Ghost World
Aug. 16th, 2001 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupSaw Ghost World last night. Such a good god damn movie. It started kinda slow but once it got going it was impossible to resist. In that respect it was a definite improvement over the comic, which was a little disjointed for me. I think it took Clowes a while to figure out what he wanted to do with it and the film shows all those things being reined in and expressed in a coherent and compelling way. One of the nicest things about it is the way it resists movie cliches. I thought it would start with Enid being a wacky teenager and then build to the serious problems. But it trusted the viewer and developed her whole world view in measured doses-- again, an improvement on the comic. And Steve Buscemi's plot line felt very natural and integrated-- makes the point of the whole thing much stronger.
I think the only people who will dislike the film are those who don't get it, who don't subscribe to its basic point, which is pretty bleak. In a way that was hard to see in the comic, it argues that there are just about no choices for a person of integrity in the world-- you either sell out one way or another or you starve. This view appeals to me a great deal right now. And of course alienation is the basic theme of all of Clowes' stuff and this expressed his ideas nicely. This is the closest a film has come since "Welcome to the Dollhouse" to representing my general take on life.
Up to Maine again this weekend. I gave Mrs. Sanpaku a hard time about going up last weekend-- the traffic was so awful-- but we had several good adventures. The high point was when, during the Lobsterfest Parade in Winter Harbor, she saw the rescue greyhound league go by, and said, "can I join in?" and before you knew it she was gone, marching off in the parade. Kind of false advertising since our pup is not exactly a rescue dog-- you only get Italian Greyhounds by paying a lot of money for them. Still, a classic moment. We picked wild blueberries on Sunday-- so yummy.
Many new rumors swirling around about more layoffs at work. Seem to have gotten through today without them being announced. My feeling is that they are coming but that no one will tell us in advance so it's pointless to worry about it.
I think the only people who will dislike the film are those who don't get it, who don't subscribe to its basic point, which is pretty bleak. In a way that was hard to see in the comic, it argues that there are just about no choices for a person of integrity in the world-- you either sell out one way or another or you starve. This view appeals to me a great deal right now. And of course alienation is the basic theme of all of Clowes' stuff and this expressed his ideas nicely. This is the closest a film has come since "Welcome to the Dollhouse" to representing my general take on life.
Up to Maine again this weekend. I gave Mrs. Sanpaku a hard time about going up last weekend-- the traffic was so awful-- but we had several good adventures. The high point was when, during the Lobsterfest Parade in Winter Harbor, she saw the rescue greyhound league go by, and said, "can I join in?" and before you knew it she was gone, marching off in the parade. Kind of false advertising since our pup is not exactly a rescue dog-- you only get Italian Greyhounds by paying a lot of money for them. Still, a classic moment. We picked wild blueberries on Sunday-- so yummy.
Many new rumors swirling around about more layoffs at work. Seem to have gotten through today without them being announced. My feeling is that they are coming but that no one will tell us in advance so it's pointless to worry about it.
