While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Teenage angst gets a workout in this film with the principal characters and best friends Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johannson) going in somewhat separate directions over the course of the story. Even upon high school graduation, their acerbic putdowns of fellow classmates and other unlucky targets position them outside the mainstream, and they revel in the fact. However after agreeing to become roommates upon graduation, it's only Rebecca who seems to buckle down to a level of responsibility by finding a job and getting a bit more 'serious' about impending adulthood. Enid meanwhile stumbles around in an existential haze in an attempt to find that ever elusive 'meaning of life'. As teens and young adults, we might all have been there at one time or another. A cruel prank is at the center of this story as Enid responds to a Personals column by leaving a message for hapless, old-time record collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi). When it backfires, it puts Enid even more at odds with herself for her failure to foresee unintended consequences. I thought it kind of interesting that Seymour eventually entered therapy wearing the green cardigan that he had on when he 'felt a connection' with Dana (Stacey Travis) before ever actually meeting her. That was a telling moment for how productive his sessions might have turned out, as he leaves with his mother and the therapist just rolls her eyes. What I thought the film did successfully was broach a topic in our culture that's become distinctly more partisan since the picture came out, that of attempting to have an honest conversation about racism. It opened a door in the story but didn't take it to any conclusion other than to ostracize Enid even more for trying to make a statement. The ambiguous ending of the movie accentuates Enid's lonesome quest to somehow relate to the world and find some meaning for herself, and leaves little optimism about her finding it any time soon. In a way, she might have been taking the subliminal advice offered on the park bench at the bus stop by temporarily taking herself 'out of service'.

First I thought this is a typical 2000's teenage movie that's going to annoy me. It starts with high school prom, cheesy dialogue, annoying childish characters, the lonely hearts' coming-of-age problems. I was about to turn it off, but it turns out to become a quirky story about the phoniness and fakeness of society. About finding your place in this world, about conformity to stereotypes, either on the fringe or the center of society. With the two girls you can see that Thora and Scarlett end up on two the different sides of this spectrum - and Thora is constantly changing her look, so she's not very sure about where on the fringe she exactly wants to be (Punk, Goth etc.). The only guy that operates out of this spectrum is Buscemi's character. First Thora makes fun of him but the blues vinyl she bought from him makes her realize he's true to himself and his interests. In the run of the movie she discovers that he's probably the only one who is not fake (except during his brief dating phase) - fake like all humans, whitewashing, phony and "better at hiding the fact that they hate each other" than ever before.Not a perfect movie as it is very slowly paced and a bit flat sometimes. But it is as cynical as it is quirky and yet at it's core it is surprisingly relatable. The human race is strange and yet you want to be a part of it.

Reviewed September 6th, 2015 - 1st viewing (IFC HD) Based on the comic book by Daniel Clowes, the film centers around two teen outcasts struggling to find their place in the world after they graduate high school. Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) has plans to get a job and an apartment, however Enid (Thora Birch) is decidedly less motivated, having spent her whole life just skating by. She must inevitably learn that there are very real consequences for her actions—even in indifference.The film makes for a very interesting social commentary about the difficulty of maintaining relationships and our struggle to find our place in the world, the quintessential tug-of-war to find the balance between being true to ourselves and hiding pieces of us to fit into society's accepted norms. It makes a provocative statement about how society and media make us feel we have to choose between acceptance and being who we are. The word normal is constantly thrown around, particularly by her best friend Rebecca, serving to illustrate the fundamental differences between the two girls, with Enid spending most of her life seeing what she wanted to see, only to discover her and Rebecca were not as alike as she thought.Enid's boredom leads her to play a practical joke on a lonely man searching for a woman he met in a personal ad. After the two girls observe his melancholy and follow him to his home, Enid discovers he collects and sells records. They hit it off and she starts to see that he's not so different than her. Believing she's found a kindred spirit in a man twice her age, she takes an interest and starts spending time with him, promising to find him a date.Her journey is an illustration of how we can get so caught up in our own lives that we fail to see that we are neglecting those important to us—our relationships—the very thing we rely on for emotional support. And when someone we care about fails us, we either internalize it or lash out. Enid's required art class poignantly illustrated that artistic license cannot so easily be acquired, but instead of working to cultivate her own creativity, she chose to use an old art piece borrowed from Seymour. This unfortunately would also prove to have dire consequences.Seymour finally got that call from the girl he'd been looking for in the ad and Enid encouraged him to meet her. After they hit it off, he sadly became self-involved and blew Enid off, never giving thought to the fact that she had genuinely cared for him. And so with that disappointment causing her to only think of herself, frustrated that he was settling for a woman he had little in common with to be 'taken care of', Enid recoiled back into her comfort zone—Rebecca. Unfortunately, she failed to see that while she was caught up with her infatuation with Seymour, she wasn't being a friend to Rebecca.Naturally, it hurt her when Enid only wanted to hang out with her because Seymour blew her off. Rebecca did not lie to be malicious, but to protect herself, as she was beginning to see for the first time that perhaps their 'friendship' was based more on convenience than true affection. I can relate on this point, as people continually undervalue the importance of balance in their lives in terms of their relationships as a whole. If you only focus on one, the others will suffer, and you can't play people like fiddles and expect them to still be around when the fog clears. Part of discovering how to be happy is figuring out how to balance all the elements within it, instead of ascribing to the misguided belief that you can hand pick a few and that will be enough.The story seemed to stretch a little beyond its reach as Rebecca grew increasingly frustrated with Enid's attitude. Instead of Enid simply admitting she didn't feel she could be honest with her, she insulted her, causing Rebecca to lash out. This hurt Enid, penetrating the walls she thought she had in place, and her pain sent her fleeing to Seymour for comfort, succeeding in getting out of him what she wanted only to turn on her heels and run. She practically begged Rebecca to let her move in with her, only to disappoint her by not keeping her promise. I found it odd the two girls never hugged despite supposedly being best friends since childhood, and I was a little miffed by Rebecca's disregard for Seymour's feelings, coming off as more malicious than jealous, which seemed wholly unjustified.The title represents Enid feeling as though she's a ghost in a world filled with people. She feels invisible and inconsequential, something I think we can all relate to. She struggled through the whole film to figure out what she wanted instead of settling on complacency. Once she realized her only dream was to disappear, she had to find the courage to take that final step.Throughout the whole ordeal, Enid didn't seem to understand that her irresponsibility and feigned indifference had real consequences, and that her actions were hurting people. The end felt a little disjointed to me, as if they were trying to wrap everything up in a bow so we knew where we left each of the characters with little statement on the friendship she had taken for granted, which is what I found more interesting, especially considering the comic focuses more on both girls which I would've found to be more intriguing.FINAL VERDICT: More interesting that it appears, the in-depth look at what lies just beneath the surface of our lives and the intricacies of our relationships made for a profound watch, if only left feeling a little bewildered by the end.6.5 of 10.0

An austere, gripping character piece about the future. Highlights include an excellent scene in a club that nails the American outlook on life; and it being a gritty, hard movie about gritty hard people, but it's also intelligent. The acting is very effective. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. Buscemi was unfairly overlooked at awards time. The film is unrelentingly dark, both in camera action and in storyline. The cinematography is stark and bare, with only the soundtrack adding some effect.