You can find My Girl on Amazon here.
Directed by Howard Ziff and written by Loris Elehvany, My Girl became an instant classic for an entire generation, blending tender 1970s nostalgia, first love, and the harsh realities of childhood grief in a way few family films had dared to do before. Set in Madison, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1972, the film follows hypersensitive, hypochondriac Vada Sultenfuss (Chlumsky), who lives with her widowed funeral-director father Harry (Dan Aykroyd) and aging grandmother (Ann Nelson). Wada along with his best friend Thomas J. She spends time with Sennett (Culkin), an allergy-prone boy who is secretly in love with her, while struggling with guilt over her mother’s death during childbirth and her budding feelings for her rebellious English teacher (Griffin Dunn).
The film’s most infamous moment – Thomas Jay’s sudden death from an allergic reaction to a bee sting and the subsequent funeral scene in which Vada sobs, “He can’t see without his glasses!” – A large number of spectators started reaching for tissues. That single line, improvised by Chlumsky on the set, is still quoted, remembered and cried over three decades later.
My Girl was a modest box-office success in 1991, grossing $121 million worldwide on a $17 million budget and finishing as the 12th highest-grossing film of the year. It is notable for being a drama in which Jamie Lee Curtis played a no-feature role as a kindly beauty expert who falls in love with Harry. Critics praised the performances, particularly the natural chemistry between Chlumsky and Culkin, both appearing in their second major film roles (Culkin, of course, fresh from the mega-success of Home Alone the previous Christmas).
The film spawned a lesser-known sequel, My Girl 2, in 1994, which followed an older Wada in Los Angeles, but it failed to recapture the magic of the original. Still the first film survived. Its soundtrack – which included such classics as “Saturday in the Park” and “Bad Moon Rising” as well as the title track by The Temptations – helped cement the 1970s feel, while prompting “Where are his glasses? He was wearing his glasses!” Became cultural shorthand for childhood trauma.
Over the past few years, My Girl has been re-evaluated as one of those rare children’s films that are willing to face death. Mental health advocates have noted how accurately it portrayed childhood anxiety and complicated grief, while film scholars point to its influence on later stories such as Bridge to Terabithia and The Florida Project.
Anna Chlumsky, who largely stepped away from acting after the sequels to go to college, returned to the spotlight with her Emmy-nominated work in Veep, and still talks fondly about the film that made her famous. Macaulay Culkin, whose career took a very different trajectory, has occasionally addressed Thomas J. Have mentioned.
On this 34th anniversary, My Girl is streaming regularly (currently on Netflix in several countries) and still wows first-time viewers – and repeat violators – alike. As Vada herself says in the final moments of the film, “Crying may last a night, but happiness comes in the morning.” For millions of people who grew up with My Girl, that joy is a memory of perfectly preserved summer mood, bicycle riding and the heartbreaking realization that childhood doesn’t last forever.
You can find My Girl on Amazon here.
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