I really enjoy slice of live movies that capture the spirit
of the times. I published a review over Fast Times at Ridgemont High
fairly recently, and I think the object of comparison is fairly easy. The
atmosphere is highly sexually charged, the music is representative of the time,
and the portrayals of the lives of the high school aged characters feels
genuine. In some sort of reversal, the movie focuses heavily on the female cast
more so than the Cameron Crowe classic. But that is where the comparisons between
the two really end. The movie is really strong as it shows the burgeoning romantic
relationship between Julie and Randy, not by including protracted scenes of the
two sharing dialogue to learn more about each other, but by showing their
relationship grow through a montage. The chemistry between Foreman and Cage is
very strong in this movie, and the direction of Martha Coolidge shows clearly
in this section of the movie. Despite being corny with its very dated dialogue,
I genuinely found several parts in this movie clever and very funny. Despite
all of its strengths, the lack of a cohesive script really shows. There is one
subplot, and the connection to the rest of the movie is very tenuous. One of
Julie’s friends, Suzi (Michelle Meyrink), hosts a party early in the movie
which many of her classmates attend. One classmate, Skip, becomes enchanted by
Suzi’s stepmother, Beth (Lee Purcell), who tries her best to seduce the unsuspecting
boy. This subplot of will they end up having a sexual relationship does very
little to the rest of the story. This lack of connection to the rest of the
story also is present in one particular scene in the movie where Julie dumps
Randy and sends him into a spiral. As Randy is dumped and Julie goes back to
her abusive ex-boyfriend, the scene when she makes Randy aware their
relationship is logically set up by previous scenes, but the portrayal of this
scene didn’t transfer the sense that this relationship was over. Did I perceive
this scene from Randy’s viewpoint, where the event would be confusing? Were
there breakdowns in the portrayals of the characters that I have come to know
in the hour or so before? I’m not too sure which is true, or if there is
another option. But I am sure that this very pivotal scene did not achieve what
it was supposed to achieve in its mode of communication.
Valley Girl is very charming. I had this very low on
my list because it is an early Cage movie, and I was anxious to see how well he
performed early in his career. I’ve seen Fast Times, where he does not
have much screen presence in the two to three scenes he does appear. I’ve seen Moonstruck
and Raising Arizona, which are a couple of my favorite movies of all
time, where Cage shows his vast range of portraying the human experience. After
watching Valley Girl, my anxiety was quieted as Cage shows during many
points where he has his fun and zany side come out trying to win Foreman’s
Julie after his initial dumping, and he is able to show genuine joy and love
toward Julie and showing her the world outside of her little bubble. I have a
very limited audience that I can recommend this movie to; I would recommend this
movie to anyone who can sit through brief moments of erotic coupling. Valley
Girl is pretty thin and hardly a movie at times, but it ever so slightly
catches the magic of the early 80s and the two cultures the two characters of
Julie and Randy represent.
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