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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... current day count
261 .......................... 288
__________________________
August 20th
—— 2001 ——
GHOST WORLD
—— drama ——
I chose to watch this film as I saw it on
both the comic book list and the millennium list...
'Ghost World' has become rather cult over time and I can clearly see why. It tries to capture this place and time and change, where an uneven and quirky atmosphere helps the film to constantly move itself further away from the ordinary and into its own world. And almost like the film itself, we follow these two socially awkward outsiders, who parallel this set-up, and can’t seem to find their own personal place in life after having graduated from high school and left these safe surroundings. They both seem to share an incomplete and underdeveloped idea about their future that they want to follow, but the fundament for their future is fragmented and without rational thinking.
After ending high school, everybody else seem to have prepared their plans and know what they want in life, while Enid and Rebecca remain trapped in this “ghost world”, where everything around them is moving and changing, while they are just floating around without being attached or held responsible for anything. But all this fooling around causes their world to crash with reality, which slowly make them realize the world is not waiting for nobody and they have to take responsibility. It becomes a problem though, when Rebecca seems to find the rhythm of life, while Enid is still stuck as more or less irresponsible and unprepared for anything. Their friendship is tested once their lives move in different directions – only Enid doesn't have a destined path to walk on.
This film is one of those that depicts society in weird subjective ways and builds a world around it without too many obvious parallels to our own. Basically, it is the world as viewed by our two main characters and their different perception of life, which makes for an off-beat experience out of the norm of reality. As it is often the case with films like these, you either find your footing in them or you don't. Personally I had a hard time clicking with the characters or caring about the story, though I really liked some things about it. I liked the outline of it, where these two young people find themselves stuck in reality and has to learn how to take responsibility and realize the world is not waiting for no one – it is a very subjectively made film, but that doesn’t mean you can’t draw certain parallels to your own life – especially when the film focuses on the inner emotions and not outer layers. We can all understand emotions and human characters, so that is definitely a strong point.
I think the ending was just about the best thing about this movie, especially because of the ambiguity and the braveness of it. The film constantly had an underlying layer of gloominess to it, but it never got truly dark throughout, especially not how unexpected it was done in the end. Apart from that I liked Steve Buscemi in this film and he worked well for the story and created a nice contrast. Generally, the acting was pretty solid and the movie isn’t bad by any means, but it just never did much to me, despite of being able to relate to certain aspects. I felt like it had more potential than what seemed to be fulfilled, but I can definitely admire it in some ways and I have no problem seeing why some people absolutely love it.
__________________________
Sorry it took so long to update this thread... I wanted to make a bigger, more dominating and more detailed review to be my 100th tagged review on the site. If you haven't read my thoughts on 'Black Mass', I recommend you go check it out in my Cinema Review thread!
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... current day count
261 .......................... 288
__________________________
August 20th
—— 2001 ——
GHOST WORLD
—— drama ——
I chose to watch this film as I saw it on
both the comic book list and the millennium list...
'Ghost World' has become rather cult over time and I can clearly see why. It tries to capture this place and time and change, where an uneven and quirky atmosphere helps the film to constantly move itself further away from the ordinary and into its own world. And almost like the film itself, we follow these two socially awkward outsiders, who parallel this set-up, and can’t seem to find their own personal place in life after having graduated from high school and left these safe surroundings. They both seem to share an incomplete and underdeveloped idea about their future that they want to follow, but the fundament for their future is fragmented and without rational thinking.
After ending high school, everybody else seem to have prepared their plans and know what they want in life, while Enid and Rebecca remain trapped in this “ghost world”, where everything around them is moving and changing, while they are just floating around without being attached or held responsible for anything. But all this fooling around causes their world to crash with reality, which slowly make them realize the world is not waiting for nobody and they have to take responsibility. It becomes a problem though, when Rebecca seems to find the rhythm of life, while Enid is still stuck as more or less irresponsible and unprepared for anything. Their friendship is tested once their lives move in different directions – only Enid doesn't have a destined path to walk on.
This film is one of those that depicts society in weird subjective ways and builds a world around it without too many obvious parallels to our own. Basically, it is the world as viewed by our two main characters and their different perception of life, which makes for an off-beat experience out of the norm of reality. As it is often the case with films like these, you either find your footing in them or you don't. Personally I had a hard time clicking with the characters or caring about the story, though I really liked some things about it. I liked the outline of it, where these two young people find themselves stuck in reality and has to learn how to take responsibility and realize the world is not waiting for no one – it is a very subjectively made film, but that doesn’t mean you can’t draw certain parallels to your own life – especially when the film focuses on the inner emotions and not outer layers. We can all understand emotions and human characters, so that is definitely a strong point.
I think the ending was just about the best thing about this movie, especially because of the ambiguity and the braveness of it. The film constantly had an underlying layer of gloominess to it, but it never got truly dark throughout, especially not how unexpected it was done in the end. Apart from that I liked Steve Buscemi in this film and he worked well for the story and created a nice contrast. Generally, the acting was pretty solid and the movie isn’t bad by any means, but it just never did much to me, despite of being able to relate to certain aspects. I felt like it had more potential than what seemed to be fulfilled, but I can definitely admire it in some ways and I have no problem seeing why some people absolutely love it.
__________________________
Sorry it took so long to update this thread... I wanted to make a bigger, more dominating and more detailed review to be my 100th tagged review on the site. If you haven't read my thoughts on 'Black Mass', I recommend you go check it out in my Cinema Review thread!