Valley Girl

Plot synopsis:
Julie Richman (Foreman) is a Valley girl who seems to have it all: good looks, popularity, and a handsome Valley dude boyfriend, Tommy (Bowen), but she is having second thoughts about her relationship with the arrogant and selfish Tommy. At the end of a shopping trip with her friends, Loryn (Daily), Stacey (Heidi Holicker), and Suzi (Meyrink), Julie runs into Tommy and breaks up with him. Later that day at the beach, Julie trades shy glances with a young man in the distance.
That night, at a party at Suzi's house, Julie locks eyes with Randy (Cage), a Hollywood punk who has crashed the party with his friend, Fred (Dye). They hit it off well, especially after Julie learns that Randy was the young man at the beach earlier. Tommy is jealous, and tries to bed Loryn. He fails and gets his cronies to eject Randy and Fred from the party. Undaunted, Randy sneaks back into the house, and hides in an upstairs bathroom shower. Randy waits in the shower for Julie to enter the bathroom as various partygoers come and go, talking about and trying to have sex, and doing drugs. When Julie eventually does enter, Randy convinces her to leave the party with him. Julie brings a very reluctant Stacey along for the ride with Randy and Fred. While at Randy's favorite Hollywood nightclub, Julie and Randy rapidly grow closer as Stacey continually rebuffs Fred's advances.
Julie's friends, dismayed by her relationship with Randy, pressure her to drop him and get back together with Tommy. Julie asks her father (Frederic Forrest) for advice, and he kindly tells her that she should follow her heart. Despite this, Julie reconciles with Tommy and later dumps Randy. A heartbroken Randy gets severely drunk, makes out with his ex-girlfriend (Tina Theberge), and 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. After Randy flits about the Valley for the next few days just so he can get a glimpse at Julie, Fred says that he has a plan that will both reunite Randy with Julie and get revenge against Tommy.
A subplot involves Suzi and her stepmother, Beth (Lee Purcell), vying for the attention of a boy named Skip (David Ensor). At her party, Suzi tells Beth, who is chaperoning, about Skip, who she likes and hopes will show up. When Skip does arrive, Beth finds herself attracted to him. Skip is also attracted to Beth and goes out of his way to go to see her without Suzi finding out. One day, Skip enters Suzi's house, apparently looking for Beth. He goes upstairs and finds a woman in the shower in Beth's bedroom. Skip and this woman, whose face is not shown, are then shown making love. Another woman arrives home and goes upstairs. The bedroom door opens, Beth enters, and only then it is shown that Suzi was in the shower and in bed with Skip. Skip and Suzi go to the prom together.
As the girls make prom decorations, Stacey and Loryn chat over their post-prom plans. Stacey reveals that Tommy made a reservation at the Valley Sheraton Hotel as an after-prom "surprise" for Julie.
Tommy and Julie ride to the prom in a rented stretch limousine; Randy and Fred arrive shortly after and sneak backstage. Randy becomes increasingly annoyed with just watching the Valley High kids dance, but Fred assures him that all is going according to plan. Julie and Tommy are escorted 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 start a food fight to slow Tommy down and facilitate their escape from the venue in Tommy's rented limousine.
As the happy couple ride into the night towards the Valley Sheraton, Julie removes Tommy's I.D. bracelet, which had been a sign of the relationship between the two during the entire film, and throws it out the window. The scene, which echoes the final scene of the film The Graduate, pans to the overview of the Valley, while the limo turns past the Sherman Oaks Galleria glowing in the night.

Tags: violence, cult

Review:
You can go to Deborah Foreman's website to sign a petition to get it released on DVD and there are 2 soundtracks from the movie that are must haves if you like 80's music..
This is sweeter and gentler than most films of the genre--the requisite nudity seems thrown in by contractual obligation--and, while not groundbreaking, it certainly is nice to see this kind of movie that respects its characters and doesn't crucify its shallow young girls for having fun--even Foreman's crew of best friends, misguided by peer pressure, are never presented as villains.
And one can't write about Valley Girl and not mention the fabu soundtrack of great 80's tunes--most of them by one-hit wonders, which are not only integral to the sense of time and place in this movie, but thematically well-chosen.
In the tradition of "Romeo and Juliet," a punker named Randy (Nicholas Cage) begins a relationship with shallow teenage girl named Julie (Deborah Foreman), but peer pressure from her equally shallow friends forces her to break up and go back to her ex-boyfriend (Michael Bowen).
