kevin22

While I am no longer 18, I still felt a deep connection with Enid and Rebecca. Ghost World portrays teenage life for the rest of us: we may not have been the most popular in school, nor did we particularly enjoy extracurricular activities, but we had distinct interests and ideas and didn't adhere to the conformist, corporate schema.

There have been numerous mediocre films made over the last four or so years (e.g. American Pie, Can't Hardly Wait, She's All That) attempting to appeal to the youth of today. Many of them are glammy `Hollywood' efforts: plot based, unrealistic drivel written by adults too far removed from their own high school graduation and first jobs to understand what being young was really like. Ghost World paints a realistic, unresolved portrait of the pains of growing up, ambivalence about one's future, and other everyday angst, thus separating itself from the norm. What's wonderful is that Ghost World is a mainstream movie, but not excessively so. It has such a wonderful balance of counter-culture and mainstream culture that I found myself not specifically focusing on the cultural criticism, but instead narrowing in on the richly nuanced characters.

People often complain films today don't care enough about their characters; or that the screen is filled with too many clichés. At nearly three hours, Yi Yi gives itself the time to develop and maintain elaborate realism and a delicate pace. The film is brilliant because it is composed of many small interconnected moments, not one contrived string of plot elements.

The film includes grand moments such as birth, marriage and death, but most importantly it depicts everyday life. The wonderful cinematography quietly reveals modern and urban Taipei, a city whose architecture and landscape is as complex as its inhabitants. Yi Yi is a contemporary film which effectively shows the human condition all at once as precious and painful, ephemeral and imperfect.

From my point of view, the main themes of this film are unrequited love and the allure of physical beauty. I am sure there will be no strong consensus what the theme of this film is, especially since individual perception plays a crucial role on two levels. First, the boys try to interpret the enigma of the Lisbon sisters. Second, the viewer must also try to understand the Lisbon girls, plus interpret the boys' fascination with them.

While there are few truths in this film, and as uneven as I felt walking out of the theater, I truly enjoyed the experience. What made the film exceptional from what could have been just a decent film was the direction and cinematography. While retro-stylish, Ms. Coppola's portrait of the 70s spared the clichés, much like the film adaptation of Rick Moody's The Ice Storm was able to effectively convey.

The Virgin Suicides is dreamy, pensive, melancholic, dark, moody, humorous, equivocal, mystical and depressing. The range of emotions seem to flutter at random, unexpected intervals. I am extremely curious as to how the mainstream audience will perceive this film. Whereas last year's American Beauty asked the audience to "look closer," trying to dissect this film seems futile. True enjoyment of this film seems to come from letting the mystery be. Of course, this is only my perception.