Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

My Girl Blu-ray Movie Review

Is 'My Girl' worthy of your Blu-ray collection?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 28, 2015

Remember when a kiss was controversial? My Girl featured the most widely-discussed smooch of 1991, a blink-and-miss it pressing of the lips between child stars Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin that might have been singled out but was merely a smaller part of a much larger coming-of-age story from Writer Laurice Elehwany (The Brady Bunch Movie) and Director Howard Zieff (The Dream Team). Certainly, My Girl is about much more than a first kiss. It's a tender and goodhearted movie that confronts life's challenges in a boldly but beautifully straightforward manner. It offers a compelling yet accessible and innocent look at life and death and all of the complexities in between. The film effortlessly explores heartbreaking drama with an uplifting spirit through a simple yet challenging narrative that sees several characters grow, mature, and come to understand, to the best of their abilities and through the prism of their experiences, the realities of life from its most simple pleasures of friendship and love to its darkest moments of loneliness and death. It's one of the most effective films of its kind and remains relevant, accessible, and welcoming even decades removed from its release.

Friends forever.

Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) lives with her widower father Harry (Dan Aykroyd) who runs a small-town funeral parlor out of his home. Vada is obsessed with the idea of illness and death, convinced that she's sick with every sunrise but who lives with an otherwise cheery disposition and sense of adventure. She's best friends with Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin), a local boy who happens to be allergic to nearly everything. She's also madly in love with her teacher (Griffin Dunne) who is leading a summer poetry class that Vada desperately wishes to attend. One day, Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis) answers a help-wanted ad for a makeup artist at the parlor. She's hired, and she and Harry grow more fondly of one another, beyond their professional acquaintance. Meanwhile, Vada spends her summer having fun and learning about life, love, and death with Thomas J. at her side.

At the center of My Girl is Vada, an interestingly complex figure whose life is defined by loss. Her mother died during childbirth, her father runs a funeral parlor, her live-in senile grandmother is all but dead, and she suffers a great loss at the beginning of the film's third act. She's obsessed with death almost by no doing of her own; it surrounds her and influences her, even at her most subconscious level. It also manifests in her physical and emotional well-being, too. She's ever-convinced that she's succumb to some horrible disease, usually whatever it is that has taken the lives of the people who appear in the funeral home. She dares to glance at their charts but refuses to step foot in the basement where her father preps the bodies for the funeral service. An accidental moment in which she becomes locked inside is one of the most damaging of her young life. Yet she's also full of life, a vibrant, spunky girl who knows what she wants and does whatever she must to get it. She's attracted to her teacher in what she believes to be a romantic way and grows fond of her friend Thomas J. to the point of sharing a first kiss with him. She embodies the film's full spectrum analysis of life, filled with and eager to explore its highest joys yet terrified of its most frightening end. Writer Laurice Elehwany has done a remarkable job in penning the story with an effortless grace that's defined through Vada, not around her, taking her full circle all the way to the film's perfect final shot that seems to say "life goes on," a truism that even Vada has come to accept and understand.

The film's technical qualities nicely frame the story. The movie proves absorbing to the point that the camera seems to dissolve, giving way to an open portal into the very real, tangible, and timeless world the characters inhabit. It gently welcomes the audience into that world, slowly accommodates it into the starkly contrasted realms of life and death that Vada inhabits, and holds the audience's hand all the way through, from its most entertaining little bits to its most heartbreaking turns. Director Howard Zieff shoots the film with an effortless flow and feel that captures the performances and the narrative they dictate, nothing more and nothing less. The film benefits from a welcoming, breezy score, and music plays an important part in the experience, serving as both something of a spirit-lifter and a safe place for Vada's most challenging moments when she covers her ears and loudly sings her favorite song, desperately hoping that it will transport her to anywhere other than where she is and, more importantly, away from what she is feeling. The performances are also rich and well constructed. Dan Aykroyd turns in dramatic and detailed performance, fresh off his success in Driving Miss Daisy and showing again his range away from Comedy and natural talent in his more challenging dramatic roles. Jamie Lee Curtis likewise melts into the part of his newfound love interest. Macaulay Culkin is good in a somewhat limited role in terms of screen time, not importance to the story, but the movie belongs to then-newcomer Anna Chlumsky who hits a home run with a fully agreeable, detailed, and knowledgeable performance, appearing to deeply understand the character's complexities and convey them through dialogue, body language, and a confidence in herself and the character that shows even in the most challenging moments.

