My Girl Shows of With Kicks and Flare Some of the Secrets of Youth

My Girl

Directed by Howard Zeiff

Starring Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Calkin, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis

PG

1991

Kids are known to have a penchants for quirkiness. My Girl, directed by Howard Zeiff in 1991, explores the ironic obsessions of youth. Zeiff’s direction clearly has morals at its heart. The precision of some of the trickier concepts to master shows off how dedicated he is to his craft.

               What the effort is put into is that there is a lot of starpower in the hands of the youth. The film centers almost exclusively on the young stars of the film, Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Calkin, who prove to be an inseparable team. The childplay in the interplay is decidedly momentous, driving an intriguing investigation into the motives of the youth. What the film is about places the heart in the hands of the audience.

               It’s all about a young girl’s cute obsession with death. Her lighthearted approach to very serious matters gives everyone a cheerful smile. Taking such a heavy subject matter and giving it the cute treatment. Makes the thing almost Seussical, how poetic the whole thing is. Carving out a place that hits wittily and cleverly to the point of a modern triumph.

               The land of adults is a place full of discipline. That’s how it’s painted in the film, and that’s what it looks like to kids. Showing off the versatility of the production to fit the vibe of looking through the eyes of a child at the whole film. It draws in for its novelty. It’s a one-of-a-kind gem that entrances with its glisten.

               Failing to meet the bar that the kids are on, the adults in the film have their own deep flaws and bittersweet approach to the world. Things that the kids take under their wing to correct. Kids feel like they know everything about everything. The more the film explores a young girl’s obsession with death, the more you see how much her persona dominates the world around her.

               It’s like My Girl makes the whole world based on the way you fit into it. The perception of your ambitions and dreams guiding you from moment to moment. The imprint of your interests on your approach to life telling you just what to say and how to feel.

               I bet the young girl, Vada Sultenfuss, played in the film by Chlumsky, feels like a robot half of the time. To make matters worse, the world that has been built up is falling apart around her. Vada’s dad, Harry, played in the film by Dan Aykroyd, is going through a lot of feelings of his own. His emotional openness with people about his internal struggles is clearly taking its toll on the world around him.

               The bond of family is another topic that My Girl explores. It’s an ironic one, though, because the family is broken beyond belief at a certain point. Attempted to be held together by a permanent bond that is clearly driving everyone mad. Family tends to work like that at times, with the promise of a brighter future ahead.

               Furthering the irony, an attractive woman shows up in Harry’s life that tried to take the place of Vada’s dead mother. Making Vada uncomfortable, and giving the film propulsion towards the mysteries of how ambitions play into the deeper secrets of American life. It feels sad in a melancholy way, and you feel a consistent sense of compassion for the characters from start to end.

               The film is centered around an ironic purpose. To show off how maturity is elusive but desired in the life of kids, and to show the importance of childhood on the nature of family. It’s like if you lop off one arm, you still have the other, and all of the opportunities to feel a humble sense of connection to the world. It’s also like killing one ant out of an anthill. Something distracting can be fun to try to imagine, but it’s still a distraction from the truth.

               The emotional relevance of the film is intriguing in the sense that it drives the purpose of the film further. It’s a dramatization of a certain sensibility that’s been present in everyone’s life at some point. Painted out in such a way that it’s a masterpiece work of art. There are all kinds of moments in the film that show the diverse interests of having connection with your kids. All to make the point that motherhood being absent is never tolerated by the psychology of loss.

               The ever-presentness of the film gives the post-modern flare of a dystopian family living out twisted dreams tethered to broken bonds. The post-modern perspective comes from a root that’s existential in philosophy, and relevant to say the truth. It’s an existential exploration in a world that truly does exist in everyone’s life, and a dramatization that’s as catchy as a hit tune.