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EP 68: Ghost World | Suddenly Seymour Gets Laid by Enid Coleslaw

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Good Morning!!

We're delving into the award-winning adaption of the graphic novel Ghost World (2001) with an all-star cast including Thora Burch, Scarlett Johanssen, and Steve Buscemi. Raging hormones and a shitty attitude will take you a long way in life. Enjoy this little gem!

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Wendy:

Foreign.

Bridget:

Good morning.

Wendy:

Good morning.

Bridget:

I'm Bridget. And I'm Wendy, and this is Flickin Beans. Today we are talking Ghost World. Ghost 2001.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And it is. Oh, there it is. Ghost World. It's the first film based on a graphic novel or comic book to receive an Oscar nomination for. For Best Adapted screenplay.

Wendy:

Oh, okay.

Bridget:

I know. I would think that there would be more.

Wendy:

Did I watch the wrong movie?

Bridget:

What'd you watch?

Wendy:

Well, it was 2001 too, but I don't know what kind of graphic novel that movie would be.

Bridget:

It was Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson.

Wendy:

Okay. Yeah, I watched the. Right.

Bridget:

Well, I'd like to see some of the. Some of the images, but I. I could see it, especially in the way they were kind of framing each shot, but adapted, you know, so they did make some slight changes. Like, I think Scarlett Johansson's character, Rebecca, was downplayed a little. I think she had a much bigger role in the comic book.

Wendy:

Yeah. This is definitely more focused on the Enidh character, which is Thorberg.

Bridget:

Enid.

Wendy:

Enid. Enid.

Bridget:

Enid.

Wendy:

Enid.

Bridget:

Enid.

Wendy:

Nid. I thought it was Enidh.

Bridget:

That's not a name, but Enid is. Yeah.

Wendy:

Okay.

Bridget:

Yeah, but. Okay, wait, this is totally an aside because it never comes up in the movie at all, but apparently her last name is Coleslaw. Enid Kolslaw. Okay, I'm still. But Enid is. Yes, well, you're thinking Edith.

Wendy:

Yeah, but, like, people take names and change, like, one letter all the time, and then that's a new name. Like, is it Brandon or Brandon Symphony?

Bridget:

So this movie is about two best friends who are just about to graduate from high school. Well, they end up. Yeah, they graduate, and their, quote, dream goal in life after they graduate is to get their own apartment. They're kind of s***** people.

Wendy:

Very s*****.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

Things.

Bridget:

They're immature.

Wendy:

Yeah. They like to pull pranks on people.

Bridget:

Yes.

Wendy:

And Enid.

Bridget:

Got it. I want to die.

Wendy:

Enid is the worst.

Bridget:

Ethan.

Wendy:

Ethan. She's the worst. She has absolutely no concept of how her actions are affecting other people.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

Or no empathy for it anymore. She just goes around and does whatever she wants, and she's up everybody's life. She. She ruins that. What's his name?

Bridget:

Seymour.

Wendy:

Seymour. She basically ruins his life.

Bridget:

I don't know.

Wendy:

I mean, he says it was for the best afterwards, but he loses his job, he loses his girlfriend, and then she just dumps him. Ghosts him, basically.

Bridget:

Literally ghosts him.

Wendy:

Yeah. Why is this movie called Ghost World, too?

Bridget:

Because the old man that's sitting on a bench waiting for the bus. And they say, guy, this bus hasn't run for two years. Even on the back of the bench, it says, not in service. Enid starts to kind of get disillusioned with life. She really doesn't want to move into the apartment anymore. She has a hard time finding and keeping a job. One of the constants is that this man is always sitting there. She talks to him a few times.

Wendy:

She.

Bridget:

She says, you know, the bus isn't coming. And he says, you have no idea what you're talking about. So my thought is that the bus is the afterlife.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And whether or not she's actually dead, she sits on that bench waiting for that same bus. She needs a whole different life, a whole different world, in her opinion. So. So she's gonna go into the unknown. It's a metaphor, I'm sure.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Even the man is going into the unknown, which is probably death for him. She's going into the unknown on a bus, which could just mean a different city. Yeah. She just needs to just get away, whatever that means. It could mean that she committed suicide, but the jury's out on that one. It's up to you to speculate what the bus symbolizes. But that's the ghost world, I think, the general consensus. So it makes you wonder if she killed herself. She is kind of a terrible person, but not in a lot of ways. She's normal in a lot of ways.

Wendy:

Yeah. She. Yeah, we all know an Enid.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

You know, we know that teenager type of person. But. Yeah. I. I have to tell you, I did not like this movie. Movie. It was so boring and just. It was just Enid being a d*** for two hours and no repercussions on her end. And then she just gets on a bus. Yeah, a little. Don't like her.

Bridget:

Yeah. And I don't think she was. I don't think she was getting on that bus to be a. I think she realized that she was a b****.

Wendy:

She was trying to, like, take herself away from other people, too. I think she does say something at the end about her, like, messing up everyone's life that. That loves her, which is true. But it's like. Well, at least to the viewer and to me, it's so blatantly obvious how she's doing it. But maybe it's not to her.

