Ghost World (film)

Best friends Enid and Rebecca face the summer after their high school graduation, with no plans for their future, other than to find jobs and live together. The girls are cynical social outcasts, but Rebecca is more popular with boys than Enid. Enid's diploma is withheld on the condition that she attend a remedial art class. Even though she is a talented artist, her art teacher, Roberta, believes that art must be socially meaningful and dismisses Enid's sketches as nothing more than "light entertainment".

The girls see a personal ad in which a lonely, middle-aged man named Seymour asks a woman he met recently to contact him. Enid makes a prank phone call to Seymour, pretending to be the woman and inviting him to meet her at a diner. The two girls and their friend, Josh, secretly watch Seymour at the diner and make fun of him. Enid soon begins to feel sympathy for Seymour, and they follow him to his apartment building. They later find him selling vintage records in a garage sale. Enid buys an old blues album from him, and they become friends. She decides to try to find women for him to date.

Enid has meanwhile been attending her remedial art class, and she persuades Seymour to lend her an old poster depicting a grotesquely caricatured black man, which was once used as a promotional tool by Coon Chicken Inn, the fried chicken franchise now known as Cook's Chicken, where Seymour works in corporate. Enid presents the poster in class as a social comment about racism, and Roberta is so impressed with the concept that she offers Enid a scholarship to an art college.

Seymour receives a phone call from Dana, the intended recipient of his personal ad. Enid encourages him to pursue a relationship with Dana, but she becomes unexpectedly jealous when he does so.

Enid's and Rebecca's lives start to diverge. While Enid has been spending time with Seymour, Rebecca starts working at a coffee shop. Enid gets a job at a movie theater, so she can afford to rent an apartment with Rebecca, but her cynical attitude and reluctance to upsell concessions get her fired on her first day. The girls argue, and Rebecca abandons the idea of living with Enid.

When Enid's poster is displayed in an art show, school officials find it so offensive they force Roberta to give her a failing grade and revoke the scholarship. Enid turns to Seymour for solace, resulting in a drunken one-night stand. Seymour breaks up with Dana and is called to account at work when the Coon Chicken poster is publicized in a local newspaper. He unsuccessfully tries to contact Enid, only for Rebecca to tell him about Enid's prank phone call, describing the way they mocked him at the diner. Seymour is upset and goes to the convenience store where Josh works. Another customer ends up in a violent confrontation with Seymour, resulting in him being injured and hospitalized. Enid visits him in the hospital to apologize.

After everything that has occurred, Enid gives in to her childhood fantasy of running away from home and disappearing. She has seen an old man, Norman, continually waiting at an out-of-service bus stop for a bus that will never come. Finally, as Enid watches from across the street, Norman boards an out-of-service bus. The next day, while Seymour discusses the summer's events with his therapist, Enid returns to the bus stop and boards the out-of-service bus when it arrives.

A post-credits scene shows an alternate version of Seymour's scene in the convenience store, in which he wins the fight and is not injured.

{{Cast listing|

• Thora Birch as Enid
• Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca
• Steve Buscemi as Seymour
• Brad Renfro as Josh
• Illeana Douglas as Roberta Allsworth
• Bob Balaban as Enid's father
• Stacey Travis as Dana
• Dave Sheridan as Doug
• Tom McGowan as Joe
• Debra Azar as Melorra
• Brian George as the Sidewinder boss
• Pat Healy as John Ellis
• Rini Bell as the graduation speaker
• Ezra Buzzington as Al "Weird Al"
• Ashley Peldon as Margaret
• David Cross as Gerrold
• Patrick Fischler as the Masterpiece Video clerk
• Bruce Glover as Feldman, the wheelchair guy
• Teri Garr as Maxine (uncredited)

