kz917-1 Oh me, oh my!The clothes, the hair, the swimwear!Nicolas Cage as a young buck attempting to romance a girl from the other side of the valley!Hysterical...for all the dated gems this movie contains.

tomgillespie2002 In the early 1980's the teen sex comedy was a prevalent genre, producing such "risque" works as Porky's (1982), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and The Last American Virgin (1982) - naming just a few of the many varying qualities of film. Despite Porky's being a more juvenile, and therefore lesser entry, it was the fifth top grossing film of 1982 (even though Fast Times is superior). Basically what these teen movies required was parties, booze and tits. And whilst Valley Girl has all of the ingredients, it is a far more mature film than the antics of a Screwballs, Spring Break, or Private School (all 1983), whose narratives involve the pursuit of sex, in what ever droll form that may take. I'm not suggesting these films are awful - they have their qualities - but the level of drama or realism of character is sorely missing.Julie (Deborah Foreman), as the title highlights, is from the rich valleys of California. At a house party, she meets Randy (Nicolas Cage), who is a "punk" from the wrong side of the tracks (in this world Hollywood is that place). They hang out for a time and fall for each other. However, the pressures of rich, privileged life gets in the way, as the conformity of Julie's friends, suggests that she is required to get back with her previous, Jock boyfriend Tommy (Michael Bowen). In the high schools of the valley, the need to stay within the confines of your "class" is essential to keep your reputation in tact, and Randy does not fit in to the generic role of preppy boy.The film does itself conform to romantic comedy tropes, but this does not matter. As with later teen comedies (Clueless (1995) or Mean Girls (2004) for example), Valley Girl highlights, to the mostly teen audience, that it is important not to conform to your peers ideals, fashions and product consumption. Julie's parents are seen by her as lame of course (it's a teenage thing), but Randy sees differently, as they are hippies of the Woodstock age, running a pseudo-fashionable health food shop, their own non-conformist attitude evident, but never pushed onto the daughter. It's a charming little film, that treats its teenage characters with maturity, and they are never simple box-tickers like so many of these comedies of vacuous, shallow, and stereotypical consumer teenagers.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Niklas Pivic Yes, this is a crippled film to say the least: the script sucks and yes, Nicholas Cage's acting is about as much fun as emptying bed pans - but: it's the 1980s. You won't get this much style from all the John Hughes-films put together! The clothes, the music (ah, The Flirts, Sparks), the girl talk. No jocks or cheerleaders, but a lot of bad boy meets nice girl; apparently, bad boy meant sloppy dressing and a like of compressed electric guitar solos in your pop 80s music, and nice girl meant dressing like you're from Little House on the Prairie and definitely not liking electric guitars at all. All in all: much too long, but what about the girl's parents and their way of life?

cgaray OK, so it piggy-backed on Frank/Moon Zappa's hit song. Doesn't change the fact that it is very well done and very funny. Teen angst has seldom been done so well.Nicholas Cage -- in one of his first roles -- is outstanding. Deborah Foreman is scintillating... don't really know why her career didn't go anywhere after this.The plot is formulaic -- kid from the "wrong side of the tracks" meets stuck up person and sparks fly... boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. And yet it's how any moviemaker works that formula that is important. Here it works brilliantly.For you 80s music fans, the live scenes of the Plimsouls and Josie Cotton are priceless. "A millllllllion miles....away".