Bridget:

No. You know, sometimes you have to be called out on your behavior to realize that it's inappropriate.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Okay. So the. The real crux of the story is that the girls are In a cafe, looking at the. The. What is it? The dating part of the classifieds.

Wendy:

The personal ads.

Bridget:

Personal ads. And they find one that seems intriguing, that sounds like just a loser. And he's saying, you know, I met you. He's describing all of it. And they pull the prank of calling him and saying, meet us. Or, I'm sorry, meet me. I'm that blonde woman in the red dress. Or whatever. And then they just sit and laugh at him as he sits at the counter waiting for hours, drinking a milkshake. And, yeah, he's pathetic. But Enid and her music. I love the Indian pop music. And I think she said it was from the 50s and 60s. It's so catchy. I love it.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Her love of records leads her. Well, they follow Seymour home to see where he lives. Because, quote, he's so pathetic. You know, they're just mean.

Wendy:

Yeah. Mean girls.

Bridget:

But she's intrigued by his records. He's doing a yard sale with his roommate. Tons of records and a weasel with a snake wrapped around it. But that's not for sale.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

So she becomes intrigued a little with Seymour.

Wendy:

A little? Well, yeah, she kind of becomes obsessed with him.

Bridget:

Yeah, you're right.

Wendy:

She's like. She's calling him all the time. She's ditching Rebecca on plans. They had to go hang out with Seymour.

Bridget:

You don't think she really likes him?

Wendy:

Oh, she does.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

But it's not just like, little. It's, like, instantly, like she's stalking him almost.

Bridget:

Oh, I don't know. I think they're just really good friends pretty quickly when she. When she, quote, unquote, seduces him.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

What do you think. What do you think her mindset was at that time? Because I. You know, was she attracted to him or was this something within her that. Just trying to prove something, or.

Wendy:

Yeah, I think it's a couple things. I think she was upset and looking for comfort. One and two. I think it was sort of a power move over the new woman, Dana, or whatever.

Bridget:

Correct. Correct.

Wendy:

Because she's jealous. I don't know that. Like, I don't know if she was always attracted to Seymour that way. Or if it was just a fascination. But it. Obviously, she has these feelings of jealousy. And so she must think it must have turned romantic at some point.

Bridget:

Well, I'm gonna say that the closer you get to someone, the more attractive they are.

Wendy:

Sure. That's true. Yeah.

Bridget:

Yes. First impression might not be the same later. You know, you just start to have feelings for the person. No, I mean, we've talked about that before. No matter what they look like.

Wendy:

Yeah, yeah. So it evolved into that. And yeah. I feel like this movie could have. Or maybe it couldn't, but could have been made without them going that far. Like, I don't know that it was necessary and it was, I don't know, gross. Because he's like in his 40s, probably in this. And he's freshly 18, right?

Bridget:

Yeah. Just a baby.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Steve Busimi was so uncomfortable. And as Seymour, like he had to change his clothes right away.

Wendy:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

He feels uncomfortable in the movie and it works.

Bridget:

Yeah. He's awkward. He's. Well.

Wendy:

And it is weird to, you know, be this single older guy and all of a sudden this cute 18 year old is coming over to my house all the time.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

Flirting with me, you know, like she's giving off that kind of energy.

Bridget:

Right. And he's super wary of it and.

Wendy:

He'S like, this isn't quite right.

Bridget:

Right. It is a good question. How could you know someone so young.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Be friends with someone so young? That's what his girlfriend said. I mean, kudos to him for getting a girlfriend. That's the original woman from the ad.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

And that's kind of a cool angle. But when he finds out that they tricked him, that's sad. I think that they really did develop feelings for one another.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

And you're right, a power move. But I think after that, she feels like garbage for doing that. Maybe she is starting to realize that she's a terrible person and wants to change that. It could be why she separates. Separates from Rebecca just kind of, you know, hardly spending any time with her when they used to spend every minute together. And that's kind of a thing that would, would actually happen after high school. You know, sometimes it happens after junior high call. It happens.

Wendy:

It happens.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

And sometimes it's just a matter of, you know, you have this new person and you just have less time for other people. Right. And sometimes you, they. You get lost in that new relationship and you forget you're not. Forget your friends, but don't prioritize them as much.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

And that's very. Yeah. Or you, not everybody that you're friends with in high school is meant to be a lifelong friend.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

So.

Bridget:

And Rebecca actually is the one that's doing it.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

She's got a job and she went ahead and got the apartment. She's shopping for plastic tumblers and she's just being normal. I don't know how she can afford an apartment. All by herself working at Starbucks.

Wendy:

But hey, maybe you could in 2001. No, you couldn't.

Bridget:

Maybe your parents are helping. Or we'll just leave it. Yeah, leave it. Lie. Ain't it? Coleslaw. Oh, so you want to talk about the art and the c*** chicken.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

So that's a real thing.

Wendy:

I've actually heard of that before.

Bridget:

It's terrible. So we're talking about. Very racist. Well, a very racist chicken restaurant that had a. What do you call it? A mask? No, logo.

