Movie Pick

Comix As Large As Life

originally published October 10, 2001

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Eventually Zwigoff decided to adapt Daniel Clowes' underground comic Ghost World for the big screen as his first foray into fictional narrative. Comforted by Zwigoff's track record and by his willingness to collaborate on the shooting script, Clowes cautiously agreed to allow his beloved story of Enid and Rebecca to be told to a wider audience.

The story has greatly changed because of Zwigoff's influence - the huge difference being the introduction of the character of Seymour who doesn't exist in the comic - but the finished film is a collaboration between two powerful artists, seemingly without compromises from either. Together, Clowes and Zwigoff have re-imagined (a popular term of late) and improved upon the original comic book.

At the center of both the comic and the movie is Enid (American Beauty's Thora Birch), a creative girl who spends most of her time criticizing cultural inadequacies and simultaneously reveling in them with her slightly less jaded and infinitely more practical best friend, Rebecca (The Horse Whisperer's Scarlett Johansson). Occasionally included in their maliciously entertaining endeavors is their well intentioned friend, Josh (Apt Pupil's Brad Renfro), primarily because he has a car.

After reading an ad in the personals from a lonely guy who believes he felt a mutual connection during an innocuous encounter with a strange woman, Enid and Rebecca decide to answer the ad and set up a meeting at their favorite kitschy diner. Afterwards, Enid feels unadmittedly guilty for toying with this harmless stranger's emotions. When she and Rebecca see him selling old jazz records at a mini-swap meet, she cannot help but talk to him. Seymour (Steve Buscemi), as it turns out, shares a lot in common with Enid, except that he accepts his small corner of the world, interacting with outsiders only when necessary.


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Without losing any of the comic book's bleak perspective, the development of Seymour's character brings a sense of hope. While the comic principally explores the relationship between Enid and Rebecca, the movie mainly details that of Enid and Seymour. The casting of these two leads is absolutely perfect: Steve Buscemi's ability to convey cynicism using only the tone of his voice is unequaled, while Thora Birch's deadpan facial expressions make Enid's transition from the page to the screen believable, bringing to life Daniel Clowes' character, whom he created with complete objectivity. Clowes never justifies Enid's cruelty, just explains its existence. Appropriately, the end of Enid's story is equally complex; things may not play out according to her expectations, but her expectations now include an optimism previously absent, which is exactly how we leave the theater. After watching a summer's worth of two-dimensional characters and situational plots, we regain hope through Zigoff's sadly beautiful story.

Movie Pick

Mr. Joyboy Meets Large Marge

originally published October 10, 2001

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Sibling Lewis (Paul Walker of The Fast and the Furious) shows some brotherly love by picking up his brother at the jail while traveling to pick up his friend/childhood crush Venna (Leelee Sobieski of the recent The Glass House) at school. Trouble is afoot when the mischievous Fuller decides to prank a truck driver called Rusty Nail, getting Lewis to impersonate the opposite sex on their newly purchased CB and humiliating the truck driver with smutty innuendo. Unfortunately, both Fuller boys missed that day in class when their teacher lectured on the importance of never riling truck drivers. The two soon flee for their lives from a twisted maniacal madman who would worth more sympathy if he weren't busy ripping peoples' jaws off.

The pace of the film starts stronger than a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, yet fizzles into absurdity shortly after the brothers pick-up Venna: the exception being a hamburger lunch in the buff that manages to put a fine point on the many levels of humiliation in the film.

Zahn and Walker are "up-and-comers," and for the most part do fine, though they basically are continuously exploiting one-dimensional traits for quick cash. Sobieski, who has promise, here only looks as if she's had even more plastic surgery in order to look even more like Helen Hunt. Try Spielberg's early masterpiece Dual for better road-trip anxiety.