}}

The film was directed by Terry Zwigoff with cinematography by Affonso Beato. Zwigoff and Ghost World comic creator Daniel Clowes wrote the screenplay together. Years later, Clowes admitted that writing the screenplay came with a significant learning curve. He recalled, "I started by trying to transcribe the comic into Final Draft. I figured that’s how you do an adaptation. Then I tried throwing everything away and writing an entirely new story that was very different from the book. And I synthesized those two things into a final screenplay. The actual film itself is very different from the script we wrote. We ended up jettisoning the last twenty pages and rethought the whole thing as we were filming. It was really held together by hair and spit."{{Cite journal |last=McKittrick |first=Christopher |date=March 23, 2017 |title=Wilson: A Walking Id|journal=Creative Screenwriting |url=https://creativescreenwriting.com/wilson/ |access-date=March 23, 2017 }}

Zwigoff and Clowes presented Beato with the task of making a comic book look to the movie. They asked for a fresh technique from earlier examples such as X-Men and Batman; Dick Tracy specifically was dismissed as literal-minded and "insulting" to the art form.{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Emily |date=July 19, 2001 |title=The Humanity of Failure |journal=The Stranger |url=http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-humanity-of-failure/Content?oid=8069 |access-date=February 23, 2016 }} According to Clowes, cameraman Beato "really took it to heart", carefully studying the style and color of the original comics. The final cut is just slightly oversaturated, purposefully redolent of "the way the modern world looks where everything is trying to get your attention at once".

Zwigoff also added his individual vision to the adaptation, particularly in his capture and editing of languid, lingering shots, a technique derived from his experience as a documentarian. Another notable touch is his minimal use of extras in the film, making the city and its streets intentionally empty – Clowes notes approvingly, "It captures this weird feeling of alienation in the endless modern consumer culture."

In a 2002 interview,{{cite web|last=Clowes|first=Daniel|title=Question and answer session with Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff following a screening of Ghost World at the 2002 Comics and Graphic Novels Conference|url=http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v1_1/zcqa/|date=20 February 2002}} Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff were asked if the ending of the film adaptation was a metaphor for suicide. Clowes replied, "Yeah, it could be. It's hard to figure out why people have that response. The first time I heard that I said, 'What? You're out of your mind. What are you talking about?' But I've heard that hundreds of times". Zwigoff expanded on his views in a 2021 interview, saying: "Many interpreted it to mean Enid died by suicide [...] I personally thought of the ending as more positive: that she’s moving on with her life, that she had faith in herself".[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ghost-world-film-thora-birch-interview-b1815277.html Ghost World at 20: ‘In an era of teen comedies and American Pie, this was an antidote’] 3-17-2021, The Independent

Birch, on the other hand, stated: "Honestly, it’s a sad film, to me... I have a very dark view of where that story is leading, unfortunately".

{{Infobox album

| name = Ghost World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

| type = soundtrack

| artist = various artists

| cover =

| caption =

| alt =

| released = {{start date|2005|6|20}}

| recorded =

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Bollywood, string band, blues, jazz

| length = 62:58

| label = Shanachie

| producer =

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web |last=Griffith |first=JT |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=ghost-world-r544794|pure_url=yes}} |title=Ghost World – Original Soundtrack |publisher=Allmusic. Rovi Corporation |access-date=February 23, 2016 }}

}}

Music in the film includes "Jaan Pehechan Ho" by Mohammed Rafi, a dance number choreographed by Herman Benjamin from the 1965 Bollywood musical Gumnaam which Enid watches and dances to early in the film,{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/from-gumnaam-to-ghost-world-to-lost |title=FROM 'GUMNAAM' TO 'GHOST WORLD' TO... 'LOST'? |last=Emerson |first=Jim |work=Rogerebert.com |date=June 14, 2006 |access-date=July 24, 2017 }} and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (1931),{{cite book|last=Garwood |first=I |chapter=Vinyl Noise and Narrative in CD-Era Indiewood |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media: Integrated Soundtracks |publisher=Springer |date=2016 |page=246 |isbn=978-1137516800 }} as well as "Pickin' Cotton Blues" by the bar band, Blueshammer.{{cite book |last=Marcus |first=Greil |chapter=Death Letters |title=Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music |publisher=Duke University Press |date=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/listenagainmomen00weis/page/304 304] |isbn=978-0822340416 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/listenagainmomen00weis/page/304 }}

There are songs by other artists mentioned in the film, including Lionel Belasco, which are reflective of the character Seymour, and of director Terry Zwigoff. Zwigoff is a collector of 78 RPM records, as portrayed by Seymour. Other tracks are by Vince Giordano, a musician who specializes in meticulous recreations of songs from old 78 RPM records.