Wendy:

A mascot.

Bridget:

Mascot. Slash logo of a black man in white face. Is that what it's called?

Wendy:

Does he have white?

Bridget:

He has. Where they drew the white around his lips. And it's just awful to look at. And it's, like, so shocking to believe that that was something that you would see every day and other things like white. We're all f****** terrible people. Maybe that's a message, too.

Wendy:

Yeah, and I. Now, I hadn't thought of that before, but that's a good point of parallel between the real characters and this story about the chicken place to maybe examine the bad parts of yourself, too. You can't, like, dismiss them.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

And I think that's something that Seymour kind of says when he's explaining about why he has this memorabilia and why he thinks history is important because. So. Because if we whitewash it, then we don't remember and we can repeat those mistakes. Right. And you can't get better without looking at all the bad parts of your past. So maybe there's a parallel there where, you know, Enid is starting to look at herself and go, oh, I can't believe how blaringly bad I was being. And they. And this sign is like, I can't believe how blaringly racist it is. But until somebody, like, makes you aware of it, it's so easy. Easy to fall into traps like that.

Bridget:

Enid tried to put that image out there at her art show. Her summer school art show. The teacher was ridiculous. But who.

Wendy:

Do you even need an art class to graduate high school?

Bridget:

H***, no. That's so stupid.

Wendy:

I know. You wouldn't need to go to high.

Bridget:

School to go to a summer art class. Are you kidding me? I wonder if I could get in on one. Thora birch gained 20 pounds to play this role.

Wendy:

Really?

Bridget:

I would.

Wendy:

She must have been tiny.

Bridget:

I know, because she's not fat. She actually has big b**** and is full figured.

Wendy:

I guess it was funny to me. And how ample her bosom is now because. Have you ever seen the movie? Now and then. No, she's in that Thor Birch and in her character, they're like 12, 13, and she's stuffing her bra and she's figured out like, that pudding is the most realistic feeling. She's tried all these different ways to stuff her bra and pudding was in a balloon is how she. It's the best.

Bridget:

Wow.

Wendy:

While her other friend, who actually has b**** already is like taping them down, you know, because she's like, oh, mine are too big. Because you're at that age where. Yeah, it's weird.

Bridget:

You don't really. Yeah, you should want that attention.

Wendy:

Do that movie. Okay. It's a good one.

Bridget:

Okay, we will.

Wendy:

And I actually love Thor Birch as an actress.

Bridget:

I loved her too.

Wendy:

I just didn't. Yeah, I didn't like this character, but I don't think you're supposed to.

Bridget:

I love her whole look though. Yeah, it's so cute. Everything she put together, even the green hair.

Wendy:

It's actually 70s punks.

Bridget:

Yeah. Specifically, they offered the role to Christina Ricci. Could have seen that. Yeah, but I like Thora Burch better.

Wendy:

Yeah. Christina Ricci might have been a little old at. To play high school at that point. Maybe not. No.

Bridget:

But she's got such a baby face. She was just involved in something else. So they couldn't do it. They also suggested Jennifer Love Hewitt, Claire Danes and Alicia Silverstone.

Wendy:

I could see Claire Danes. The other two had as.

Bridget:

That's only because Claire Danes in My so Called Life had that perfect bob hairstyle.

Wendy:

Exactly. And she was kind of a similar, like, apathetic.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

Character. High school character.

Bridget:

Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

Wendy:

So I could see it.

Bridget:

I liked that show.

Wendy:

Me too. Jared Leto.

Bridget:

Uhhuh.

Wendy:

So dreamy.

Bridget:

Anyway, what else about that Enid Kla.

Wendy:

I wrote this is the most millennial movie ever. Which it is. But I had never heard of it. Didn't see it. Even though I'm a millennial, this came out. I would have been like the same age as these girls when this came out.

Bridget:

Okay.

Wendy:

Could have been like 17.

Bridget:

I can't remember when I saw it, but I really liked it. I liked the low key, downplayed, you know, no one ever got too excited in the movie. They were dull, but on purpose I liked it. I liked everything about the way it looked.

Wendy:

You know what this is like for me is when they are in the art scene at the beginning of summer school and they're watching the video and she, the teacher shows it and it's like, mirror father, mirror father, mirror father. And then just like baby doll heads and stuff and you're like, what's going on? That's how I felt about this movie.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

It was like some bad art movie and I just didn't.

Bridget:

Well, that's what art can be.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And it's. I had a. I saw a performance art piece. Guest soap glycerin, you know, so that's kind of clear. A glycerin soap with a little Jesus inside. And it was the person washing their hands over and over and over until they got to the Jesus. I always thought Billy should do one where he's wrapping yarn. He does the best center pull balls.

Wendy:

Center pull balls. That might be the title name of my sex tape.

Bridget:

D***. Any who.

Wendy:

We did it, I think.

Bridget:

Did we do it?

Wendy:

Yeah, we flick some beans. Okay, love you. Bye bye.

Bridget:

Party all night long.

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Bridget

Co-host
Head Shot

Wendy

Co-host