>Ghost World (DVD: 2002)

A film so subtle in its humour it's largely undetectable. The film is steeped in self-grandising pretention that has mythologised it somewhat on the alternative circuit. It considers itself a witty slice of post-high school beatnik cinema for the noughties & for reasons that evade & perplex me, everyone else in the known world has agreed by default. I can only conclude that after sitting patiently for 107 minutes, waiting for some hint of life and not finding any, everyone's just assumed it must've been good because (a) it's got Thora Birch & Steve Buscemi in it and (b) they didn't get it.

To my mind, the film is nothing more than a feable indie wannabe with nowhere to go & nothing to say trading on the reputations of Birch & Buscemi. I'm sure fans will disagree, citing the fact that by saying nothing it's actually saying a helluva lot. Well, I'm saying bollocks to that. Note: this is the first film to disprove the theory that having Buscemi in your film automatically makes it watchable. While we're at it, Thora Birch doesn't make it an indie either.

Ghost World offers nothing new to the genre; the only highlight (and pulse) is nun-chaka weilding Doug (the mulleted freak used far more effectively in the RHCP videos) who appears all too briefly (if you do have to watch it, he appears again after the end credits).

Slacker, Dazed & Confused, Clerks & Reality Bites did the same job far more entertainingly & effectively. Shit, even St Elmo's Fire beats this.

RATING: NO RATING

(c)Limer 2003