Will he succeed?Fine performances by Cage, Foreman, Frederick Forrest and Colleen Camp (as Julie's hippie parents), sensitive directing by Martha Coolidge, and totally tubular soundtrack by Modern English, The Plimsouls, and Men at Work (to name a few) makes this fun sleeper one of the best 80's teen comedies (fer shure).
Martha Coolidge's milking of the Romeo and Juliet premise (with Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman filling in as star-crossed lovers in the San Fernando Valley) was smart and convincing.
I wanted to be like Cage's tough Randy and fall in love with a beautiful girl like Foreman's Julie to the sounds of Eddie Grant, Modern English, and The Plimsouls..
The music is top notch and I still play the soundtrack after all these years.I have seen this movie so many times and yet I still get yearnings to watch it again and again.
It is too bad the rest of the cast didn't go on to greater things but maybe that is part of this film's charm.I won't do a film school critique as I am sure all the analysts out there can find fault if they wanted to, but what I will say is that this movie defined my teenage years and still continues to influence my life over 20 years later.
Perhaps its the lack of research that went into Nicolas Cage's character's 'punk' persona or just the cheesiness factor because it was such a typical eighties film...nonetheless it's a cute love story with extremely funny, unique characters.
A wonderful rendition of high school life and "gritty downtown" from a suburban perspective.The soundtrack contains songs by Modern English, Felony, Josie Cotton, Sparks, Payola$, Josie Cotton, The Plimsouls, The Psychedelic Furs, Men At Work, The Flirts and Bananarama.This movie truly is Romeo and Juliet (minus the double suicide) set in 1980's Los Angeles.
Sure we have seen some big teen films, like American Graffiti, Ferris Bueller's Day Off , Mischief, Girls just wanna have fun and in recent times The American Pie' Series, but Valley Girl is right up there as a very good teen film, with a cool soundtrack and a cast that really amazed me.
This movie combines Hollywood punk with Valley conservative, ageing hippies with high school proms and generally shows that being a teenager CAN be outrageous fun!
Randy also has a very good friend in Fred (Cameron Dye), who stands by him many times.The girl Randy is after is the beautiful Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman), someone who has just broken up with a real creep, Tommy (Michael Bowen), who unfortunately has not accepted it yet.
Finally, I have never seen a cover to a video quite like the one for this movie, showing a Glossary of Valley Girl talk'.
My favorite character was Stacey (Heidi Holicker), because she made me laugh when she showed no interest in Fred (Cameron Dye) who really liked her and I was hoping that in the end that they would get together then her boring boyfriend, Ralphie (Christopher Murray)because he ignored her and hung out with his friends.
Valley Girl, to those who love it, is THE classic 80s movie.
But it is a great love story, and to a teenage girl who was going in to high school when the movie came out, the dialog, clothes and music were just the COOLEST thing ever.
Every girl has some sort of liaison going on, and they're all shallow or unrequited relationships--which is the movie's way of showing how ironic it is that Julie's friends can't accept her true love with a "townie".
The best scenes in this film take place in seedy Hollywood clubs by Nicolas Cage's character.
Nicholas Cage's improvisational on the spot acting; The camera work and angles are excellent given the budget they had and only being able to have one take of each scene; The sytles, music and lingo are captured perfectly and forever; Again the music is incredible and carries the story along from scene to scene;  And finally...Martha Coolidge could turn a weak script, unknown actors and a very very low budget and 20 days of shooting the entire movie into such a good and memorable movie is astounding!.
Unlike most teen movies of the era, "Valley Girl" has a sweet nature to it, despite the presence of material like foul language, nudity, and sex.
Though the time in which it is set plays a major role in the movie, the essential love story is timeless.
I bought it on DVD from Walmart a few years ago, it's like Romeo & Juliet meets the 1980's but with awesome music and a totally cool story.Nicolas Cage at 19 was handsome and the perfect choice to play Randy a punk from the city who finds love with a girl from the valley,the cast includes Deborah Foreman as the love interest, Frederic Forrest & Colleen Camp as the hippie parents, Michael Bowen as the jock ex- boyfriend Elizabeth Daily, Heidi Hollicker & Michelle Meyrink as Julie's friends, and Cameron Dye as Randy's friend.The story is simple Julie (Foreman) a girl from the Valley fed up with her boyfriend Tommy's (Bowen) attitude breaks up with him and begins to date Randy (Cage) a punk from Hollywood High.
The most iconic scene occurs during the junior prom when Randy finally gets his revenge and a fight breaks out that ends with Julie dumping Tommy for the second time and reuniting with her true love.
