“Julie’s cool. Randy’s hot. She’s from the valley. He’s not!”
Sweet-natured San Fernando Valley suburbanite, Julie (Deborah Foreman), falls for Randy (18-year-old Nicolas Cage), an adventurous Hollywood punk from the wrong side of the tracks.
Julie first spots Randy emerging from the waves, glistening as he runs up the beach. They’re immediately stricken by each other, Julie unaware that his hot bod is normally wrapped in a punk wardrobe.
He later reappears at a suburban party, where Julie has spent the evening swapping icy stares with her no-good ex Tommy (Michael Bowen).
Randy and his best pal Fred (Cameron Dye) stand out among the preps like two sore thumbs, their shocking style drawing frowns from everyone in the room.
When Randy and Julie’s eyes meet again, nothing else exists – until Tommy and his pinhead jock lackeys oust the new wave interlopers from the house. But it’s too late. The star-crossed teens are already head-over-heels, and Randy will stop at nothing to win Julie’s heart.
Shaking off the shame of his public beating, he sneaks back in via a bathroom window and hides in the shower while an endless assortment of Izod-clad youth use the bathroom for makeouts, makeup and impromptu cocaine socials.
His patience pays off, and Julie eventually appears to powder her nose. She’s startled by Randy’s presence but agrees to escape the party at his side, bringing her friend Stacey (Heidi Holicker) as backup (much to Fred’s delight).
Tepid synth rack blares through the car speakers as they cruise into the comparatively darker territory of Hollywood, Stacey covering her squeaky-clean ears, yelling, “I hate this song! I hate this music!”
Julie is much less repulsed, staring wide-eyed at the bright lights and studded punks of the city as if she’s never stepped outside the suburbs, as Randy shouts out to nightlifers on every block.
They park at a club and enter the red-lit venue, the girls visibly intimidated by the clamorous, claustrophobic room full of punks and elegant lowlifes. The Plimsouls perform onstage as the kids secure a table and begin their first actual conversation, which immediately exposes the rift between their worlds.
Even while questioning each other’s fundamental basics (“You guys think you’re so different, don’t you?”), Julie and Randy become increasingly amorous. After yelling over the band for a while, the kids ride up to a lookout point above the city and complete their evening with a necking session.
It’s daylight by the time Julie makes it home to her hippie parents (Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest), and Randy is barely able to let her go.
He visits her later that same day, kicking off a satisfying falling-in-love montage set to Melt With You by Modern English.
But the flawlessness of their meeting is short-lived, as the relationship comes under fire during a sleepover with Julie’s girlfriends.
After the girls hop around in lingerie to a Waitresses album, Julie’s friends ambush her with their grossly incorrect comparison of Randy and the clearly inferior Tommy.
Though her feelings for Randy are undeniable, she slowly succumbs to social pressures (her uncertainty subtly manifests as she paints new-wave makeup designs on her cheekbones).
She’s further worn down during a Du-par’s Restaurant heart-to-heart with Loryn (the great E.G. Daily), hesitantly acknowledging the safer road of dating within her peer group.
No sooner has she completely given in than Tommy reappears to claim ownership.
This leaves the matter of tearing out Randy’s heart, which is easily the most powerful scene in the film.
After not hearing from Julie for days, he stops by her house with his doe eyes in tow. Clearly pained, she does her best to cold-shoulder him until she finally blurts out that she just doesn’t want to see him anymore.
He’s shell-shocked, reeling back in an apologetic daze before it dawns on him that she’s fallen under her friends’ influence.
Torn between love and rage, he leaves her sobbing in the doorway, turning back to berate her in her own native tongue: “Fuck you. Fuck off. Fer sure. Like totally.”
Randy is resolute, following Julie to school, dedicating songs to her on the radio and even donning wild disguises to infiltrate her dates with Tommy.
When all else fails, he and Fred invade her prom without a plan. New wave pop sensation Josie Cotton and her band knock out the hits (including their great Johnny Are You Queer?) while Tommy puts inappropriate moves on Randy’s one true love.
As the two straightlaced teens are crowned the dance’s king and queen, Fred and Randy make their ultimate strike in the name of romantic justice.
Funny, sexy and almost impossible to dislike, Valley Girl cost just $350,000 and made $16 million, and is widely rated as one of the top teen romances.
Why? Maybe it’s the female touch of director Martha Coolidge, bringing some much-needed class to the normally male-made genre.
Randy
Nicolas Cage Julie Richman
Deborah Foreman Loryn
Elizabeth Daily Tommy
Michael Bowen Fred Bailey
Cameron Dye Stacey
Heidi Holicker Suzi Brent
Michelle Meyrink Samantha
Tina Theberge Beth Brent
Lee Purcell Sarah Richman
Colleen Camp Steve Richman
Frederic Forrest Skip
David Ensor
Director
Martha Coolidge
Video
You May Also Like
New York, New York (1977) Egotistical saxophonist Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) and spirited USO singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) meet…
Up! (1976) Definitely not to be confused with the Pixar cartoon, Russ Meyer's last-but-one film for the cinema…
China Syndrome, The (1979) The term “China Syndrome” became an indelible part of our vocabulary as the effects of such…
Yesterday Machine, The (1963) Young college student Howie Ellison (Jay Ramsey) is trying to fix his broken-down car in the…
Michael (1996) Frank Quinlan (William Hurt) and Huey Driscoll (Robert Pastorelli), two reporters from a Chicago-based tabloid, along…
Randy and his best pal Fred (Cameron Dye) stand out among the preps like two sore thumbs, their shocking style drawing frowns from everyone in the room.
Tepid synth rack blares through the car speakers as they cruise into the comparatively darker territory of Hollywood, Stacey covering her squeaky-clean ears, yelling, “I hate this song! I hate this music!”
It’s daylight by the time Julie makes it home to her hippie parents (Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest), and Randy is barely able to let her go.
She’s further worn down during a Du-par’s Restaurant heart-to-heart with Loryn (the great E.G. Daily), hesitantly acknowledging the safer road of dating within her peer group.
He’s shell-shocked, reeling back in an apologetic daze before it dawns on him that she’s fallen under her friends’ influence.
Funny, sexy and almost impossible to dislike, Valley Girl cost just $350,000 and made $16 million, and is widely rated as one of the top teen romances.
