Welcome back! Here we are again as we wind down the first portion of the A-to-Z watch through. Before we look too far ahead, let’s focus on what we’ve got in front of us this week. We’ve got the letter “V” and it has brought us…Valley Girl (1983).
Title: Valley Girl
Director: Martha Coolidge
Released: April 29, 1983
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Available to stream on: Kanopy and Paramount+
IMDb synopsis: Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow, they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.
Julie (Deborah Foreman) is your typical Valley girl. She’s got the looks, the popularity, and the totally bitchin’ boyfriend in Tommy (Michael Bowen). Everything is perfect for Julie, right? As if.
After a montage that reminds us there was a point in time where malls were busy and were the cool place to be and be seen, Julie decides she’s had enough. She breaks things off with Tommy then heads to the beach with her friends. While at the beach, Julie makes eyes with Randy (Nicolas Cage) but Randy isn’t exactly what she’s used to.
Randy is a punk from Hollywood who runs in different circles than Julie. Julie’s friends, Loryn (Elizabeth Daily), Stacey (Heidi Holicker), and Suzi (Michelle Meyrink) do not approve of Julie’s new infatuation with Randy. They feel she should get back with Tommy. After considering her options, Julie decides to break up with Randy and go back to Tommy.
For as much as he tries to act too cool for school, Randy is devastated. But if ’80s movies have taught us anything, never underestimate the power of teenage love.
So, the question then becomes, how over-the-top cheese fest do we get as Randy and Julie fight to be together? Well, if you haven’t seen Valley Girl (1983) before, now’s where you totally go fix that so you can see how it ends.
All that I knew about Valley Girl (1983) going into it is that it had Nic Cage. It was very apparent right away that what I was going to get was going to ooze ’80s high school rom-com. It’s not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, however here it felt very paint-by-numbers.
Yes, you have all the staples, your beach hangs, your high school parties, and your raging teenage hormones. But the script itself feels like it was written by a Script-Bot 9000. Just imagine the most stereotypical ’80s dialogue you can think of, that’s what we get.
Luckily, the performances from the entire cast and the soundtrack are solid enough to overcome the script. It’s also nice to be able to cross another Nicolas Cage blind spot off of my list. This movie doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the rest, but it doesn’t do anything to make you despise it either.
It’s okay to just be pretty good and that’s where I land with Valley Girl (1983).
So, what about you? What are your thoughts on Valley Girl (1983)?
Tell me all about it in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!
By now, you know what’s next. Next Sunday will be the letter “W”. If you have a suggestion for the movie, get it in by Wednesday morning. As always, Wednesday evening the movie for the week will be revealed on my Twitter and Instagram.
[…] back for the twenty-third installment in our first A-to-Z challenge! This week brought with it the letter “W” and of course another first-time […]