My Girl 2 (1994)

Of course, they always have to ruin everything with a sequel. This isn't as bad as I remember it, but it still feels like a betrayal to my memory of the original.

It's two years later, and Vada is now an angsty teen eager to learn more about her deceased mother, so she hops a plane to Los Angeles where she develops friendly feelings for another boy. It has the same great topical soundtrack of the '70s which transports you to a different era. It doesn't hit nearly as hard as the original film, but it takes you back to an age of innocence long lost past, while also somehow retaining that feeling of being quintessentially '90s.

3 La Brea Tar Pits out of 5

My Girl (1991)

It's 1972, and Vada Sultenfuss is an 11-year-old girl whose mother has died and whose dad is preoccupied by running a funeral parlor in the basement. She's a hypochondriac who is obsessed with death and tries to find meaning by joining a summer writing class and hanging out with her friend Thomas J. Meanwhile, her dad begins courting a new romance which reopens some old wounds.

I suppose a lot has to do with when you were born and your memories of growing up, but this film arrived at a perfect point in my formative years where it affected me throughout my life. To the point where I can almost transpose my own memories of childhood onto this film. Vada represented everything I looked for in a girl and Anna Chlumsky brings enormous charm and heart to her performance. Even now, I can still remember how I felt watching this as an easily impressionable kid. It doesn't hurt that I also saw myself in Macaulay Culkin at that age. This is a movie with real soul which contemplates some deep truths, especially for a coming-of-age film.

4½ mood rings out of 5