Plot
Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.

Release Year: 1983

Rating: 6.0/10 (5,964 voted)

Director: Martha Coolidge

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily

Storyline
Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.

Writers: Wayne Crawford, Andrew Lane

Cast:
Nicolas Cage - Randy
Deborah Foreman - Julie Richman
Elizabeth Daily - Loryn
Michael Bowen - Tommy
Cameron Dye - Fred Bailey
Heidi Holicker - Stacey
Michelle Meyrink - Suzi Brent
Tina Theberge - Samantha
Lee Purcell - Beth Brent
Richard Sanders - Drivers' Ed Teacher
Colleen Camp - Sarah Richman
Frederic Forrest - Steve Richman
David Ensor - Skip
Joanne Baron - Prom Teacher
Tony Plana - Low Rider

Taglines: When punk meets prom the fun begins! [Video Australia]

Release Date: 29 April 1983

Filming Locations: 23727 Posey Lane, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $350,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $1,856,780 (USA) (1 May 1983) (442 Screens)

Gross: $16,797,122 (USA) (23 October 1983)

Runtime: 99 min

Trivia:
In the "making of" documentary on the 20th anniversary DVD, Elizabeth Daily admitted that she had no idea how to talk like a Valley Girl. To cover this up, she decided that her character, Loryn, would not actually be from the Valley, but from nearby Malibu instead.

Goofs:
Continuity: When the girls are at Dupar's Stacey's books are already on the table when Julie is speaking and mentioning its really not fair. And the camera pans over to Stacey and she has her books in her arms and says life's not fair, and she puts her books on the table.

Quotes:
Tommy: It appears as though you forgot our French fries and a coke, fishhead.
Randy: Oh, well, Peter Piper picked a pepper, I guess I did!

Specific time--yet timeless

Rating: 10/10

Valley Girl will always hold a special place in my heart: I would say this is certainly the best of the 80's teen-sex-comedies, but that is a back-handed compliment. This is a good movie, period. It is very specific in time and place--nearly twenty years later this is a marvelous snapshot--yet its story remains timeless. (This is just Romeo and Juliet, minus the death, after all!) Nicolas Cage is wonderful, showing all the early promise that, it turns out, he has squandered on overblown action crapola. Deborah Foreman is the revelation of this movie, and I can't believe she didn't go on to have a bigger career; someone rediscover her QUICK. 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. (Indeed, her friend Stacy, forced to doubledate w/ Cage's friend Fred, has a good time despite her protests, and makes out w/ Fred in the backseat.) This will take you back to the early 80's if you were there, but it holds up quite well today. Warning to those unfamiliar with the movie: do NOT watch one of VH1's seemingly continual showings of it--go rent it in its unedited glory. Otherwise, you are missing some of the movies' most potent, time-specific dialogue. 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. See it--awesome little flick! Fer shur!!

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