Why So Blu?

My Girl (Blu-ray Review)

Watching My Girl brought back a lot of fond memories of the 1991 coming-of-age comedy-drama. It is a film that I have always been a fan of, but not one I have seen in quite some time. Seeing the film again, it holds up very well, as the story is simple enough, but quite effective on a variety of levels.  There is just something so unassuming about it, which works to great effect, considering how eventful of a summer it is for young Vada Sultenfuss. With My Girl now available on Blu-ray, many fans along with many others can take a look at this charming film.

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Film: 

Set during the summer of 1972, the film stars Anna Chlumsky as Vada Sultenfuss, a little girl who is still learning a lot about life. She lives with her father (played wonderfully by Dan Aykroyd), who runs a funeral parlor out of his home. Vada’s best friend is Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin) and she has a crush on her teacher, Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne). As the summer begins, Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) arrives in town and begins working as a make-up artist for the funeral home. The film is not so much about plot, but we basically follow Vada and the situations she gets into during the summer, which ends up having her learn more and more about growing up.

The film comes from writer Laurice Elehwany, who obviously involved some of her real life experiences in the story, with some fine direction from Howard Zieff to bring the film’s script to life. My Girl is not the flashiest of films, but it has the kind of setting and characters that managed to work quite well for a wide release coming-of-age story back in 1991, which would likely only come in the form of a limited release nowadays.

The key to the film’s success is Chlumsky. She has since grown up, received a proper education, and now stars on the acclaimed HBO comedy Veep, but it is nice to see how at a young age, Chlumsky had the chops to not only play a cute kid, but one that you could really help to invest the viewer into the drama of the film. Vada is a precocious character, but not annoying. She behaves her age, but has the smarts to basically allow us to know that good things will be coming her way, even when understanding that her character has suffered some drama both before this film begins and during the summer we follow with her.

The supporting cast is also strong, particularly Aykroyd and Curtis. Both do exactly what is required of them, which is to play adults, acknowledging the fact that they must contend with Vada. Aykroyd, who I wish would embrace his dramatic side more, does fine work as a widower with a smart young daughter. He has some standout scenes and it is not at all surprising to see him as such a warm father figure. Curtis gets to play it a bit more broadly, but I like her sort of former-hippy ways being transformed into a character that understands she needs to grow up herself, which is emphasized more by the way Vada and her family have an effect on her.

By the time the song “My Girl” comes on, one should easily see how successful this film is in doing what it needs to accomplish, as far as fun coming-of-age stories go. The film is entertaining, not without its share of drama, but a nice example of a simple story that goes a bit further in quality, because of the actors involved and the screenplay the filmmakers had to work with.

Video:

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail: For those that have been anticipating My Girl’s Blu-ray release, they are in luck, as the film has been mastered in 4K and looks excellent for it. There are some minor issues, but the thing to know is how good this film looks, while retaining the look of its original theatrical release. We see the grain, but the picture is sharp and the detail work is quite strong throughout.

Depth: There is a nice level of dimensionality to observe in various scenes in the film.

Black Levels: Blacks are dark enough, even if the film’s warm palette keeps things from every getting all that inky. They are balanced well enough when it counts though.

Color Reproduction: The color work is strong here. The film has a warm palette, as mentioned, but there are a number of muted scenes as well, but they come off just as well as the scenes that promote a sense of vibrancy, when it comes to portraying the outdoor, summertime scenes.

Flesh Tones: Facial textures come across great here, as we see the details coming through cleanly and pick up lots of aspects that reflect this great transfer.

Noise/Artifacts: Aside from the look of a traditionally shot film of the early 90s, not much to complain about.

 

Audio: 

Audio Format(s): English, Portuguese 5.1 DTS-HD MA, French (PAR), Italian, German, Spanish (Castilian), Japanese Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Portuguese (Brazilian), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Turkish

Dynamics: The lossless 5.1 surround track does a great job of letting us hear what we need to. While not the most complicated film on an auditory level, this Blu-ray does a fine job of conveying what is needed on a number of levels.

Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel really just gets play when it comes to some of the soundtrack choices, but nothing all that significant.

Surround Sound Presentation: Hearing the soundtrack, the sound effects, the dialogue, and the ambient noise mixed together is quite nice, as far as the balance goes. Everything feels appropriately focused.

Dialogue Reproduction: We hear Vada and the others loud and clear.

 

Extras:

Unfortunately there is only so much to take away from the extras. A commentary is always great, but some retrospectives would have been pretty cool to see.

Features Include:

• Audio Commentary with Writer Laurice Elehwany – Lots of good tidbits of information concerning the film, which was nice to hear.
• A Day on Set: First Kiss & Bingo! (HD, 5:00) – First off, this and the other featurette have been upscaled from their previous release. That said, this is a brief look at the making of a couple scenes by way of on-set footage.
• Original Behind the Scenes Featurette (HD, 6:01) – An old EPK.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD)
• UltraViolet Copy of the Film

Summary:

My Girl was a fine film to catch up with again, after many years. It remains a solid watch in the same way that The Sandlot sort of continues to work so well for me. That said, My Girl has a lot more drama associated with it and the film manages to navigate those areas quite well, while also work as a strong piece of entertainment. The Blu-ray does a proper job of presenting the film, even if the extras are a little lacking. Fans should be pleased.

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