Coming-of-age: My Girl edition
My Girl (1991) takes us on a journey in the ever-changing life of eleven-year-old Vada Sultenfuss. Her mother died when she was born and her father runs a funeral home, giving her a strange and obsessive relationship with death. Her father often neglects Vada, and her feelings of isolation from her father only increase when he finds love with a cosmetologist, Shelly. Her best friend, Thomas J, the only one who truly understands her, dies, leaving her to deal with her struggles alone. My Girl is a heart wrenching account of both the beauty and pain of growing up, exemplified through Vada’s story of loss and growth. Throughout the movie, we see Vada experience lots of traditional events that symbolize her aging. She has her first kiss with Thomas J, and for the first time in the movie, her aloof attitude towards what boys think about her starts to change. She gains a heightened awareness of what boys think of her and her desire to be pretty in their eyes com...