VALLEY GIRL wasn’t one of the mega-hits of 1983, like Return Of The Jedi, Terms Of Endearment, Trading Places or War Games, but at 41st place it punched above its weight at the time and has a well-deserved status as a cult fave. A debut breakout for director Martha Coolidge (Real Genius, Rambling Rose, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge), smartly written and cast, brightly acted, with a couple of real winners in the lead roles, it’s a deft time & place snapshot of the day’s youthful zeitgeist. *

JULIE: “Well, my friends will freak. None of us have had a dude outside of school.”  RANDY: “Fuck’em, be the first one on your block.” 

 Valley, as in ‘The’, is the San Fernando Valley, a both vital and denigrated 260-square mile section of the Los Angeles metropolis. Once upon a groovy New Wave tune, sweet-natured Val resident and high school senior ‘Julie’ meets ‘Randy’, punk-styled Hollywood hanger-outer ‘ who crashes a party Julie’s clique is having. Her jealous boyfriend poses a threat to the social outcast but Randy charms intrigued Julie out of her mall-comforted zone of same-same, and Randy, who may be a rebel but isn’t a nihilist, sees her as not just the Girl Next Door but The girl to open doors for.

With each having just a handful of previous nondescript parts between them, newcomers Nicolas Cage, 18, and Deborah Foreman, 20, are a match made in, if not heaven, than the Hollywood Hills, which, seen at the right time with the right person, wield a considerable bewitching element. Cage’s lanky, loose-limbed carriage, sly look and offbeat delivery give him an unpredictable, faintly dangerous yet oddly approachable, even sympathetic, wounded puppy dog air, catnip for a large share of the female audience but not irksome to most of the men (something that Richard Gere had to overcome). Foreman is so dreamy it’s almost unfair: the shining definition of ‘pretty’, with a fresh and natural manner as unaffected and radiant as her smile. I feel confident to venture that most guys would agree: we’re talking Dawn Wells territory here. **

Written & produced by Wayne Crawford and Andrew Lane, the Dude-meets-Chick story revisits ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with better weather, a lot more humor and dropping the traditional bummer ending (‘Love means saying you’re Really Sorry—that we’re both dead’) in favor of one that keeps hope flickering…like maybe Deb Foreman will be on the mat next to yours at an ayahuasca ceremony? Luckily, besides the two charismatic stars, everything else clicks as well. The writing doesn’t wade shallow by overdoing Val-speak, the supporting characters have dimension beyond lingo, and they’re all pleasingly played, Coolidge’s direction keeping them straight instead of farcical. It’s often very funny but not without insight and truth behind the laughs. Good work from Cameron Dye, 23, as ‘Fred’, Randy’s genial wingman, and Heidi Holicker, 22, Julie’s frazzled friend ‘Stacey’, pulled into an impromptu double-date with them. Julie’s hippie parents are comfortably covered by Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp. Elizabeth Daily, 21 has a nuanced part as ‘Loryn’, another Julie friend, and Michael Bowen, 24, excels in the jerk role as ‘Tommy’, who thinks Julie belongs with him, or rather, to him.

Not acting but singing, Josie Cotton gets in some hot songs during a prom dance scene. Her numbers are part of a well-selected batch of New Wave pop hits, including cuts from The Plimsouls, Men At Work, Pat Travers, Sparks, The Psychedelic Furs and Toni Basil. The  look counts as well as the sound, and cinematographer Frederick Elmes (Blue Velvet, The Ice Storm, Ride With The Devil) grabs the La-la vibe of not just obvious places like the Sunset Strip and downtown Hollywood but Sherman Oaks, Torrance, Studio City and of course, those Hollywood Hills viewpoints that glitter promise in the fairyland of lights below.

The skanky budget of $350,000 (a lot of it going to music rights) was rewarded nearly fifty times over when the grosses tabulated $17,344,000.

99 minutes, with Michelle Meyrink, Lee Purcell (cougar alert; liked her since another SoCal period piece, Big Wednesday), David Ensor, Tina Theberge, Tony Plana, Steven Bauer (26, feature debut, uncredited, same year he ‘arrived’ in Scarface). Remade in 2020.

Lee Purcell about to drop the “Plastics” hint on a slow-uptaker

* Where Were We in ’83, Year of the Young—Flashdance, Risky Business, Spring Break, All The Right Moves, The Outsiders, My Tutor, Class, Christine, Bad Boys.

** Nick per Deb: “I just adored Deborah, so there was very little acting on my part.” A lot of us know how he felt.