Year:	2002
Director:	Terry Zwigoff
Writer:	Daniel Clowes

Cast:

Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Ileana Douglas

For an indie film released through arthouse cinemas, I thought it was going to be a lot more cutting and satiric than it was. Instead, it had as many "oh my God's" and "totally's" as any mainstream teen film, and at times could have been mistaken for an episode of 90210.

It also had a limited appeal - as an adult who has had to get over the whole 'I'm too cool to get a crappy job and whore myself to the system' rebellion of early adulthood, it's hard to empathise with a protagonist still going through it.

Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johansson) are high school best friends and misfits. Uninterested in college, they wander off into young adulthood aimlessly, with no purpose or plan except to live together.

When they decide to make fun of 78 record fan, loner and loser Seymour (Buscemi, in his most realistic and understated role to date), Enid feels drawn to him. A strange obsessive friendship ensues as she revels further in her rebelliousness and draws further away from her best friend Rebecca, who's starting to grow up.

A great setup and performances from all concerned can't lift much higher than a cool teenage melodrama when it looked like being social comment on the soullessness of sterile urban life.