The Spectral Surface
I reread Daniel Clowes' Ghost World last year and, ever since then, have been meaning to watch the 2001 film adaptation again. I finally got around to it last night and was surprised how effective it was.
The comic does a much better job of capturing adolescence and some of the humour in the film is much too broad. In the comic, it's clear to see how Enid and Becca use their cynical humour as a defense mechanism, a shield for their insecurities. The film moves the balance a bit so that it seems the world Enid lives in deserves her disgust. In doing this, it goes a little too broad sometimes. The phony blues band that's more popular than the real blues legend at a club is too obviously a caricature. Enid, speaking in a mock confidential tone to a customer about how he should supersize his soda would likely have been met with friendly laughter from the patron rather than stunned confusion.
There are also problems with the film's structure. Particularly in the end, it feels like crucial dialogue is missing in Enid's scenes with Illeana Douglas and Steve Buscemi.
But the film's assets outweigh its flaws. I like how Illeana Douglas' high school art teacher is both a subject for the film's mockery as well as a genuinely intelligent, positive influence on Enid's life. Her insistence that art with a political message is more important than amusing cartoons is funny and slightly sinister, especially now, considering what the landscape of popular art looks like.
I feel like I've become Steve Buscemi's Seymour character in some ways. Certainly I identify with him a lot more than I did twenty years ago. He can't find anyone to connect with because he can't find anyone who appreciates how he values blues and antique American culture--except Enid. It reminds me of how frustrated I've been in trying to find a live, flesh and blood person who likes movies as much as I do. Or even understands why I value them. It's the kind of thing you wouldn't think would be as rare as it is. Even some people who I used to think kind of got it seem to have grown cold to it in the past ten years. Movie tastes, both in Japan and in the US, even when it comes to some of the better movies, have shifted to the doggedly unsubtle. That title, "Ghost World", has never felt more apt.
I guess I'd say I sympathise more with Enid in the movie than Enid in the comic although I think she's better written in the comic, if that makes sense. In the film, she's someone with an itch she can't scratch or even identify, only she knows that the things Becca wants and her father wants don't make sense to her. There's something of value to be attained just beyond her grasp but the best she can do to reach it is a scattershot experimentation. Dying her hair green one day, invading a sex shop, dancing to a Bollywood movie in her room.
Thora Birch looks amazing in the movie. Her high contrast wardrobe suits her perfectly even as it out-comic books the comic book. Scarlett Johansson plays a very different Becca compared to her comic book counterpart and has to be the wet blanket for most of the movie. But I think this conflict introduced between her and Enid nicely illuminates the underlying issues.
Ghost World is available on Amazon Prime.