Valley Girl (1983)

“Crush that fly!” One of the best of the plethora of teen comedies from the early eighties and a true artifact of the era, this “totally tubular” flick loosely based on Romeo and Juliet concerns a brief love affair between a popular chick from the San Fernando Valley named “Julie” (Deborah Foreman) and “Randy” (Nicolas Cage), a punker from the seedy streets of Hollywood. Julie spouts such lines as “Man, he’s like tripendicular, ya know?”, while Randy casually remarks, “That techno-rock you guys listen to is gutless.” Directed by Martha Coolidge, Valley Girl also stars Michael Bowen as Julie’s douchebag boyfriend “Tommy,” Cameron Dye as Randy’s idiotic sidekick “Fred Bailey,” and Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp as Julie’s parents – two stoner hippie refugees from the sixties now operating a health food restaurant. For better or worse, Valley Girl pretty much launched Cage’s film career (he had actually appeared very briefly in a thankless role as “Brad’s Bud” in Fast Times at Ridgemont High). The excellent soundtrack features such classics as “A Million Miles Away” by the Plimsouls, “Angst in My Pants” by Sparks, “I Melt With You” by Modern English, “Love My Way” by Psychedelic Furs and “She Talks in Stereo” by Gary Myrick and The Figures. Valley Girl was inspired by Frank Zappa’s immensely popular 1982 novelty song of the same name that featured his daughter, Moon Unit.

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