My Girl (1991)

September 11, 2023 1:52 PM

Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father (Dan Aykroyd) runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin), her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Masur, Griffin Dunne.

Directed by Howard Zieff.

50% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (16 comments total)

IYKYK.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:52 PM on September 11, 2023 [18 favorites]

Dude, that's like literally the most unhelpful comment you could make. Care to share with the class???
posted by rikschell at 1:58 PM on September 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

If you want to spoil the movie, this will make it clear.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:25 PM on September 11, 2023

rikchell: DirtyOldTown has seemingly been on a bit of a thematic movie marathon, based on today's FanFare posts...
posted by Navelgazer at 2:33 PM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I’ve never watched this movie and am only now learning that the lead was played by Anna Chlumsky. It’s hilarious to think that there are people out there who watched her messed-up roles in Veep and Hannibal and said to themselves, “That’s the girl from My Girl!! Uh, what happened??”
posted by ejs at 5:13 PM on September 11, 2023

Y'all.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:26 PM on September 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Why you gotta do that?
I gotta say I absolutely loved this movie, it broke my little heart.
posted by Iteki at 12:01 AM on September 12, 2023

How does this movie only have a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? I mean, it did break my heart as a kid, but I still liked it.
posted by emd3737 at 12:13 AM on September 12, 2023

t’s hilarious to think that there are people out there who watched her messed-up roles in Veep and Hannibal and said to themselves, “That’s the girl from My Girl!! Uh, what happened??”

I haven't seen those, but I have seen In the Loop, and yes, that's exactly what I thought!
posted by unicorn chaser at 6:18 AM on September 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I saw this in a theater when it came out. I think the director had a financial stake in a facial tissue manufacturer. "Are you crying yet? No, lets try it this way ... ". They make three or four attempts in quick succession before the credits roll.
posted by roue at 6:38 AM on September 12, 2023

I was mezzo-mezzo on the film when I saw it, but there is one scene I find hands-down adorable.

For whatever reason Vada decides she wants to practice kissing and kind of talks Thomas into it, and then they actually kiss (a brief lip peck). And afterward, they're standing there awkwardly wondering "now what do we do", and Vada blurts out to Thomas to "don't just stand there, say something!" And - for lack of knowing what else to say, Thomas starts reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. :-)

Jamie Lee Curtis was on the Graham Norton a few months ago, and had a great story involving the "swear jar" the crew had for this film.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:52 AM on September 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Also, just in case THIS was the disconnect:

> IYKYK.

Dude, that's like literally the most unhelpful comment you could make. Care to share with the class???

I think that "IYKYK" is an abbreviation for "If you know you know". (I got the reference, but I didn't recognize the abbreviation at first glance and I'm wondering if that was the disconnect there.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:57 AM on September 12, 2023

It was "If you know you know" yes. And the thing to know was that sweet little Thomas J (Macaulay Culkin) dies a heartbreaking death after stepping on a beehive, as he was allergic to bee stings. The joke is dead now. Cause of death: overexplanation.

Thomas J's demise would have been bad enough, but they tried to bury him without his glasses. Without his glasses!

HE CAN'T SEE WITHOUT HIS GLASSES. [sobs into fist]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:15 AM on September 12, 2023 [10 favorites]

Every time I hear about this movie, which I have been blessed/cursed to have never seen, I think of Oscar Wilde's probably apocryphal quote about how you'd have to have a heart of stone to not dissolve into laughter at the death of Little Nell in Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop.

Using that metric, "McCauley Culkin gets stung to death by bees" has proven to me many times that my heart is not made of stone.
posted by mediareport at 9:40 AM on September 12, 2023

Using that metric, "McCauley Culkin gets stung to death by bees" has proven to me many times that my heart is not made of stone.

Sure, it sounds funny now, but man back in 91, thirteen year old me was fucked up by it.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:53 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Perhaps we now need to revisit Sleepless in Seattle: "Harold wasn't always allergic to bees."
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:36 AM on September 14, 2023