The end scene shows the young lovers departing into the night in a limousine and Modern English's I Melt With You playing during the credits.For fans of 80's movies and romance Valley Girl is for sure to entertain and please anyone who enjoys good times and cool tunes..
It is really hard to decipher the veritable Raison d'Etre of 'Valley Girl' as despite having an important role by Nicholas Cage, it was neither a mainstream Hollywood film with big stars nor was it a product of quirky American independent cinema movement.
It is not a surprise that 'Valley Girl' has entered numerous English language dictionaries as an expression but as a film it advocated good times for young people as their parents were not putting any pressure on them.
In the early 1980's the teen sex comedy was a prevalent genre, producing such "risque" works as Porky's (1982), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and The Last American Virgin (1982) - naming just a few of the many varying qualities of film.
I'm not suggesting these films are awful - they have their qualities - but the level of drama or realism of character is sorely missing.Julie (Deborah Foreman), as the title highlights, is from the rich valleys of California.
In the high schools of the valley, the need to stay within the confines of your "class" is essential to keep your reputation in tact, and Randy does not fit in to the generic role of preppy boy.The film does itself conform to romantic comedy tropes, but this does not matter.
We still really love the movie and soundtrack "Valley Girl".
One of the better teen comedies to be filmed during the 80's, Valley Girl has a young Nicolas Cage in a starring role.
I think it was dreadful, I knew it was gonna be a high school romance flick, but unlike the successful hughes films like sixteen candles, pretty in pink and some kind of wonderful, or the raunchier ones like Porky's and fast times at ridgemont high, Valley Girl is boring, unfunny and poorly made.
For anyone who says they love 80's movies such as Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and Better Off Dead they really can't comment until they have seen "Valley Girl" as this movie is the one and only and deserves its place in history..
It is one of the many CLASSICS of the 80's genre like "Pretty in Pink" or "Some kind of Wonderful".Nic plays the traditional punk guy in love with the traditional valley, preppy girl Julie.
"Julie Richman" (Deborah Foreman) is a high school student who lives in the Valley and surrounds herself with friends who think and act like she does.
There's like this movie like called Valley Girls and like its in California and OH MY GOSH like it has Nicolas Cage in it as a new wave punker like gag me!
When Romeo left Hollywood to go over the hill to the LA Valley I doubt he knew Deborah Foreman would be there waiting for him, but a young Nick Cage could do much worse (and has) than this cute little teen tale.There have been far too many poor movies in this genre, and, although Valley Girl may not be in the upper stratosphere with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it's right there with Clueless.
A punk inspired Romeo & Juliet set in the San Fernando valley.Randy (Nicolas Cage) is a punk who gatecrashes a party with a friend.
Julie's friends do not think much of Randy as well.However Randy is determined to win Julie's heart.Valley Girl is a low budget edgy film about teenagers and comes across as rather flat, boring and dated.
Released in 1983, "Valley Girl" stars Nicolas Cage as a Hollywood dude named Randy who develops a relationship with a girl from the San Fernando Valley, Julie (Deborah Foreman).
While it originally referred to the upper-middle class girls of the Los Angeles commuter towns of the San Fernando Valley in the early 80s, it later applied more broadly to any woman or girl—primarily in the USA and Canada—typified by ditziness, airheadedness, and greater interest in conspicuous consumption than spiritual or intellectual accomplishment.The movie was quickly thrown together in response to Frank Zappa's 1982 hit "Valley Girl," notorious for 14 year-old Moon Zappa's monologue, which popularized Valleyspeak like "Gag me with a spoon." Whatever the case, the film works well for what it is, a coming-of-age drama about Southern Californian youths.
Other early-to-mid 80's teen movies had the same problem, like "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink." If you want an excellent rockin' soundtrack check out 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and 1993's "Dazed and Confused." The film runs 99 minutes and was shot in the Los Angeles area with the mall scenes shot in Stockton.GRADE: B+.
Director Martha Coolidge took the lack of budget and time and crafted one of the best movies of the time.I remembered Nicolas Cage as one of the stoners from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and in this film he plays Randy from Hollywood who falls for the valley girl Julie played by Foreman.
He is a jerk and two timer and you wonder what Julie saw in him to begin with.The best co-star roles include Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest as Julie's hippy parents and Lee Purcell as Mrs. Brent.What I loved about the movie was how Coolidge was able to weave multiple sub plots involving the side characters within the story of Randy and Julie.
