Word: birching
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...children are keenly attuned to how many calories they need to grow and maintain a normal weight; they know when they are hungry and when they are full. But most kids quit listening to those internal cues by the time they reach school age. The reason? Parents, says Leann Birch, a psychologist at Penn State University. "There are things parents do with the best of intentions that turn out to be counterproductive," she says. A familiar example: insisting that children clean their plate, a rule that can teach kids to eat when they are not hungry...
...GHOST WORLD An Amelie with attitude, teen Enid (the frighteningly assured Thora Birch) adopts orphan things and people in order to make fun of them. This daringly undarling comedy, from director Terry Zwigoff and comix writer Daniel Clowes, shows just how furtive and morose an ordeal growing up can be. It's a Heathers for the 9/11 Generation...
...Ghost World An Amélie with attitude, teen Enid (the frighteningly assured Thora Birch) adopts orphan things and people in order to make fun of them. This daringly undarling comedy, from director Terry Zwigoff and comix writer Daniel Clowes, shows just how furtive and morose an ordeal growing up can be. It's a Heathers for the 9/11 Generation...
They have cast themselves as outcasts. Standing apart at their high school graduation, they gaze at the proceedings from the Olympus of their scorn. "This is so bad it's good," says Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson). Enid (Thora Birch) corrects her only friend: "This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again." The girls are subtle connoisseurs of bad. They have a favorite lousy comedian, ugly doll, porno store and, eventually, a favorite pathetic nerd. That's Seymour (Steve Buscemi), who collects old records and fresh psychic wounds. "I would kill to have stuff like this...
Zwigoff gave Clowes complete control over the onscreen characters. And he agreed with the writer's belief that the girls should be played by actresses no older than 18. In the project's anguished gestation, Christina Ricci, the original star, grew too old for Enid. Enter Birch, fresh from her role as the daughter in American Beauty, and Johansson, who has been playing wise children for almost half her life (Manny & Lo, The Horse Whisperer). "Enid is an original," says Birch, now 19. "Timeless." So is the actress's incarnation. She gives Enid the stooped posture and scowl...