Referenced in the film is R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, a band that Zwigoff played in. Enid asks Seymour about the band's second album, Chasin' Rainbows, and Seymour replies, "Nah, that one's not so great."{{cite book |last=Gabbard |first=Krin |title=Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture |url=https://archive.org/details/blackmagicwhiteh0000gabb/page/229 |url-access=registration |publisher=Rutgers University Press |date=2004 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackmagicwhiteh0000gabb/page/229 229–230] |isbn=0813533848 }}

Missing from the soundtrack album are "What Do I Get?" by Buzzcocks, which can be heard when Enid dresses up like a punk, and the song "A Smile and a Ribbon" by Patience and Prudence.

{{Track listing

| headline = Ghost World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

| extra_column = Performer(s)

| total_length =

| title1 = Jaan Pehechan Ho

| note1 = 1965

| writer1 = Shankar Jaikishan (music);
Shailendra (lyrics)

| extra1 = Mohammed Rafi

| length1 = 5:28

| title2 = Graduation Rap

| writer2 = Nicole Sill, Guy Thomas (music);
Daniel Clowes (lyrics)

| extra2 = Vanilla, Jade and Ebony

| length2 = 0:32

| title3 = Devil Got My Woman

| note3 = 1931

| writer3 = James

| extra3 = Skip James

| length3 = 3:00

| title4 = I Must Have It

| note4 = cover of King Oliver, 1930

| writer4 = Davidson Nelson, Joe "King" Oliver

| extra4 = Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks

| length4 = 2:59

| title5 = Miranda

| note5 = 1933

| writer5 = Thomas Pasatleri, Louis Phillips

| extra5 = Lionel Belasco

| length5 = 3:02

| title6 = Pickin' Cotton Blues

| writer6 = Terry Zwigoff, Steve Pierson, Guy Thomas

| extra6 = Blueshammer

| length6 = 3:35

| title7 = Let's Go Riding

| note7 = 1935{{cite web| url= http://www.wirz.de/music/spruefrm.htm | title= Freddie Spruell discography | publisher= wirz.de| access-date=February 23, 2016 | quote=rec. April 12, 1935 in Chicago; Freddie Spruell, voc, g; Carl Martin, g; Bluebird B6261}}

| writer7 = Freddie Spruell

| extra7 = Mr. Freddie

| length7 = 2:55

| title8 = Georgia on My Mind

| writer8 = Hoagy Carmichael (music)
Stuart Gorrell (lyrics)