You have the best of 80's new wave and pop including Sparks, Plimsouls, Modern English, Men at Work, Josie Cotton etc.....Valley Girl is one of those few films where all the stars align and where it is possible to make a piece of art that is a commercial success without relying on gratuitous sex or violence as many "teen" movies seem to do these days.
deborah foreman (where is she now?) as julie and nicolas cage as randy are as classic as romeo and juliet, tony and maria, jake and samantha...
To me, chemistry on screen is terribly important and these two leads did not have a lot of it.(Just my opinion.) Although, my interest was held by the music, the characters themselves, never drew me terribly in and there were not a lot of unforgettable lines or scenes, as in other teen movies made around this time.One of my best friends absolutely LOVES this movie but to me it never rated above a 5 and it never created a strong impression on me.
I know you have to judge these movies in a different way, can't take them too seriously, but the movie was about an hour old until you got a feel for any of the characters, aside from Randy and Julie (Cage and Foreman).
Can't really see how this movie spawned the whole Valley Girl image but the caveat is that I was 3 when this film was made, so what do I know?
this movie about early 80's san fernando valley girls, who set a world-wide trend with their neon mini-skirts, big hair, and like, far-out diction should have been great but it isn't.
great overplayed song -- and "Valley Girl" started this trend by playing it TWICE during the film), I've NEVER seen the beginning.Yes, it's sad how Nic Cage ended up a lot like that Modern English song, but here, he has everything to be proud of.In many ways, the film at its best represents what the 80s could have been ...
The best thing about this is the soundtrack, as Cage and the rest of the cast (Dye, Foreman) look like they are in their mid to late 20s, not high school juniors.
Give the cast and crew credit for accomplishing a lot with a little, but you never forget that you're looking at a cheaply made movie.The plot is a likable, if predictable, romance between Randy, a streetwise character played by Cage, and Julie, the beautiful valley girl played by Deborah Foreman.
The popularity that the film still enjoys is due to Cage's acting talent, the great soundtrack highlighted by Modern English's "I'll Melt With You", and the beauty of Deborah Foreman.
Oh me, oh my!The clothes, the hair, the swimwear!Nicolas Cage as a young buck attempting to romance a girl from the other side of the valley!Hysterical...for all the dated gems this movie contains..
Randy and Fred drive valley girls Julie and Stacey into the city.I love the specific moment in time with the kids serving sushi.
Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman) a sweet, rich valley girl develops crush on Randy (Nicholas Cage) a stray alley cat, ie a punk.
The movie not only follows the life of the valley girl and her punk; but her friends too as they shop, party, hang out, and go to the mall.
The movie not only follows the life of the valley girl and her punk; but her friends too as they shop, party, hang out, and go to the mall.
Though Julie and Randy don't have much in common at all, the movie captures the essence of the materialistic eighties: malls, the credit card machines, the punk hair color, in a sweet, intelligent Romeo & Juliet teen flick.
However, if you want to see a real stereotypical Valley Girl movie, watch "Clueless" instead..
A lot of annoying subplot gets in the way of the core story.The film has little substance to its story and barely stays alive only as a result of a great eighties soundtrack and Nicolas Cage's performance.For a better film with a similar plot I suggest "Say Anything," or if you're looking for something of the valley girl persuasion "Clueless" is probably the best choice.
Your time would much better be spent on these films than watching the garbage which is "Valley Girl." 4 out of 10..
Valley girl is an upbeat comedy from the 80s about a girl named Julie who falls in love with a boy named Randy over the course of a year to an awesome soundtrack.
Stacy in his break out role before April Fool's day was a true talent lighting up the scenes and letting the script coming alive naturally.The soundtrack was amazing from ill stop the world and melt with you, Johnny are you queer and many more great hits feeling like a character itself.Almost in a unique way its like the karate kid, boy meets girl, old boyfriend wants her back, her friends hate him and you rejoice when they come together in the end.Be sure to check out Valley girl and experience an inspiring.
They should have stopped this picture.City guy Nicolas Cage falls for a girl from the valley, while on the beach and then meets her at a party.The film is filled with clichés.
You actually wouldn't think it was him at all, he kinda reminds me of a greater like character as if the movie is sort of the musical "Grease".Another thing I was surprised about, was Elizabeth Daily aka Blossom from "The Powerpuff Girls" was involved in this.
I realize that most movies cast actors in these type of films who are older in real life than the characters they play.
I grew up in the Valley area at this time and the way people talked wasn't laid on as thick as this movie shows.
Speaking of the way they dress, Cage's character comments in the club on how the one valley girl looks just like her friend, like the two just came off a conveyor belt.