Music Box Theatre – 3733 N Southport Ave., Chicago, IL 60613
Tickets: $10
Monday, March 25 @ 7:00 PM
GHOST WORLD
Directed by Terry Zwigoff • 2001
Hey, creeps, losers, and weirdos—have we got the movie for you! Adapted by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff from the former’s underground graphic novel, Ghost World remains the definitive portrait of post-high school ennui, quarter-age disaffection, and the everyday oppression thrust upon us by other people. Best friends Enid (Thora Birch) and Becky (Scarlett Johansson) are finally ready to find a place of their own amid the strip malls of greater Los Angeles, but their mutual contempt for goody-two-shoes classmates, extroverted pseudo-bohemians, and yuppie ’zine entrepreneurs may not be sufficient to bridge their increasingly divergent values. The greatest stumbling block is Seymour (Steve Buscemi, his career best), the self-loathing record collector who sets Enid’s heart aflutter and sends Becky rushing to get a job. A gallery of hilarious and cantankerous caricatures (Struggling Artist Foundation grantee Illeana Douglas is an especially memorable creation), Ghost World is a peak of irony-drenched, pre-9/11 American indie cinema, pitched to W.C. Fields Fan Club members everywhere. We memorized every line of this tender firecracker as teenagers and can’t believe it’s finally reached the age of majority; only a complete tool would prefer Mirror, Father, Mirror and The Flower That Drank the Moon. (KW)
111 min • United Artists • 35mm from Park Circus
Short: “Cartoon Girl” (Heather McAdams and Chris Ligon, 1995) – 12 min – 16mm
Check out the rest of the season here!