| extra8 = Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks

| length8 = 3:11

| title9 = Las Palmas de Maracaibo

| note9 = 1930

| writer9 = Belasco

| extra9 = Lionel Belasco

| length9 = 3:15

| title10 = Clarice

| note10 = cover of Tiny Parham, 1928

| writer10 = Tiny Parham

| extra10 = Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks

| length10 = 3:29

| title11 = Scalding Hot Coffee Rag

| writer11 = Ventresco

| extra11 = Craig Ventresco

| length11 = 3:02

| title12 = You're Just My Type

| note12 = cover of King Oliver, 1930

| writer12 = Nelson, Oliver

| extra12 = Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks

| length12 = 2:33

| title13 = Venezuela

| note13 = 1931

| writer13 = Victor Colon

| extra13 = Lionel Belasco

| length13 = 3:15

| title14 = Fare Thee Well Blues

| note14 = 1930

| writer14 = Calicott

| extra14 = Joe Calicott

| length14 = 3:12

| title15 = C. C. & O. Blues

| note15 = 1928

| writer15 = Anderson, Brownie McGhee

| extra15 = Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley

| length15 = 3:08

| title16 = C-h-i-c-k-e-n Spells Chicken

| note16 = 1927

| writer16 = Sidney L. Perrin, Bob Slater

| extra16 = McGee Brothers

| length16 = 2:59

| title17 = That's No Way to Get Along

| note17 = 1929

| writer17 = Wilkins

| extra17 = Robert Wilkins

| length17 = 2:55

| title18 = So Tired

| note18 = 1928

| writer18 = Lonnie Johnson

| extra18 = Dallas String Band

| length18 = 3:20

| title19 = Bye Bye Baby Blues

| note19 = 1930

| writer19 = Jones

| extra19 = Little Hat Jones

| length19 = 3:10

| title20 = Theme from Ghost World

| writer20 = Kitay

| extra20 = David Kitay

| length20 = 3:58

}}

Ghost World premiered on June 16, 2001, at the Seattle International Film Festival,{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2001/07/a_ghost_world_preview.html |title=A Ghost World Preview |last=Truitt |first=Eliza |work=Slant Magazine |date=July 2001 |access-date=July 23, 2017 }} to lower than average recognition by audiences, but admiration from critics. It was also screened at several film festivals worldwide including the Fantasia Festival in Montreal.{{cite web|url=http://ca.ign.com/articles/2001/07/26/ghost-world-cometh |title=GHOST WORLD COMETH |last=Head |first=Steve |work=IGN |date=July 26, 2001 |access-date=July 23, 2017 }}

Following the film's theatrical exhibition in the United States, Ghost World was released on VHS and DVD format via MGM Home Entertainment in early 2002. Additional features include deleted and alternative scenes, "Making of Ghost World" featurette, the Gumnaam music video "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", and the original theatrical trailer.{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s411ghost.html |title=Ghost World |work=DVD Talk |date=January 31, 2002 |access-date=July 23, 2017 }} The film was released on Blu-ray on May 30, 2017, by The Criterion Collection, with a 4K transfer, interviews with the performers, and audio commentary.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/lukethompson/2017/05/26/blu-ray-criterion-ghost-world-scarlett-johansson-thora-birch-steve-buscemi-daniel-clowes/#70f2b4581a1e |title=Blu-ray Review: The Ground-Breaking, Post-Ironic 'Ghost World' Comes To Criterion, As It Deserves |last=Thompson |first=Luke Y. |work=Forbes |date=May 26, 2017 |access-date=July 23, 2017 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28687-ghost-world |title=Ghost World |publisher=The Criterion Collection |access-date=July 23, 2017 }}

With a limited commercial theatrical run in the United States, Ghost World's commercial success was minimal. The film was released on July 20, 2001, in five theaters grossing $98,791 on its opening weekend; it slowly expanded to more theaters, reaching a maximum of 128 by the end of the year. It went on to make $6.2 million in North America and $2.5 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $8.7 million, just above its $7 million budget.{{mojo title|ghostworld|Ghost World}}

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 165 reviews, with an average score of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With acerbic wit, Terry Zwigoff fashions Daniel Clowes' graphic novel into an intelligent, comedic trip through deadpan teen angst."{{rotten-tomatoes|ghost_world|Ghost World}} Accessed January 27, 2023. On Metacritic, the film received a score of 90 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".{{Metacritic film}} Accessed July 18, 2023.

