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Batman... Superman... Enid! As comic book characters go, the misanthropic teenage protagonist in "Ghost World" falls some way short of the American icons that usually make it onto the silver screen. Yet director Terry Zwigoff's dark comedy - based on the acerbic scribblings of Daniel Clowes - deserves your full attention.
Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johansson) are best friends, relieved to have graduated from their hideous all-American high school. Defiantly leftfield, living in a state of almost perpetual irony, the pair spurn college and plan to rent a flat together.
Rebecca gets a job, but Enid can't bring herself to join the 'real' world. Instead she finds herself strangely drawn to 40-something rare record collector Seymour (Buscemi).
Recounting the "Ghost World" plot, such as it is, doesn't do the film justice. The pleasure here is not in the story but the telling; watching lovingly created characters interact, and getting dewy-eyed over Zwigoff's immaculate recreation of late adolescence.
An erstwhile documentary maker, much-praised for 1994's "Crumb" - a look at the life of underground comic book writer Robert Crumb - Zwigoff has an ear for truthful dialogue, and an eye for the detritus of teenage life.
The performances are universally superb. Buscemi was born to play Seymour, a nerdy, strangely endearing obsessive not quite comfortable in his own skin, while even bit players like Brad Renfro leave a lasting impression.
The standout is Birch, a compelling blend of aggressive wit, tender vulnerability, and ungainly beauty. Our journey with Enid may be slow and somewhat meandering but, as a funny and moving paean to adolescence, this certainly beats hell out of "American Pie 2".
