Fille ou garçon

I have seen this movie more times than I've seen my own elbows.

Gifted thespian Joyce Hyser plays "Terri" (note cool yuppie spelling). Terri is a hot babe, the height of teen fashion, and an aspiring journalist. She's got her meticulously-lined eyes set on an internship with the city newspaper. To try and earn it, she submits an essay on the nutrient content of high-school lunches. Her english teacher is not impressed. He thinks her writing sucks wet pantyhose. Apparently the sodium-level of tater-tots is a topic that fails to move him. What a stick!

Rather than face the reality that her writing bites old dusty cardboard, Terri convinces herself that the essay has been pooped on simply because she does not have a penis. How could anyone *not* be excited by tater-tots? It HAS to be sexism! Having arrived at this highly logical conclusion, Terri does what any rational and self-reliant teen would do in this predicament:

Dress up as a boy, enroll in the rival school, and enter the essay as a guy. But of course, silly!

As a dude, she is sure to be taken seriously. As seriously as one can be taken while wearing black skinny ties and 10 rolls of duct-tape.

Terri lops off her heavy-metal-mama hair, rummages through her brother's closet, and a few crotch-grabbing lessons later...viola! A boy!

I'm not even gonna' front --this movie gives me the warm fuzzies. Joyce Hyser make most funny faces. Me laugh lots. She should have been a huge star, or at the very least been given her own bad FOX sitcom. I love this movie and I don't care how uncool that makes me. I'm going to go watch it for the 367th time...I can never get enough of girls in drag and guys with painted-on Wranglers.

This is a charming little movie that never fails to make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've seen it. Terrific acting by the entire cast. Why none of them became big stars is a mystery to me. The fashions, hairstyles and language are a 1985 time capsule.

I suggest you see it for yourself, but not on commercial television, because they edit out all the good jokes!

For some reason that line has stuck with me all these years. Maybe that's because I was watching the movie with my mom when she asked me if that was true...

Anyway, I loved JUST ONE OF THE GUYS, and still think of it fondly. It's a funny teen movie that doesn't rely on vulgarity for its humor, and I also remember how refreshingly non-homophobic the Rick Morehouse character acted when he thought his new "male" friend was developing a crush on him (1985's teen movies were strangely queer-friendly, as evidenced here, in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 and ST. ELMO'S FIRE, and with Stephen Geoffreys starring in FRIGHT NIGHT and FRATERNITY VACATION). Isn't that odd considering that, in the supposedly more tolerant times of today, there are teen movies like SORORITY BOYS that are more homophobic than those made during the Reagan years?

And then there's William Zabka, whose character in JUST ONE OF THE GUYS is one of a trio of supercilious cads he played in the '80's. Some enterprising Gen-X DVD producer should release a box set with this movie, THE KARATE KID and BACK TO SCHOOL; I know I'd buy it to revel in the Legend of Zabka.

This is a movie which concentrates more on getting laughs than getting preachy. When it does get preachy, it tells both sides of the story (although some male characters are annoying sterotypes.) It also contains two of the all time classic lines in movie history. While Denise enjoys herself at Terri's prom, she rejoices, "I'm having such a good time, no one here knows I used to be fat." When Buddy is told by an attractive female classmate that he's a nice guy, Buddy retorts, "Not a nice guy, that's the kiss of death."

This amusing 1985 gender bender is a reminder of Victor/Victoria, but only as a comedy not a musical. Terry played by Joyce Hyser, believes her teachers don't take her very serious because she's a pretty girl. She fails to win a journalism contest and decides to switch schools - and gender. She does make a very handsome guy, and plays her role so well and is accepted as one of the guys. She can be very tough also. Even the guy Rick, played by Clayton Rohner, is fooled by her. It's not until the last reel that he realizes that she loves him.

I had never seen this before until today on The Comedy Channel, and although I did not know any of the stars, it's such an amusing tale of high school graduates, that it held my interest. Good for some laughs!