Thora Birch was an indie movie star. She had that attractive, attainable and snarky thing going on. She starred in the award winning, indie classic American Beauty as an insecure teenager that had few friends at school and a pretty wacky family dynamic. It was kinda hard hitting. There was death and took an interesting perspective in an otherwise mundane life. Well enter Hard Candy and Ellen Page. Page played a little girl, attractive, yet unattainable, due to her being underage, and was very snarky and smart. Once again, it was hard hitting, ya know, for dealing with pedophiles and all, and there was death. Act One Complete.

Now this is a bit out of order, but for the sake of a time consuming post, I’ll go there. They also both went mainstream. Thora was in Hocus Pocus. Ellen Page was in X-Men.

But then Thora Birch made another indie film by the name of Ghost World. It was good. As a future hipster, I loved it. I thought it was deep, funny, quirky and artsy. It talked about music (awesome points!), it flirted with pedophilia (hot topic!), and ultimately made you wonder (where did that bus lead to?). But after that, what then? Thora continued doing projects, but more or less fell into oblivion.

Juno is Ellen Page’s Ghost World. It had a trend inducing soundtrack (indie anti-folk,woah), it flirted with pedophilia (<3 Jason Bateman) and made you wish you had a quirky family, a quirky boyfriend, and a quirky pregnancy!

So what have we learned? Quirk and oddities are great for teens and early 20s, but after that… what do you have? A Drew Barrymore directed movie and lesbian admirers.

And I’ll leave you with this thought: Jason Bateman, the new Steve Buscemi?

Image sources: Hollywood Grind, Greg Wilker