Valley Girl

I was born a year after this movie came out, so I couldn't relate to it right when it came out.

I just recently saw Valley Girl a few days ago on the WE channel. I thought it was an interesting movie... Many people say the slang is outdated, but I don't know how many times I've heard someone say that something was "rad" or "awesome" or if someone was "getting laid."

Sure, the characters are vapid and shallow. They're like, from the valley, like, you know? I loved the characters of Fred and Randy, especially. I know many boys that have the attitude Fred has.

Nicholas Cage was SUPERB as Randy. I just wish there were more guys like that character: a rough-and-tumble punk with a dopey grin.

I've got to say, any movie that makes me giggle from the style and makes even Nicholas Cage adorable (Keep in mind that I come from his "action movie only era") rocks.

In the tradition of "Romeo and Juliet," a punker named Randy (Nicholas Cage) begins a relationship with shallow teenage girl named Julie (Deborah Foreman), but peer pressure from her equally shallow friends forces her to break up and go back to her ex-boyfriend (Michael Bowen). Randy refuses to take this lying down and tries to get Julie back. Will he succeed?

Fine performances by Cage, Foreman, Frederick Forrest and Colleen Camp (as Julie's hippie parents), sensitive directing by Martha Coolidge, and totally tubular soundtrack by Modern English, The Plimsouls, and Men at Work (to name a few) makes this fun sleeper one of the best 80's teen comedies (fer shure).

My evaluation: *** out of ****

"Valley Girl" is one of those rare films that's much better today, nearly 40 years later, than when it was released. In its time, it was just another romantic teen comedy, lost in a sea of many during that time period, but today it's a fascinating time capsule of early 1980s Los Angeles - the people, the places, the accents (even if much of it is stylized and over the top). By taking us to a place and culture now mostly gone and forgotten, something about "Valley Girl" gets elevated a notch or two, and it becomes an absolutely fascinating thing to watch.

You can tell by watching "Valley Girl" why Nicolas Cage became a star. He is eminently watchable. The camera just eats him up, and so do we. His female co-star, Deborah Foreman, never amounted to much, but is also highly watchable at the height of her beauty in this film. Together, they succeed in carrying this film and you want to see what happens to them, even if it's silly at times.

Everything today is so heavy and moody, exhibit A being the curmudgeonly reviewers here crapping all over "Valley Girl" because it isn't "high art" or something. Yes, "Valley Girl" is a light-hearted romantic film. That's all it ever set out to be, and it's a fun and nostalgic film to watch (if you have the right attitude...)

The first time I saw Valley Girl, I was bedridden and as sick as a dog, out of junior high school for two weeks with a nasty illness. I watched it on a tiny black and white set with the volume turned down to a whisper so my parents wouldn't hear and make me shut it off. I was mesmerized. It was a revelation. Martha Coolidge's milking of the Romeo and Juliet premise (with Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman filling in as star-crossed lovers in the San Fernando Valley) was smart and convincing. I was amazed by the hot "Val" chicks. I was thrilled by the interesting vocabulary words. I wanted to be like Cage's tough Randy and fall in love with a beautiful girl like Foreman's Julie to the sounds of Eddie Grant, Modern English, and The Plimsouls.

This movie is one of my all time favorite movies and is what made me a lifelong Nicolas Cage fan. Back in the mid-80's I taped this movie (when VCR's were impossible to do this with!!) and would watch it over and over. Nicolas Cage is just brilliant here. And, he looks wonderful and has no affecting "acting-isms" (see "Peggy Sue Got Married" to know what I mean about that!!). I measure all his performances against this one. He was so perfectly cast as the cool punk guy with the edgy friends. The music was GREAT. The Plimsouls! The Psychodelic Furs! Modern English! Men At Work! Whenever I hear "Melt With You" I am taken back to the finale of this movie.

What ever happened to his cute costar, Deborah Foreman? And his hysterical friend, Cameron Dye? Certainly took a different turn than Nicolas! Interestingly, the slutty friend (Elizabeth Daily) ended up being the voice of Tommy from the Rugrats (she is billed as E.G. Daily for that horrid show)! Bizarre!

IF you want to take a great trip back to the 80's, watch this movie. It is definitely a classic. Like Totally!