Valley Girl (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valley Girl is a 1983 romantic comedy movie, starring Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, E.G. Daily, Cameron Dye, and Joyce Hyser. The movie was directed by Martha Coolidge.
Taglines: She's cool. He's hot. She's from the valley. He's not.
Life in the valley: Hair, clothes, and attitude.
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[edit] Plot Summary
Julie Richman is a Valley Girl who seems to have it all; good looks, popularity, and a handsome Valley dude boyfriend, Tommy. Julie, however, has grown tired of Tommy's disrespect and arrogance towards her. At the end of a shopping trip with her friends (Stacey, Suzi, and Loryn), Julie runs into Tommy and breaks up with him, returning his I.D. bracelet.
Later on, at a party at Suzi's house, she meets Randy, a punk from Hollywood who has crashed the party with his friend Fred. They hit it off well, but Tommy (who had tried to bed Loryn earlier in the evening, then guilted her into keeping quiet about it) and his cronies throw Randy and Fred out after a brief tussle. Randy eventually returns to Suzi's house and sneaks into the upstairs bathroom, where he eventually runs into Julie and convinces her to leave the party with him. Julie brings a very reluctant Stacey along for the ride with Randy and Fred into Hollywood. While at Randy's favorite nightclub, Julie and Randy find their attraction to each other growing and share a kiss, as Stacey constantly rebuffs Fred's advances.
Julie is now spending all her free time with Randy, which alarms her friends. They want Julie to reunite with Tommy simply because Randy is not a Valley dude and hint that Julie will lose her popularity and their friendship if she continues to date Randy. Julie goes to her father, a aging 60's era hippie, for advice. After showing Julie pictures of him in his younger days and reminding her that how someone looks or where they come from do not matter in the end, Mr. Richman tells her that she should follow her heart.
At their usual hangout, Julie tells her friends that they are being unfair and that Randy is very special to her, but then hints that she has decided to leave him. Tommy shows up and Julie's friends leave. Tommy and Julie reunite, albeit awkwardly, and his bracelet is back on her wrist. That evening, Randy goes to Julie's house and Julie tearfully dumps him. Randy leaves angrily and after getting quite drunk, ends up at the nightclub. His ex-girlfriend sees him and leads him into the bathroom, where they make out. Afterwards, Randy remembers how much he loves Julie, which depresses him further. He leaves the club and nearly gets into a fight with a gang of low riders before Fred saves him, dragging him into a nearby alley. Fred chides Randy for moping over Julie, but tells him that if he really wants her back that badly, he needs to fight.
Over the next few days, Randy gets a series of jobs in the Valley just so he can at least get a glimpse at Julie and hopefully inspire her to go back to him. She does notice, but does not return to him. Fred devises a plan that he dubs "simplicity at its finest," one that will both reunite Randy with Julie and achieve the "grandest form of retribution" against Tommy.
The night of the Valley High junior prom, Tommy and Julie are both attired in pink formals and ride to the prom in a rented limousine. Randy and Fred arrive at the prom venue and sneak backstage, watching the Valley High kids dancing to the music of Josie Cotton and her band. Fred spots Stacey sitting alone at a table and begs Randy to check her out. Randy pokes his head from behind the curtain just in time to see Tommy trying to kiss Julie. Upset, Randy demands to know if there is anymore to Fred's plan, to which Fred says that there IS nothing more, though the two vow to "crush that fly!"
Julie and Tommy are taken backstage, where they are given their crowns as king and queen of the prom. As Tommy tries to kiss Julie again, Randy confronts him and punches him. Tommy removes his jacket and vest to fight Randy. After Tommy makes fighting postures, Randy kicks him in the groin. When Valley High's junior prom king and queen are announced, the curtain pulls back to reveal Randy beating up Tommy. Randy knocks Tommy out and Fred drags him away. Julie is at first incredulous, then thrilled as Randy escorts her from the stage through the crowd. Tommy fights off Fred, and storms through the crowd towards Randy and Julie, who find themselves blocked in by the snack table. Tommy demands an explanation from Julie, who hits him in the face with a platter of guacamole dip, starting a food fight. Randy and Julie escape from the confusion and take off in Tommy's rented limousine. As the happy couple ride into the night to the Valley Sheraton, Julie removes Tommy's I.D. bracelet and throws it out the window.
A side story involves Suzi and her stepmother, Beth, vying for the attention of Skip, the grocery delivery boy. At her party, Suzi is telling Beth, who is chaperoning, about a boy that she likes and hopes likes her too. As she is manning the drinks table, Beth notices a dark-haired boy that she finds herself attracted to. The boy turns out to be Skip, the very boy that Suzi likes. Skip finds himself attracted to Beth and goes out of his way to go to see her without Suzi finding out; he even turns down an invite from Suzi to go to her house during an unsupervised slumber party because Beth is out on a date. One day, Skip enters (essentially breaking and entering) Suzi's house, apparently looking for Beth. He goes upstairs and hears a shower running in Beth's bedroom. He finds that a female is in the shower. Skip and this female (we do not yet see her face) are then shown making love in the bed. During this time, we see another female coming home and going upstairs. The bedroom door opens, Beth enters, and only then do we clearly see that Suzi had been the female in the shower and is now in bed with Skip. By the end of the movie, it would seem that Skip and Suzi are now a couple, since they go to the prom together.
[edit] Cast
- Nick Cage .... Randy
- Hayllie Apple .... Julie Richman
- E.G. Daily .... Loryn
- Michael Bowen .... Tommy
- Cameron Dye .... Fred Bailey
- Heidi Holicker .... Stacey
- Michelle Meyrink .... Suzi Brent
- Tina Theberge .... Samantha
- Lee Purcell .... Beth Brent
- Julie Richardson ... Driver's Ed Teacher
- Colleen Camp .... Sarah Richman
- Frederic Forrest .... Steve Richman
- David Ensor .... Skip
- Tony Plana .... Low Rider
- Joyce Hyser .... Joyce (as Joyce Heiser)
- The Plimsouls .... Themselves
- Peter Case .... Himself
[edit] DVD
Valley Girl is available on DVD, with many extras. It featuring interviews with many of the cast and crew, including Nicolas Cage, Michael Bowen, Heidi Holicker, Peter Case, and E.G. Daily. Notably absent is the main Valley Girl herself, Deborah Foreman.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the first film that Nicolas Coppola started using his stage name Nicolas Cage.
- This film "like", made valley girl speak "totally" popular among American viewers "to the max".
- In the DVD documentary, E.G. Daily admits that she had no idea what Valley Girls were supposed to sound like and decided that Loryn would be from Malibu (and therefore not a true Valley Girl) in order to cover this up.
