04/28/06 Valley Girl

Valley Girl (1983), directed by Martha Coolidge

watched w/ Leslie; DVD rental (Netflix) @ home

Totally tubular! Like, as if! The fact that I missed this film from my childhood is so grodie to the max! OK, ok, I'll stop dropping coined phrases from the 80's...not that you get enough of them on "I Love The 80's" or anything. I had never realized how good this seemingly silly movie was going to be. Taking the sex-driven comedies like "Fast Times" and the biting wit of a cross-caste darkness of "Heathers", then mixing in a pre-cursor to the trendy fakers of "Clueless" and you have this candy ring gem of a flick. And I'm not a big fan of Nicholas Cage, but this is right when he dropped the Coppola for the cage and was trying to "find" himself as an actor. He's great as edgy punk-rocker Randy who with his friend crash a valley party, as he sweeps popular girl Julie ("she's truly dazzling") off her feet. Julie's friends completely disapprove of her relationship, and the teenage angst & hormonal imbalances prove to much for her to choose between rugged Randy and pompous in his khakis Tommy. Just like "Say Anything", the guy has to win back the girl he digs despite the bitchy clique she runs with, hippie-fied parents with no strict rules, meddling ex-boyfriends, and oh yeah, high school getting in the way! With an awesome soundtrack of catchy pop-punk anthems (that were deftly incorporated into the film) of lesser known bands of the era, it is best known for launching the popularity of Modern English's "I'll Melt With You." The film launched a ton of now famous catch-phrases (check out the great Bouncing Souls song "These Are The Quotes From Our Favorite 80's Movies"). One last fun tidbit, E.G. Daily (Loryn in the movie) has a very distinct voice that would later go on to do numerous cartoons, most notably Buttercup from "Powerpuff Girls" fame. Truly dazzling.

4 out of 5 stars