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Posted June 18, 2010 to photo album "Summer Indie Counter-Programming"
In anticipation of the release of Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, Nick Dawson looks back at summer indie hits from years past.
Slide 7: Ghost World
Release Date: July 20, 2001
Domestic Gross: $6,217,849
Programmed Against: Jurassic Park 3
In summer 2001, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 3, with its legacy of huge dinosaurs and big thrills, opened the same week as Ghost World. In some ways, the two films represented two very different comic book sensibilities. While Jurassic Park was never a graphic novel, its fantasy world and jaw-dropping action could easily have sprung from one. Conversely, Ghost World, directed by Terry Zwigoff (who previously helmed the underground comix documentary Crumb ) was actually adapted by the author from his own graphic novel of the same name. But rather than superheroes or dinosaurs, Ghost World followed the antics of two bored teenagers: Enid (Thora Birch) and her best friend Rebecca (played by Scarlett Johansson, then most famous for playing a supporting role in The Horse Whisperer.) While some summer films are about heroes winning against adversity, Ghost World, as Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman pointed out, is “a buoyant, funny, and disarmingly humane comedy of beautiful losers in revolt.” The film went on garner an Oscar nomination for Best AdaptedScreenplay, as well as do booming business at the box office.
The World's End
We Steal Secrets
Closed Circuit
The Deep
The Place Beyond The Pines
Greetings from Tim Buckley
Admission
Promised Land
Anna Karenina
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Brokeback Mountain
Lost in Translation
Pride & Prejudice
The Pianist
Gosford Park