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote: {{cquote|I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor.{{cite news | last=Ebert | first=Roger | title=Ghost World | work=Chicago Sun-Times | date=August 3, 2001 | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010803/REVIEWS/108030301/1023 | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}} In his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott praised Thora Birch's performance as Enid: {{cquote|Thora Birch, whose performance as Lester Burnham's alienated daughter was the best thing about American Beauty, plays a similar character here, with even more intelligence and restraint.{{cite news | last=Scott | first= A. O. | title=Teenagers' Sad World In a Comic Dimension | work=The New York Times | date=July 20, 2001 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E6DE143AF933A15754C0A9679C8B63 | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}} In his Chicago Reader review, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: {{cquote|Birch makes the character an uncanny encapsulation of adolescent agonies without ever romanticizing or sentimentalizing her attitudes, and Clowes and Zwigoff never allow us to patronize her.{{cite news | last=Rosenbaum | first=Jonathan | title=Women of Substance | work=Chicago Reader | date=August 10, 2001 | url= http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/women-of-substance/Content?oid=906165 | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}} However, Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer disliked the character of Enid: {{cquote|I found Enid smug, complacent, cruel, deceitful, thoughtless, malicious and disloyal... Enid's favorite targets are people who are older, poorer, or dumber than she is.{{cite news | last=Sarris | first=Andrew | title=So You Wanna Be a Country-and-Western Star: More Like 'Ghastly World' | work=The New York Observer | date=August 5, 2001 | url=http://observer.com/2001/08/so-you-wanna-be-a-countryandwestern-star/ | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}} Kevin Thomas, in his review for the Los Angeles Times, praised Steve Buscemi's portrayal of Seymour: {{cquote|Buscemi rarely has had so full and challenging a role, that of a mature, reflective man, unhandsome yet not unattractive, thanks to a witty sensitivity and clear intelligence.{{cite news | last=Thomas | first=Kevin | title=Lives Stifled by Mediocrity in 'Ghost World' | work=Los Angeles Times | date=July 20, 2001 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jul-20-ca-24516-story.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081210203558/http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000059271jul20,0,7818280.story | archive-date= December 10, 2008| url-status=live | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}} Time magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote: {{cquote|Unlike those shrill, hard-sell teen comedies on the other screens, Ghost World never becomes the kind of empty, defensive snark-fest that it targets. Clowes and Zwigoff keep the organic pace of the original, and its empathic exploration of painfully changing relationships.{{cite magazine | last=Arnold | first=Andrew D | title=Anticipating a Ghost World | magazine=Time | date=July 20, 2001 | url=http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,168182,00.html | access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}}

Michael Dean of The Comics Journal addressed the concerns of comics fans head-on: {{cquote|Those with higher expectations{{mdash}}and, certainly, Ghost World purists {{mdash}}are likely to experience at least a degree of disappointment. Some of the comic's air of aimless mystery has been paved over with the semblance of a Hollywood plot, and to that extent, the movie is a lesser work than the comic. But it's still a far better movie than we had a right to expect... The injection of a relatively trite plot situation into Ghost World{{'}}s more enigmatic stream of events is perhaps forgivable, since the film might otherwise never have been produced. Its greatest sin, the misappropriation of Enid's longing, is not so forgivable, though the overlap between Zwigoff's distaste for modernity and Enid's distrust of social acceptability makes it almost palatable. In any case, we want to forgive it, because so much is right about the movie.{{cite web | first=Michael | last=Dean | title=Ghost Story | url=http://archives.tcj.com/236/r_ghost.html | work=The Comics Journal | year=2001 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414151301/http://archives.tcj.com/236/r_ghost.html | archive-date=April 14, 2010 |access-date=February 23, 2016 }}}}

Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating. Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Ghost World is a movie for anyone who ever felt imprisoned by life, but crazy about it anyway."{{cite magazine | last=Gleiberman | first=Owen | title=Devoutcast | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | date=July 27, 2001 | url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,255537,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428001843/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,255537,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=April 28, 2007 | access-date=February 23, 2016 }} In her review for the LA Weekly, Manohla Dargis wrote, "If Zwigoff doesn't always make his movie move (he's overly faithful to the concept of the cartoon panel), he has a gift for connecting us to people who aren't obviously likable, then making us see the urgency of that connection."{{cite news | last=Dargis | first=Manohla | title=Everyone's Too Stupid! | work=L.A. Weekly | date=July 26, 2001 | url=http://www.laweekly.com/2001-07-26/film-tv/everyone-s-too-stupid | access-date=February 23, 2016 }} In Sight & Sound, Leslie Felperin wrote, "Cannily, the main performers deliver most of their lines in slack monotones, all the better to set off the script's wit and balance the glistering cluster of varyingly deranged lesser characters."{{cite news | last=Felperin | first=Leslie | title=Ghost World | work=Sight & Sound | date=December 2001 | url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1910 | access-date=February 23, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729220848/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1910 | archive-date=July 29, 2017 | url-status=dead }} In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote, "It is an engaging account of the raw pain of adolescence: the fear of being trapped in a grown-up future and choosing the wrong grown-up identity, and of course the pain of love, which we all learn to anaesthetise with jobs and mundane worries."{{cite news | last=Bradshaw | first=Peter | title=Ghost World | work=The Guardian | date=August 13, 2001 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/aug/13/1 | access-date=February 23, 2016 }} Several critics referred to the film as an art film.{{cite web|author-link=Ray Carney|url=http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/aboutrc/ViewingRecommendations.shtml|title=Selected Masterworks of Film Art: Viewing Recommendations Submitted By Site Readers (Under Construction—Please Send Suggestions/Corrections to the Mailbag)|last=Carney|first=Ray|date=2006|website=About Ray Carney|access-date=29 July 2017}}Ian Gordon, Mark Jancovich, and, Matthew P. McAllister, "Introduction," and, Martin Flanagan, "Teen Trajectories in Spider-Man and Ghost World." In {{cite book|editor-last1=Gordon|editor-first1=Ian|editor-last2=Jancovich|editor-first2=Mark|editor-last3=McAllister|editor-first3=Matthew P.|title=Film and Comic Books|url=http://google.com/books?id=jnw7JXag8csC|access-date=29 July 2017|date=2007|publisher=Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, pp. xiii, 141, and, 150|isbn=9781604738094|quote=Ghost World['s] [...] economics of production [...] [is] art-house [...] [T]he idiom of the text [Ghost World] is strictly that of the postmodern arthouse movie familiar since at least the early 1980s [...] [I]nhibiting an arthouse idiom similar to Ghost World.}}Stephen Weiner, "The Development of the American Graphic Novel: From Will Eisner to the Present". In {{cite book|editor-last=Tabachnick|editor-first=Stephen|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel|url=http://google.com/books?id=6RniDgAAQBAJ|access-date=July 29, 2017|year=2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Companions to Literature|page=50|isbn=9781107108790|quote=Ghost World [...] was reimagined as an art film in 2001.}}Henry Giroux, "The Ghost World of Neoliberalism: Abandoning the Abandoned Generation." In {{cite book|editor-last=Pomerance|editor-first=Murray|editor-link=Murray Pomerance|title=Bad: Infamy, Darkness, Evil, and Slime on Screen|url=http://google.com/books?id=WAOv8eb-qFkC|access-date=29 July 2017|date=2012|location=Albany, New York|publisher=SUNY Press, SUNY Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video|page=120|isbn=9780791485811|quote=Ghost World [...] [presents] teenage resistance within the narrow confines of an art film.}}{{cite book|last=Beaty|first=Bart|title=David Cronenberg's A History of Violence|url=https://archive.org/details/davidcronenbergs0000beat|access-date=29 July 2017|date=2008|publisher=Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Volume 1 of Canadian Cinema, p. 29|isbn=9780802099327|quote=Ghost World [...] positioned the art comic as akin to the contemporary art film.|url-access=registration}}{{cite web|url=http://newsok.com/article/2755138|title=Ghost World Creator Finds Success in Film, Graphic Novel|last=Price|first=Matthew|date=14 September 2001|website=The Oklahoman|publisher=The Oklahoman Media Company|access-date=29 July 2017|quote=Ghost World the movie, starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson and Steve Buscemi, is one of the summer's biggest art-house hits and opens today in Oklahoma City.}}{{cite web|url=http://salon.com/2000/12/05/clowes|title=Daniel Clowes|last=Chocano|first=Carina|date=6 December 2000|website=Salon |access-date=29 July 2017|quote=They treated Ghost World like it was this outrageous art film that nobody would get.}}{{cite web|url=https://austinchronicle.com/screens/2001-08-17/82693|title=Teen Angst Turns a Page|last=Savlov|first=Marc|date=17 August 2001|website=The Austin Chronicle|access-date=29 July 2017|quote=Apparently, the critics, who have sanctified Zwigoff's dark gem with a four-star geek-chic seal of approval since its New York/Los Angeles opening a month ago, not to mention the audience members who have -- to the shock of MGM -- created some serious (for an "art" film, anyway) box-office numbers.}}{{cite book|last1=Currie|first1=Dawn|last2=Kelly|first2=Deirdre M.|last3=Pomerantz|first3=Shauna|title='Girl Power': Girls Reinventing Girlhood|url=http://google.com/books?id=_vX-HrdH2gYC|access-date=29 July 2017|date=2009|publisher=New York, New York: Peter Lang, Mediated Youth, p. 46|isbn=9780820488776|quote=[A]cclaimed art-house film Ghost World.}}{{cite book|last=Morton|first=Drew|title=Panel to the Screen: Style, American Film, and Comic Books During the Blockbuster Era|url=http://google.com/books?id=wB-HDQAAQBAJ|access-date=29 July 2017|date=2016|publisher=Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, p. 101|isbn=9781496809810|quote=[Cinema is] defined by two modes of filmmaking, the art house indie and the blockbuster [...] Ghost World [belongs to the former].}}

