Ghost World
This is an interesting film directed by Terry Zwigoff and based on a comic book series by Daniel Clowes.
The main characters are two girls we meet at their high school graduation: Enid, played by Thora Birch, and Rebecca, played by Scarlett Johansson. Steve Buscemi has a major role as Seymour, a dork adopted by Enid as her person of interest, and Bob Balaban, Teri Garr, John Malkovich, and David Cross have roles as well.
Enid and Rebecca are realistically shown as typical high schoolers who spend their time putting down other people (losers, dorks) and laughing at them. Although they denigrate everyone, the two girls offer no constructive ideas or alternatives, which is typical high school behavior for American teens. The problem brought out by Clowes and Zwigoff is that the two girls are on the cusp of becoming those others. Rebecca gets a job and has to deal with lousy customers and crappy bosses, but she has to make a living.
Enid gets a job but refuses to accept things as they are, insults her customers, and gets fired on her first day. The problem is, she wants to rent an apartment with Rebecca, and that takes money, and that means having a job.
One can view Rebecca as the more mature of the two, since she clearly understands the nature of making a living. Enid can't let go of her high school behavior and move into young adulthood. While most teens are aimless in high school, at some point the kids gain some focus and move into adulthood where they have goals and plans. We see Rebecca making that growth, but we also see Enid remaining aimless.
Enid played a prank on Seymour, whom she identifies correctly as a dork loser, but runs into him at a yard sale and discovers that although he's a loser dork, there's a real human in those ill-fitting, ugly clothes. Seymour realizes he is who he is and has more or less accepted it. Enid makes it her project to get him dates. Buscemi is excellent as Seymour, making him human in spite of his dorkiness. Seymour seems to be the one person Enid identifies with and cares about, much to the amazement and disdain of Rebecca. Seymour briefly gives Enid something to work for, but she's unable to make anything of herself in her efforts to get Seymour a life. In the end, her aspirations remain childish.
What really interests me about the movie is that there is no success. "Ghost World" does not have a happy ending. Enid screws everything up for Rebecca, Seymour, and herself. And then the movie ends. This is not a happy teen flick where the geeks go on to college and the cheerleaders get their comeuppance. This is not a coming of age flick where the kids all learn from their immature behavior and then grow up. The ending is something of a puzzle. I believe it was intentionally left open to interpretation, so I'll leave that for you to see and decide for yourselves. Although the main characters are high school girls, this is definitely a movie for grownups who think.