Valley Girl Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1983

Valley Girl was an underdog that managed to shrug off its low-budget and (then) no-name cast to become a cinematic cultural landmark that remains a favorite among 80's fans to this day. Often billed by fans as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, this romantic comedy served as a springboard for Nicholas Cage's impressive acting career.

There is an unspoken rule of sorts that states any review for Valley Girl must include a certain level of valley girl lingo. Well, although I was a child of the 80's I'm afraid I'll have to take a pass on this tradition, because even back then when I heard the local gals yap in this lingo I could barely decipher what was being said. I always felt valley speak was, like, totally tubular… wait… I meant intolerable.

Alright, enough with the small talk – let's get into the meat of the review.

The movie focuses on Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman), a rich and privileged girl residing in the San Fernando Valley of California, and Randy (Nicholas Cage), a guy from the seedy side of West Hollywood. One night during a party Randy meets Julie and although the two come from different sides of the track, somehow they kick it off perfectly. It's love at first sight.

Julie and Randy start dating regularly and experience the bliss of young love, but such happiness isn't to last. Julie's best friends as well Tommy (Michael Bowen), her ex-boyfriend, are adamantly opposed to her hanging out with a member of the punk culture… it's "beneath" her. Rather than defy peer pressure, she breaks off her relationship with Randy and gets back together with Tommy to please her clique.

Now it's up to Randy to try and convince Julie to set aside the peer pressure and her societal prejudices and date the person she truly loves.

Valley Girl is sometimes classified as a teen sex comedy. It isn't. You won't find any sophomoric humor focusing on bodily functions or painful quests for the male protagonists to score, though you will get a bit of nudity and actors in their mid-twenties trying to pass themselves off as seventeen year olds.

Valley Girl is sometimes classified as a romantic comedy. It isn't. Quite frankly, the movie isn't funny – I doubt I cracked a smile more than once or twice while watching the film. Most of the humor is expressed through the bastardized form of English the vapid valley girls use, so if you find such speech to be amusing then perhaps your opinion will differ from mine on this account.

Valley Girl is sometimes classified as the 80's version of Romeo and Juliet. It isn't, and if Shakespeare ever heard such a claim he would roll in his grave. This film has none of the drama, intensity or direness of the literary classic, so why anyone would try and suggest the two are similar is beyond me. If anything Valley Girl shares more in common with mindless teenie-bopper films, though I'll be quick to point out it does remain above them.

So far I've been quite the contrarian throughout this review, but I don't want to give the impression this was a bad movie. While Valley Girl fails as a comedy, it's actually a pretty darn good romance story for those in the mood for a date movie.

The overall acting is strong throughout the film, which is impressive when you consider none of the actors were big names when they did this film. Nicholas Cage and Deborah Foreman made a great couple and shared an onscreen chemistry that made their relationship seem sincere.

Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest deserve special recognition for their roles of Julie's hippy parents. The little bit of true humor the film possessed was derived from the scenes where this laidback, quirky duo interacted with their daughter about relationships and the birds and the bees.

Parts of the film's weaknesses were no doubt caused by the speedy creation and execution of the movie as well as the very low budget (relatively speaking) of $320,000. Director Martha Coolidge had very little to work with, and multiple re-shoots of scenes just weren't an option due to limited film stock. Despite its low-budget background, Valley Girl holds up very well when compared to its big-budget siblings.

Valley Girl failed to really connect with me, both in the past and the present. While I can appreciate its strengths, it takes a truly special romance movie to draw me to the screen since that genre just doesn't do it for me. This film didn't have that special quality – it was too paint-by-the-numbers, even if the painting included some masterstrokes.

That having been said, Valley Girl is one of the best cinematic snapshots of the 80's culture that you will find, and for that reason alone it can be a fun trip down memory lane for most children of the 80's. And finally, if you enjoy romance films, or are looking for a nice date movie, you'll probably want to add a couple stars to my rating.

Movie rating: 7 stars

If you enjoyed Valley Girl you may also find the following films to be of interest: