Ghost World

Terry Zwigoff adapted Daniel Clowes’ comic with Clowes himself. Clowes has described the route: he first tried to transcribe the comic into Final Draft, then threw that away, wrote a different story, and fused the two. They jettisoned the last 20 pages and rethought everything while shooting, he says, and the result was held together by hair and spit. The record choices do the characterisation. Enid dances to Jaan Pehechan Ho from the 1965 Indian musical Gumnaam in the opening minutes, and the disc she buys from Seymour is Skip James’ 1931 Devil Got My Woman. Zwigoff collects 78 rpm records himself, like Seymour, and played in R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, the band the film names aloud. He also held extras to a minimum, so the streets stay empty on purpose. The screenplay was an Academy Award nominee, and Steve Buscemi took best supporting actor from the New York and Chicago critics and from the National Society of Film Critics, then won an Independent Spirit Award, where Clowes and Zwigoff also won. The Toronto critics named Thora Birch best actress and Scarlett Johansson best supporting actress. A good fit if you want an adaptation loyal to tone rather than to panels. Not for anyone who needs the people on screen to be likeable.