What the fuck was this movie supposed to be about? If it's not a metaphor for suicide, then I just didn't get it at all. Enid (Thora Birch) is a disaffected young artist, disaffected being a polite word for bitchy in this case. She hates everyone and everything for not living up to the standards she feels are necessary but is unable to articulate. As one last high school prank, she and her friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) respond to a personal ad for a missed connection. However, when the poor schlub (Steve Buscemi) shows up, Enid feels unexpectedly guilty. She decides to continue following Seymour, eventually befriending him. Rebecca just wants to move on with their lives, getting a job and an apartment, but Enid just can't commit. She makes Seymour her proxy, using the excuse of getting him a date rather than confront her own inabilities to connect with other people.
Maybe this was a big deal when it first came out, but a dozen years later, it just feels emotionally stunted. Everyone goes through periods of ennui, and being a teenager is hard. It's a time when everyone around you starts to expect adult decision-making, when the choices you make matter. It can be paralyzing to make those choices on your own, and to face the consequences thereof. But you still do them. It's the only way growth is possible. Otherwise, you might as well just kill yourself.
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