 2002 08:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Skipping 89 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

" Of course, we all know how Birch's career turned out"
I didn't but I just read up on her; what's the deal with her dad? she seems a bit old to still have her dad acting as her manager and making her life awful (apparently she got fired from Dracula when he got in a fight with someone on the crew; and then he also insisted on being present during some sex scene she shot for a movie recently). creep.

― akm, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:28 (eight years ago)

oh shit he was in Deep Throat. I didn't even know that. weirdo.

― akm, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:29 (eight years ago)

IIRC, her mom was involved in porn too. Looking at Birch's imdb, she's mostly done direct to dvd and tv stuff post-GW, with John Sayles' Silver City being her last reasonably high profile film.

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:32 (eight years ago)

she's on the tv series Colony.

― akm, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:33 (eight years ago)

and is in a bunch of things this year, so maybe she got an agent (I just read that she didn't have one a few years ago).

― akm, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:33 (eight years ago)

She's one of the three interviewed on the Criterion disc, along with Johansson and Douglas, so there's hope.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:35 (eight years ago)

Can't quite see her straight on, because literally every girl I had a crush on/dated/tried to date between the years 1990 and 1998 looked like Thora Birch in Ghost World.

― gin and chronic (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:38 (eight years ago)

she's literally the same Thora Birch as in American Beauty, she just claims she put on 20 pounds and some glasses, buddy

― mh, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:48 (eight years ago)

She's one of the three interviewed on the Criterion disc, along with Johansson and Douglas, so there's hope.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Thursday, July 6, 2017 4:35 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

didnt know her story, not really a fan, but she seemed 'ok' decently well-adjusted in her interview comments iirc

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 6 July 2017 20:54 (eight years ago)

four months pass...

Watched the film yesterday; I kind of agree that Enid is awful, but teenagers are.

Still going thru the CC supplements, curious to see if Teri Garr has deleted scenes.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 November 2017 17:54 (eight years ago)

Liberal Twitter has turned into Illeana Douglas' character btw

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 November 2017 17:55 (eight years ago)

It probably would've been there in 2001 had Twitter existed, to be fair.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 6 November 2017 18:00 (eight years ago)

incipient lam crack.

― ian, Monday, 6 November 2017 18:19 (eight years ago)

what the hell is "lam"?

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 15:57 (eight years ago)

hope that ian refers to himself as "iam"

― mh, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 16:04 (eight years ago)

only real 78 headz know...

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 16:22 (eight years ago)

lam crack is a "laminate crack" -- when the outer coating on a laminated (Columbia or Okeh) record begins to crack.

― ian, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 22:42 (eight years ago)

Bill really should have watched this with me, I could explain all the 78 jokes.

― ian, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 22:59 (eight years ago)

There were more than 78 jokes in this movie.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 23:07 (eight years ago)

Although I didn’t think the art school confidential film came off nearly as well as GW, the bit with the teacher and his triangle art is all-time.

“I was one of the first”

― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 23:09 (eight years ago)

Terry Zwigoff's booklet essay about the music is classic 1930s blues lover militancy... "How're you gonna parody BJORK?"

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4614-on-the-music-of-ghost-world

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 03:09 (eight years ago)

i can't recall where i saw it, some spinoff book or maybe the original soundtrack or something, but zwigoff came up with a list of seymour's 10 favorite films, and i lol'd because it was terrifyingly plausible as a list i'd make. laurel and hardy were on there!

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 07:12 (eight years ago)

finally someone taking a stand against Bjork

― Neil S, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:37 (eight years ago)

SHOCKING ILM Confessions!

― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 09:46 (eight years ago)

xp I think the point he was making was that Bjork is so perfect that she's beyond parody

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 13:47 (eight years ago)

Art School Confidential was *awful*

― Simon H., Wednesday, 8 November 2017 13:54 (eight years ago)

xp hmmm not how I read it

― Neil S, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 13:55 (eight years ago)

Simon otm, it had a few moments but it was so deeply cynical and aiming at "dark" that it forgot to be engaging

― mh, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:40 (eight years ago)

xp I think the point he was making was that Bjork is so perfect that she's beyond parody

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, November 8, 2017 8:47 AM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Considering his crack about "while Björk and Cream records are rotting in some New Jersey landfill," I doubt he meant to praise Björk.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:46 (eight years ago)

He comes not to praise her but bury, er, in New Jersey.

― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:50 (eight years ago)

To bury her.... jfc, blew that one.

― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:50 (eight years ago)

I didn't mind Art School Confidential. The serial-killer subplot was silly, but I thought the satire had some subtlety to it.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:53 (eight years ago)

Yeah, he apparently lumps in Bjork with “contrived commercial slop” like Backstreet Boys. Real perceptive, Terry.

