As a teenager growing up in the 1990s, I was deeply obsessed with all things 1980s pop culture. Chalk it up to nostalgia for my Care Bears-filled childhood – or a stubborn adolescent desire to separate myself from the Dave Matthews Band-loving, khaki-wearing kids at my high school. (Mission accomplished: it’s safe to say I was the only person I knew rocking a bandana tied around my pants leg or a Wild Boys-era Duran Duran shirt.)
Back then, I was especially drawn to 1980s teen movies. In my own life, I was having zero luck finding a New Romantic Romeo; instead, I pined after artsy, sensitive boys who didn’t know I existed. But throughout these films, even the most awkward characters managed to find a happy ending, with the ultimate examples being Samantha (Molly Ringwald) in Sixteen Candles landing hunky Jake Ryan or Stacy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) linking up with Rat (Brian Backer) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Out of these teen movies, 1983’s Valley Girl emerged as my hands-down favorite, a permanent feelgood film I never pass up for a rewatch. It’s best described as a new wave Romeo and Juliet. The film focuses on wholesome Julie (Deborah Foreman), the child of two ageing, laid-back hippies who run a health food store and restaurant. Although her parents embarrass her, they give Julie the freedom to find her authentic self. That extends to her romantic life, especially after she connects with Randy (a chiseled Nicolas Cage, in one of his first film roles) at a party.
They’re polar opposites – he’s a scruffy punk who hangs out in dingy clubs, she’s often found gossiping in a mall food court – but fall head over heels. This causes issues with Julie’s friends, who are uncomfortable that Randy seems so different from them; in fact, they encourage her to take back her boorish boyfriend, Tommy, with whom she broke up with at the film’s start. Julie is hesitant, for good reason. Randy is actually quite tender despite his edgy exterior. And Tommy’s loutish post-split behavior involved secretly seducing one of Julie’s good friends to use as extortion fodder and, separately, publicly assaulting Randy at a party.
After caving in to peer pressure and agreeing to go to prom with Tommy, Julie eventually realizes she’s made a huge mistake. Luckily, Randy hasn’t given up on their relationship – and, like all the best teen movies, Valley Girl culminates in a dramatic prom scene in which he goes to great lengths (and sparks a major food fight) to win her back.
The movie arrived not long after Frank Zappa’s 1982 hit song Valley Girl, which satirized a very specific teenage California subculture. (Zappa wasn’t thrilled about the film; he even sued the producers, who subsequently denied the movie had anything to do with the song.) But the movie doesn’t mock the valley girl trend.
Instead, Valley Girl meets these teenagers where they are: going shopping, hanging out and eating junk food, and attending house parties with then-novel foods like sushi. They’re shockingly normal, not exaggerated caricatures or curiosities. That’s probably why, years later, I still related to Julie and her friends. The scene of them flipping through racks of colorful clothes reminded me of my own 1990s teenage mall excursions.
Chalk up this endurance to Valley Girl director Martha Coolidge, who had a background in documentary film-making and brought an observant eye to the movie. More than once, we see Julie absolutely awed by scenes of gritty 1980s Los Angeles: movie theater marquees, flashy neon signs, and famous locations such as Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the Roxy and the Rainbow Bar & Grill. I recognized her reaction: I had the exact same mind-expanding experience when I finally visited bigger cities and saw things I had only glimpsed in movies.
I was also envious of the music in Valley Girl. Julie and Randy go to a cool underground club to watch powerpop legends the Plimsouls rip through an urgent set. Elsewhere, the teens dance to Sparks and the Flirts at a house party, or have a prom where the musical entertainment comes from new wave cult figure Josie Cotton. You felt cool by association because of the soundtrack.
When a Valley Girl remake was released in 2020, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it. The magic of the original film was how unselfconscious it was. The movie used a very specific era and location to illustrate something timeless about growing up and navigating complicated relationships. I was a goody two-shoes who grew up in a super-preppy town, so I related to having a sheltered life exploded by new experiences. As an adult, the idea of being bold, meeting new people and going to exciting places continues to inspire me. As much as the Valley Girl plot centered on romance, the movie was also a story about self-discovery and being brave enough to carve out your own offbeat path.
Valley Girl is available to watch on Amazon Prime in the US, the UK and Australia
