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GHOST WORLD (2001)

a review by Jeff Johnson

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Leading cast members:
Thora Birch...Enid
Scarlett Johansson...Rebecca
Steve Buscemi...Seymour
Brad Renfro...Josh

Recently, my girlfriend executed a coup d'etat in her living room by deposing her adequate, yet hardly future-minded, VHS video recorder for a DVD player that has only her best interests in mind. With reclined elegance and confidence she now wills the new remote through the digital maze of special features, documentaries, commentaries and individual film scenes.

I trust she knows where she's going.

The result of her victorious digital revolution has been an appealing transformation of our movie viewing experience. Our films are now filled with control and quality among the sound and beauty. We no longer merely watch a film so much as become immersed in the entire process of the making and marketing of the film; Byte-sized perfection, manipulation and self-appreciation spinning gloriously under the watchful eye of a laser.

Like any smart revolutionary, my girlfriend has developed a solid support system to aid in a successful transition. With a subscription to an Internet rental club she now receives three DVD films a month that she can view, return (postage-free) and then wait for three more. It's a terrific way to save time and perhaps discover a film that you might not normally choose.

And, of course, a great way to view the spoils of a coup.

I trust her eyes won't give out.

The other night our DVD du jour was the much ballyhooed Ghost World. A gleaming new release chock full of everything a film lover could wish for including all sorts of "special features" and, oh yeah, the film. Yet, before I go any further, I should tell you that although I watched the film Ghost World I was so uninterested and paralysed dumb by it that I have nothing really to say regarding it but that it was of average length and seemed to fit snugly into the DVD machine.

I hope that you'll forgive this critical lapse, for although I hail from the same Windy Mecca of criticism as the deified Siskel and Ebert, I am a mere mortal whose patience is not compensated. However, I can tell you that this particular DVD had "special features"! "Special features" that my girlfriend deftly manoeuvred us through after I had awaken. Seems she was just as dulled by the film and figured that a good round of "special features" would do us both well.

After sampling a couple of the added features of the Ghost World DVD we happened upon the "deleted scenes" section. This section, which contained slightly different versions of terribly inconsequential scenes, exhibited what can go wrong when the intent of a revolution has been misguided. For, in the midst of all of these "special features" meant for the further enjoyment and enhancement of a film, they've now included scenes which have been deleted!? Not important controversial plot moving scenes, deleted by an overanxious movie studio or red-faced censor, but merely re-workings or goofy blooperesque masturbations of scenes that add nothing, say nothing and show nothing; why are they there?

I guess that, in my old fashioned analog mind, I always thought that something that had been deleted had been cut in order to make a piece better. Hence the extensive and revered art of editing. Yet, suddenly the future has become about refusing to throw anything away. Extending Warhol's famous future phrase of the past to include even stray bits and pieces which are now allowed to savour their own fifteen minutes, or 4.03 minutes, as the case may be. Well, what can I do about it but groan and bear it.

My Genralisima girlfriend with a remote still continues her rebellion in spite of the disappointment of a few. And I, inspired by her revolution, have attempted to embrace the undeleted future and live by its lessons; I've decided to attach my own "special feature" allowing you to view the deleted pieces of this review. And I hope to soon accompany it with a behind-the-scenes look at the rigorous ordeal of my writing it as well as an audio deconstruction of the review by Roger Ebert, the director of Ghost World, and my girlfriend.

I trust you'll care.

Review Special Feature: Deleted Lines

*Yet, for all of its allure, it's probably healthy to be a bit sceptical as to what exactly many DVD releases are actually offering.
*am not, am too, am not, am too...
*and
*Captured by a ship of fools, taught to read Sanskrit and fed figs till I whistled Dixie underneath a ghostly moon.
*DVDo's and don't's
*Humbug!
*Ghost World!? There wasn't one ghost in the whole damn movie, er, I mean film.

1 March 2002