Valley Girl (film)

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Valley Girl
Theatrical release poster
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)
Allmovie 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 the directorial debut of Martha Coolidge, and was the first film in which Nicolas Coppola was billed as Nicolas Cage.

The film score also features the August 1982 song "I Melt With You" sung by the original artists, new wave band Modern English and the Modern Rock classic "The Fanatic" by Felony. The American release of Valley Girl was April 8, 1983.^[1]

Taglines:

She's cool. He's hot. She's from the Valley. He's not.
Life in the valley: Hair, clothes, and attitude.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 DVD
4 Notes
5 External links

[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 locks eyes with Randy, a Hollywood punk who has crashed the party with his friend Fred. They hit it off well, but a jealous Tommy, who had tried to bed Loryn earlier that night, 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 continually rebuffs Fred's advances.

Julie's blossoming romance with Randy disgusts her friends, simply because Randy is not from the Valley. 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.

Despite Mr. Richman's sage advice, Julie caves to peer pressure and reconciles (albeit awkwardly) with Tommy, who puts his I.D. bracelet back on her wrist. That evening, Julie tearfully dumps Randy when he goes to visit her. Randy curses her out and leaves. He gets drunk, arrives at the nightclub, and ends up in the arms of his ex-girlfriend, Samantha. After a heated make-out session with Samantha, Randy feels even more miserable than before. He nearly gets into a fight with a gang of low riders before Fred saves him. Fred chides Randy for moping over Julie, but tells him that he needs to fight if he truly wants her back.

Over the next few days, Randy flits about the Valley, trying to be where his path will cross Julie's. 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 the girls 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 stretch limousine. Randy and Fred arrive shortly after 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 recovers and 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. The evening scene pans to the overview of the Valley, while the limo turns past the Sherman Oaks Galleria glowing in the night as the Modern English song "I Melt With You" closes out the film.

A sub-plot 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
Richard Sanders ... 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
Bill Harris .... Guy at Prom
Joanne Baron .... Miss Lieberman, Prom Teacher

[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. 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.