Ghost World topped MSN Movies' list of the "Top 10 Comic Book Movies",{{cite news | last = Morgan | first = Kim | title = Top 10 Comic Book Movies | publisher = MSN| url = https://hardcorequeen.wordpress.com/2003/03/01/top-10-comic-book-movies/ | access-date = March 19, 2009 }} it was ranked number 3 out of 94 in Rotten Tomatoes "Comix Worst to Best" countdown (where #1 was the best and #94 the worst),{{cite web|last=Giles |first=Jeff |title=Comix Worst to Best |website=Rotten Tomatoes |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2007/comic/?r=3&mid=1109008 |access-date=September 30, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014023112/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2007/comic/?r=3&mid=1109008 |archive-date=October 14, 2008 }} ranked 5th "Best" on IGN's "Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies",{{cite web | last = Goldstein | first = Hilar | title = Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies | website = IGN | url = http://comics.ign.com/articles/673/673860p3.html | access-date = February 23, 2016 }} and Empire magazine ranked the film 19th in their "The 20 Greatest Comic Book Movies" list.{{cite news | title = The 20th Greatest Comic Book Movies | work = Empire | url = http://www.empireonline.com/features/comicbookfilms/default.asp#comicbookfilms | access-date = February 23, 2016 }} It is considered a cult film.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-us-scarlett-johansson-idUSBRE9960NC20131009 |title=Scarlett Johansson again named 'sexiest woman alive' by Esquire |work=Reuters |date=October 8, 2013 |access-date=July 23, 2017 }}{{cite book|last=Curtis |first=Tony |chapter=Cult |title=Historical Dictionary of American Cinema |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=2011 |page=88 |isbn=978-0810874596 }} It was added to the Criterion Collection in 2017.

• List of cult films

{{Reflist}}

• {{Facebook|GhostWorldOfficial|Official page}}
• {{IMDb title}}
• {{Mojo title|ghostworld}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|ghost_world}}
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4638-ghost-world-s-ance-in-wowsville Ghost World: Séance in Wowsville] – an essay by Howard Hampton at The Criterion Collection

{{Terry Zwigoff}}

{{Daniel Clowes}}

{{San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Film}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost World (Film)}}

Category:2001 films

Category:2001 black comedy films

Category:2001 independent films

Category:2000s American films

Category:2000s British films

Category:2000s buddy comedy-drama films

Category:2000s coming-of-age comedy-drama films

Category:2000s English-language films

Category:2000s female buddy films

Category:2000s German films

Category:2000s teen comedy-drama films

Category:American black comedy films

Category:American buddy comedy-drama films

Category:American coming-of-age comedy-drama films

Category:American female buddy films

Category:American independent films

Category:American teen comedy-drama films

Category:British black comedy films

Category:British coming-of-age comedy-drama films

Category:British female buddy films

Category:British independent films

Category:British teen comedy-drama films

Category:English-language black comedy films

Category:English-language buddy comedy-drama films

Category:English-language German films

Category:English-language independent films

Category:Films based on American comics

Category:Films directed by Terry Zwigoff

Category:Films produced by Lianne Halfon

Category:Films scored by David Kitay

Category:Films set in a movie theatre

Category:Films set in the United States

Category:Films shot in Los Angeles

Category:German black comedy films

Category:German coming-of-age comedy-drama films

Category:German independent films

Category:German teen comedy-drama films

Category:Icon Productions films

Category:Live-action films based on comics

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films

Category:Mr. Mudd films

Category:United Artists films