― circa1916, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:54 (eight years ago)

I'm hoping Lady Bird joins this one in young female adulthood cult status.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:55 (eight years ago)

Eric's sassiness is wasted on some of you.

Buscemi praises Laurel & Hardy in the film, so the real-estate GF can demur, "Why is the fat one so mean to the skinny one?"

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 15:19 (eight years ago)

A question for the ages

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 15:27 (eight years ago)

if you can answer that, you've unraveled the greater truths of L&H

― mh, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 15:28 (eight years ago)

I like that Terry Zwigoff essay, but he's dead wrong on Skip James' recordings from the 1960s. They're great.

― Jazzbo, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 19:19 (eight years ago)

i'm not embracing his musical claims, as i like "I Want It That Way."

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 20:43 (eight years ago)

two years pass...

Rewatched this for the first time in many years. The ending (by which I mean the bus stop, not Seymour and his mother) still intrigues me. I'm guessing that most people take it as guardedly optimistic: Norman finally boards his bus, and Enid does too. Norman boarding the bus could, if you look at from a different angle, be viewed quite despairingly. Enid tells him earlier that his sitting waiting for the bus (the bus that will never come) is the only thing she can count on anymore in her life; "You'd be surprised," he tells her. And then one day she watches as even he leaves.

― clemenza, Sunday, 19 July 2020 01:56 (five years ago)

five months pass...

It is almost that time pic.twitter.com/f8PYS9r9nv
— phantom idiot (@vryprfct) December 26, 2020

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 27 December 2020 23:11 (five years ago)

one year passes...

Just caught this on MUBI yesterday - one previous viewing at the cinema in 2001. Liked it a lot.

20 years on does lend a certain perspective - both to the film and the early comments on this thread.

― Luna Schlosser, Monday, 28 March 2022 08:52 (four years ago)

MUBI UK, I assume.

― The Central Rockaliser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 March 2022 12:03 (four years ago)

I should watch it again. My first viewing was in that era where I had to confront/accept the reality that filmic interpretations of books I love ain’t gonna be identical to those books and as such there was some consternation.

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 28 March 2022 12:07 (four years ago)

i guess over time the graphic novel supplanted the movie in my memory so i had forgotten how much of the relationship between enid and rebecca gets cut out of the film in favor of the new romantic plot between enid and steve buscemi. buscemi is good in the movie but i don’t really get why his character is necessary—he’s a composite of a few different characters in the graphic novel, all of whom have only brief appearances in the original material. if the movie needed more “plot” than the comic, there’s the existing love triangle with josh (in fact, iirc the film replaces josh with steve buscemi in the porn store scene)…the main thought i was left with after rewatching is that it was kind of gross and sad that a story primarily about the friendship between two teenage girls was minimized in favor of a story about a teenage girl wanting to fuck steve buscemi.

This is really good, and I love film and comic both but they’re very different creatures. The film is crueller in a more in your face way, not surprising given the medium. The comic though, that’s death by a thousand cuts. I think about that scene near the end where Rebecca is wearing glasses and talking to Josh and Enid looks at her on her way out of town all the time. I would have loved to have seen more of their relationship. Lots of teenage girls of a certain type relate hard to this and I was no different; but the drifting/pulling apart of a previously close relationship that once meant the world to you in the comic is incredibly done and that’s the lingering impression I’m left with.

― mardheamac (gyac), Monday, 28 March 2022 12:33 (four years ago)

Yes - MUBI UK.

The passage of 20 years has shifted my main identification from the cynical teenager viewpoint to Seymour's perspective (beautifully played by Steve Buscemi). And I think i'm a lot more aware of Enid's faults than in 2001, and a lot more sympathetic to Rebecca.

― Luna Schlosser, Monday, 28 March 2022 12:34 (four years ago)

steve buscemi's character is a look at what enid would become if she stayed on the same course

― adam t. (abanana), Monday, 28 March 2022 15:21 (four years ago)

I don’t know if I agree with that theory: Enid seems to have a cynical edge and slightly mocking cruelty that Seymour doesn’t have.

He follows his interests. She doesn’t know what her interests are.

― Luna Schlosser, Monday, 28 March 2022 15:36 (four years ago)

^^^ Agree

― Otto Insurance (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 28 March 2022 16:10 (four years ago)

true theyre not a mirror image of each other, but i think its more like her entire self image is built around cultivating a feeling of alienation that allows her to feel superior, and seymour is an object lesson in what a lifetime of total alienation gets you - friendless and suicidal.

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 28 March 2022 16:25 (four years ago)

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