My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Girl's "Mastered in 4K" 1080p Blu-ray release looks excellent with only a few caveats. An organic, medium-density grain structure appears and remains for the film's entirety. Those who appreciate cleaner digital photography may find it distracting, but it lends to the picture a pure, handsome, film-quality texture. Details are strong, as is image clarity. Natural sharpness abounds in every scene, and minor softness only appears in short, largely inconsequential bursts. Concrete and brickwork around town looks marvelously rich and tactile, while clothing and faces enjoy proper, full definition. Colors appear a touch muted and the palette a hair warm. Still, the picture benefits from lively, rich color presentations, evident where the most robust array of hues appear, notably in a grocery store produce section around the 52-minute mark and moments later on an American flag. Flesh tones likewise go a bit warm and rosy. Black levels are a concern, but not a deal breaker. The darkest scenes appear a bit too overpowering and sometimes push slightly purple and noisy, particularly evident in some shots later in the film. Earlier shadowy, but not entirely dark, moments appear more balanced and true. The image is free of any print wear. On the whole, this is a fine, filmic high definition presentation from Sony.

My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Girl features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's not a revelation in any way, but it's a serviceable listen that fits the movie well enough. It's not particularly aggressive, even in its musical delivery. It's alive and healthy and nicely spaced with good, balanced back channel support. Clarity never quite reach its zenith, however, leaving the music sounding slightly limp in spots. Nevertheless, the track works well in other areas. Light background neighborhood ambience -- children at play by day, insects at night -- impresses in terms of placement and relative distance from the action. There are a few good directional effects as well, while a couple of heavier elements, like a buzzing swarm of bees, play with an adequate sense of energy and space. Dialogue is naturally center-focused and cleanly delivered.

My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

My Girl contains a commentary, a couple of featurettes, and a trailer. Inside the Blu-ray case, buyers will find a voucher for a UV digital copy of the film.

• Audio Commentary: Writer Laurice Elehwany offers a nicely spoken track in which she discusses getting the film out of the gate and her career as a writer, the original title, the film's setting, real life experiences that shaped the narrative, cast and performances, differences from the original screenplay to the final version, the film's core themes, and more. This track offers a nice change of pace from the usual commentaries that feature a solo director or a director plus actors or tracks where the writer is the fourth or fifth person in the room.
• A Day on the Set (1080p upscaled, 4x3): Divided into two sub-supplements: First Kiss (1:18) and Bingo! (3:24). Both simply offer a collage of on-set footage as it pertains to the scenes in question.
• Original Behind the Scenes Featurette (1080p upscaled, 4x3, 6:01): A simple, vintage making-of.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:20).

My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My Girl tells a timeless story. It's a heartfelt and goodnatured yet somewhat dark but at the same time hopeful and forthright movie about life and death and all those things entail as seen through the eyes of a young girl who is no stranger to loss, whose life is, in fact, defined by it. The film's grace and beauty comes from its rich understanding of life's complexities and its honest and open exploration thereof through a child's eyes. It's easy and difficult at the same time, a film that reflects the realities of life as smartly, simply, and openly as most any other film out there. Combined with high quality performances from every lead, My Girl ranks as not only one of the better movies of 1991 but a testament to the film medium's ability to so finely yet accessibly explore even the most challenging of narratives. Sony's Blu-ray release of My Girl features strong video, good lossless audio, and a few supplements. Highly recommended.