Valley Girl (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Valley Girl | |
|---|---|
 Valley Girl DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Martha Coolidge |
| Produced by | Wayne Crawford Andrew Lane |
| Written by | Wayne Crawford Andrew Lane |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage Deborah Foreman E.G. Daily |
| Music by | Richard Butler The Plimsouls The Payolas Peter Case Josie Cotton Scott Wilk |
| Cinematography | Frederick Elmes |
| Editing by | Éva Gárdos |
| Distributed by | Atlantic Releasing Corp. MGM Home Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | April 8, 1983 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $350,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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.
Contents |
[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. However, she 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.
That night, at a party at Suzi's house, Julie meets Randy, a Hollywood punk 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. Randy eventually returns to Suzi's house, sneaks inside, and hides, waiting for Julie to cross his path. When she does, he 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, who dislike Randy just because he is not a Valley dude. They threaten Julie with the loss of her popularity and their friendship if she continues to date Randy. Julie goes to her father, an aging 60's era hippie, for advice. Mr. Richman kindly tells her that she should follow her heart, reminding her that it is what is inside a person that counts.
At their usual hangout, Julie tells her friends that they are being unfair and that she loves Randy, but then hints that she will leave him. Tommy arrives and he and Julie reunite, albeit awkwardly. He puts his I.D. bracelet back on her wrist. That evening, Randy goes to Julie's house only to be dumped by a tearful Julie. Randy curses Julie out and leaves. He ends up at the nightclub after getting quite drunk. His ex-girlfriend finds him and lures him into the bathroom to make out. Afterwards, Randy feels even more miserable and leaves. He 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. She seems covertly glad to see him, but is quite shaken when she catches him sleeping outside her window. 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.
As they make prom decorations, Stacey and Loryn chat over their post-prom plans. Stacey tells Loryn that Tommy had made reservations at the Valley Sheraton, unbeknownst to Julie.
The night of the Valley High junior prom, Tommy and Julie 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. Randy soon grows tired of just watching and demands to know if there is any more 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 now backstage, waiting to be introduced as king and queen of the prom. Randy confronts Tommy, and the two begin to brawl. When the prom king and queen are announced, the curtain pulls back to reveal Randy beating up Tommy. Randy knocks Tommy out, then escorts a thrilled Julie from the stage through the crowd. Tommy storms through the crowd towards Randy and Julie, who find themselves blocked in by the snack table. Tommy demands an explanation from Julie. She answers by smashing a platter of guacamole in his face. A food fight starts, from which Randy and Julie escape 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. Beth soon 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 Suzi's house, apparently looking for Beth. He goes upstairs and hears a shower running in Beth's bedroom. He finds that a woman is in the shower. Skip and this woman, whose face is not shown, are then shown making love. During this time, we see another woman coming home and going upstairs. The bedroom door opens, Beth enters, and only then it is shown that Suzi had been the woman in the shower and is now in bed with Skip. By the end of the movie, Skip and Suzi go to the prom together.
[edit] Cast
- Nicolas Cage .... Randy
- Deborah Foreman .... Julie Richman
- E.G. Daily .... Loryn (as Elizabeth Daily)
- 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.
- 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.
