Based on Daniel Clowes's early-'90s underground comic book, Ghost World is a dry, witty examination of adolescent oddballs and suburban alienation as seen through the eyes of Enid (Thora Birch, who played a similarly cranky teenager in American Beauty), a premature misanthrope and accomplished smart-ass who enjoys lingering in greasy diners and strolling around in vintage clothing. At first the film focuses on the friendship between Enid and the similarly disaffected Becky (Scarlett Johansson), but it soon drifts to the strange relationship Enid strikes up with Seymour (an understated Steve Buscemi), a self-proclaimed "amusingly eccentric, cranky curiosity" who collects vintage LPs and longs for a girlfriend. Directed and co-written by Terry Zwigoff (who also directed Crumb, the 1994 documentary of cult cartoonist Robert Crumb), Ghost World proceeds much like the untethered slacker Enid -- it drifts along, smartly skewering high-school art teachers, strip-mall culture, and 9-to-5 McJobs, before arriving at a pat, somewhat maudlin ending that clashes with the sarcastic and acidic tone of its first 90 minutes. At the Avon.