Ghost World
United Artists | Release Date: July 20, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Slant MagazineEd Gonzalez
Ghost World is a beautiful evocation of the ghostly nature of love, loss, and ultimately memory itself. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Offers an exquisite tour of the twilight zone between high school and the so-called real world, as well as between bohemian subculture and the even stranger culture of America at large. Read full review
100
VarietyKen Eisner
By sharp turns poignant, disturbing and hysterically funny. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor. Read full review
100
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It's surely the best depiction of teenage eccentricity since "Rushmore," and its incisive satire of the boredom and conformity that rule our thrill-seeking, individualistic land, and also its question-mark ending, reminded me of "The Graduate." Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Buscemi makes Seymour into a character you simply want to see again and again. He's the most appealing, amusing "loser" anyone could ever share old records with. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Ghost World resists convenient closures and summaries and some may take issue with its open-endedness. But anything else would have been phony, and Enid would never have stood for it. Read full review
100
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
Despite the presence of several sublimely cracked actors and some of the most abrasive white-trash caricatures since "Raising Arizona," Birch totally owns this movie. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A buoyant, funny, and disarmingly humane comedy of beautiful losers in revolt. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Smart, surpassingly odd, extremely funny and mysteriously endearing at the same time.
90
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Zwigoff pulls off something in Ghost World that seems a minor miracle -- he creates someone with a complex inner life. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Keep your "Lara Croft" and your "Shrek": For me, the summer's reigning icons are Enid, Thora Birch's geek goddess in Ghost World, and her action-movie analogue. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A character so real and poignant (yet hysterically funny), she'll linger for months or years. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
In this arid landscape, the edifice of Ghost World, with all its acute insolence, stands out like the Taj Mahal.
90
NewsweekJeff Giles
In the hearts of losers, Zwigoff’s found a real winner. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
If, like me, you've been wondering how Terry Zwigoff, the brilliant documentary filmmaker who made "Crumb," would negotiate his shift to fiction filmmaking, here's your answer: brilliantly. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
Pitch-perfect -- not just the most enjoyable movie of the year but the first (after Crumb) to get the tone of a certain strain of "underground" comic right. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Let the unsettling secrets of this outrageously funny and steadily engrossing meditation on the life of two high school misfits after graduation catch you by surprise. It's that good. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Whatever portion of the alienated teen angst championship Thora Birch left unclaimed after ''American Beauty,'' she nails down brilliantly in Ghost World.
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Funny, insightful, unpredictable and blessed with pitch-perfect performances, Ghost World is one of the year's best movies. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There's a loneliness at the heart of this world, and Ghost World, that's really touching -- and a bit scary, too. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Ghost World draws super, natural performances. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A unique bond still develops between the two outcasts, leading to an unexpected resolution that ends this subtle, deeply humane movie on an ambiguous, but unmistakably hopeful, note. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
As hip, funny and truthful a sleeper as has ever flown under Tinseltown's radar. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A funny, sad, scary and ultimately tragic coming-of-age drama/black comedy that skillfully -- and uncompromisingly -- creates its own world and uniquely pessimistic vision. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
The results are both savagely funny and poignant for anyone who's ever had a friendship that felt like their only connection to the outside world.
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
This mordantly funny, emotionally piquant depiction of post-adolescent angst also has its roots in the graphic novel format. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Ghost World is above all a disquieting consciousness-raiser. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
In his first fiction feature, Zwigoff doesn't forget to bring the funny. But he doesn't bring enough poetry. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Bests most other teen comedies right off the bat. If you got a kick out of "Crumb," this film will crack you up. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Has social, psychological, and ultimately mystical overtones that raise it leagues above most other teen-centered comedies. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
What I did like unreservedly was the acting. Enid, as enacted by the sometimes astonishing Birch, is one of the more convincing, no-nonsense teens in recent movies. Read full review
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