I just saw Ghost World for the first time

Wtf

I couldn't get into it

I liked it. Thora Birch was such a babe in this and I wish she would get more work nowadays

I hated it. I usually can at least see what others might see in stuff I don't like, but I just flat-out hated this one.

It's great.

Not sure why people are posting in here without commenting on how unpleasant and horrendously depressing it is. It makes human existence look as pathetic as it truly is.

Highly recommend Crumb for anyone in here who hasn't seen it.

much much much better than the shit tear jerking movie remade again and again for the cult of gals to jerk off to nowadays tho. wish we could have genuinely creative films like this, almost famous and 500dos coming. (not exact replica of them tho)

I just saw it an hour ago! I absolutely loved it! Super well-acted and thought provoking. I miss Thora Birch

The end leaves something to be desired, but at least they left a really good metaphor to take one's place.

I loved the movie when I first saw it, and Steve Buscemi would still be on my short list for Best Supporting Actor that year. However, I like the movie less after I read the graphic novel. I know Daniel Clowes co-wrote the screenplay, but I think the adaptation missed the humanity and nuance of the source material. The movie seemed to make the characters more into archetypes and though I think the movie works on its own, I can't help but think it's a lesser product to the graphic novel.

That type of baggy pants stereotyping of characters was indeed very 1994-2001 ish.  But, comparing to some of the stuff we have now, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

I get what you mean. The movie was much more mean-spirited and into being smart and thus stereotyped "the other" characters much more than the graphic novel did. The graphic novel had aspects of that, but it also critiqued the characters for seeing the world as they did. I think that sort of critique was missing even if the movie did show Enid having problems towards the end and sort of showed how ridiculous and mean she was but the characters were still lacking in depth. Maybe the film didn't succeed in showing that these characters are being seen through the eyes of Enid since the camera gives us a disconnect with Enid and we think what we're seeing is what everyone else also sees not just what she and Rebecca sees.

For example, the Steve Buscemi fake personal ad date in the film was only played for laughs from suggesting that the woman answering the ad would say "Wowville" was her favorite restaurant on. The characters didn't care about the prank they played on him. Rather they followed him and played it up for more laughs (like looking at his mail and commenting on the psoriasis society/foundation letter though I'm not quire sure if that letter was meant for him). Sure Enid later on stops making fun of him and connects with him, but I preferred that same scene played out in the graphic novel. In the graphic novel, they're young and thought it'd be a funny prank. Then they see it happening, and as it goes on all three of them realize it really wasn't funny and feel really bad about playing the trick on the guy. Then the guy realizes what's going on and sort of confronts them, which gives Enid a heavy sense of shame and she tries to compensate by overly tipping the waiter. Just small things like that and the character portrayals are why I think the graphic novel is a superior work.

I don't think it's all that mean spirited, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Besides, would Mean Girls be even good if it wasn't mean spirited?