Based on the 1990s comic book Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, the story focuses on the lives of teenage outsiders Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), who face a rift in their friendship as Enid takes an interest in an older man named Seymour (Steve Buscemi), and becomes determined to help his romantic life.

Best friends Enid and Rebecca face the summer after their high school graduation, with no plans for their future, other than to find jobs and live together.

The girls see a personal ad in which a lonely, middle-aged man named Seymour asks a woman he met recently to contact him.

Enid gets a job at a movie theater, so she can afford to rent an apartment with Rebecca, but her cynical attitude and reluctance to upsell concessions get her fired on her first day.

When Enid's poster is displayed in an art show, school officials find it so offensive they force Roberta to give her a failing grade and revoke the scholarship.

Seymour breaks up with Dana and is called to account at work when the Coon Chicken poster is publicized in a local newspaper.

They asked for a fresh technique from earlier examples such as X-Men and Batman; Dick Tracy specifically was dismissed as literal-minded and "insulting" to the art form.

[4] Zwigoff also added his individual vision to the adaptation, particularly in his capture and editing of languid, lingering shots, a technique derived from his experience as a documentarian.

[4] Another notable touch is his minimal use of extras in the film, making the city and its streets intentionally empty – Clowes notes approvingly, "It captures this weird feeling of alienation in the endless modern consumer culture.

Zwigoff expanded on his views in a 2021 interview, saying: "Many interpreted it to mean Enid died by suicide [...] I personally thought of the ending as more positive: that she’s moving on with her life, that she had faith in herself".

[6] Music in the film includes "Jaan Pehechan Ho" by Mohammed Rafi, a dance number choreographed by Herman Benjamin from the 1965 Bollywood musical Gumnaam which Enid watches and dances to early in the film,[8] and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (1931),[9] as well as "Pickin' Cotton Blues" by the bar band, Blueshammer.

[10] There are songs by other artists mentioned in the film, including Lionel Belasco, which are reflective of the character Seymour, and of director Terry Zwigoff.

Ghost World premiered on June 16, 2001, at the Seattle International Film Festival,[13] to lower than average recognition by audiences, but admiration from critics.

[14] Following the film's theatrical exhibition in the United States, Ghost World was released on VHS and DVD format via MGM Home Entertainment in early 2002.

Additional features include deleted and alternative scenes, "Making of Ghost World" featurette, the Gumnaam music video "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", and the original theatrical trailer.

The website's critical consensus reads, "With acerbic wit, Terry Zwigoff fashions Daniel Clowes' graphic novel into an intelligent, comedic trip through deadpan teen angst.

It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor.

[22] In his Chicago Reader review, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: Birch makes the character an uncanny encapsulation of adolescent agonies without ever romanticizing or sentimentalizing her attitudes, and Clowes and Zwigoff never allow us to patronize her.

[25]Time magazine's Andrew D. Arnold wrote: Unlike those shrill, hard-sell teen comedies on the other screens, Ghost World never becomes the kind of empty, defensive snark-fest that it targets.

The injection of a relatively trite plot situation into Ghost World's more enigmatic stream of events is perhaps forgivable, since the film might otherwise never have been produced.

"[29] In Sight & Sound, Leslie Felperin wrote, "Cannily, the main performers deliver most of their lines in slack monotones, all the better to set off the script's wit and balance the glistering cluster of varyingly deranged lesser characters.