Back to trending
Ghost World

Ghost World

Comedy · Drama · 2001

Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

Movie details

Ghost World

“Accentuate the negative.”

2001 Comedy · Drama 1h 51m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.3 / 10

131K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

93 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

90 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Ghost World?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Comedy · 1996

An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.

I Like Movies

I Like Movies

Comedy · 2023

Socially inept 17-year-old cinephile Lawrence Kweller gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.

Frances Ha

Frances Ha

Comedy · 2013

An aspiring dancer moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Drama · 2015

Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

Work It

Work It

Comedy · 2020

A brilliant but clumsy high school senior vows to get into her late father's alma mater by transforming herself and a misfit squad into dance champions.

Lady Bird

Lady Bird

Drama · 2017

Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.

Paper Man

Paper Man

Comedy · 2009

A coming-of-middle-age comedy that chronicles the unlikely friendship between failed author Richard Dunne and a Long Island teen who teaches him a thing or two about growing up, all under the disapproving eye of his long-suffering wife and his imaginary Superhero friend.

SubUrbia

SubUrbia

Comedy · 1997

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

My Own Love Song

My Own Love Song

Comedy · 2010

A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.

I Kill Giants

I Kill Giants

Fantasy · 2017

Sophia, a new high school student, tries to make friends with Barbara, who tells her that “she kills giants,” protecting this way her hometown and its inhabitants, who do not understand her strange behavior.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Terry Zwigoff

Written by

Daniel Clowes · Terry Zwigoff

Thora Birch

Thora Birch

Enid

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson

Rebecca

Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

Seymour

Brad Renfro

Brad Renfro

Josh

Illeana Douglas

Illeana Douglas

Roberta Allsworth

Bob Balaban

Bob Balaban

Enid's Dad

Stacey Travis

Stacey Travis

Dana

Court is in session

Put Ghost World on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.