In my view, the movie Ghost World is totally existentialist. The two protagonists, Enid and Rebecca, are two possibilities of any teenagers who suffer from chronic dissatisfaction, anxiety and cynicism when they grow up and face society.
Enid is rebellious yet sensitive. Although she does not know for sure what she's exactly after, she refuses to yield to the harsh reality as easily as Rebecca does. There's one thing that she's sure-she wants to be different, to be cool and somewhat detached from the disappointing reality. Enid lives in an age which is too old for Rebecca or anybody else except Seymour. That's also why she was immediately drawn to him. To Enid, Seymour is a great guy that she can look up to. She can only feel a sense of belonging when she's with him. Seymour once said, "I can't relate to 99% of humanity." So does Enid. All her feelings of solitude, alienation and fear come from the simple fact that she is the one who wants to go back to the "happy old times" and thus preserve her nature. She doesn't want to be assimilated into a world full of consumerist fetishisms, and fast-food culture.
This is a movie for those social misfits, those who feel dislocated, or born out of their times. It quests the meaning of life as most existentialist movies do. Why are we living in such a world where we cannot find our position and even feel puzzled about our very existence? According to Jean-Paul Sartre, human beings are thrown into this world. They are projected into a world without any choice of their own. The only way to attach some meanings to their life is to take actions. It is actions that define the nature of our very existence. For Enid, she has a profound nature to stick to her own ways of viewing the world. However, the external pressure always pushed her to yield, for instance, it is considered realistic to find a stable job instead of mocking customers and being vindictive to them. But that's not Enid. It is Enid's nature to fight against the world in her mocking gestures and sarcastic remarks. So here comes the struggle. Enid is like a tragic hero, for example, Sisyphus, who is constantly trying to fight against her own fate, but she just fails. Just as Samuel Beckett wrote in one of his plays- "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." She has the guts to try again and again and fail again and again. That's why she decided to get on a bus without knowing exactly where it will take her to. It's a lonely exile, I guess. "The heart is a lonely hunter", that is exactly what I feel after watching this movie.
By the way, I have to mention that I really like the actress Thora Birch. She also appeared in another movie American Beauty, which is also one of my favorites. Scarlet Johnson is entirely overshadowed by her performance in this movie. Haha.
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