52 Pick-Up # 8 – Valley Girl (1983)

Welcome back for another round of 52 Pick Up.

Hey, they can't all be witty and topical.

As I said at the start of this month, I was leaving an opening for an outside vote to my wife for a title a month. For the record, next month's roll, save for its Waters tag-in, has no substitutions. The exact response I got when showing the list to see if she wanted the option was, and I quote, 'Hell yeah, I am here for ALL of this.'

Something fun to keep in mind as next month unfolds.

In the meantime, this week marks her first substitution pick, and I have to admit, this is one I was very pleasantly surprised by. Without further ado, let's get into Martha Coolidge's 1983 romantic comedy Valley Girl.

The pitch for those not familiar with this one: the movie introduces us to Julie, our titular valley girl (Deborah Foreman) fresh off breaking things off with her jerkish (to put it mildly) boyfriend. Over the course of a few encounters, she crosses paths with Randy (Nicolas Cage in one of his first major roles), a good natured, if awkward, punk who she hits it off with. After a memorable night out, the two navigate back and forth over whether their relationship has a future, balancing their own feelings with the pressures of their different social backgrounds.

One particular thought before I go into the movie itself – it is fascinating to watch a movie like this in 2026. Not in a bad 'look at how out of date this is' way, but rather to look at this and remember the period when Nicolas Cage was generally seen as a working actor. In particular it's a perspective check to remember that he had a period of the better part of two decades where he had standing as a romantic lead in a number of different styles of movie – and often he was good in the roles to boot.

I'm not saying this to disparage the Age of Cage that we live in. It's a fun time and that particular brand of over-the-top bonkers can be a lot of fun with the right movie. But it's nice to remember he's got those other acting modes in him and that he can still flex those roles nowadays, even if he doesn't get to as often (I can't count it here, but if you've not seen the movie Pig, it is an excellent turn for him and easily a career best.)

By today's standard, the most memetic thing about this
Cage performance is just his punk look.

I bring this up as a way to go into my main takeaway for this movie. As I've discussed here in some write-ups in the past, over time, I've kind of tempered how I look at some movies. Yes, I still will occasionally vent my let down expectations towards some movies, but as I've gotten older, I try not to judge a film on what I wanted it to be if that isn't what I was getting from it. The other side of this coin means there has been many a movie I have watched and I can see that alternate version that wouldn't work. That version where the director was just that little bit more cynical or risk averse or the cast just wasn't up to the task or any number of takes which would have taken the components and made them not work.

I say this as my way of saying I can see a version of Valley Girl that would have been an excruciating watch. A story of two people who I would not have given the proverbial hoot for despite the movie's insistence I should. An empty, vapid, grating story of two teenage archetypes being lovelessly mashed together.

As you can imagine, this is my way of saying, thankfully, this is not that movie. There's a reason I called this a pleasant surprise above and I'm happy with how much of this movie worked for me.

I tried to think of a Frank Zappa joke for this,
but just can't quite get it there without going way too
far out of the way for it.

Right at the top of what makes this work - our two leads. In general, the cast for this movie works, but with a premise like this, it would live or die on how well these two work together. In that regard, Foreman and Cage do a lot for keeping these roles as people you want to follow. Foreman's Julie, from the start, is presented as having a bit more on her mind than the archetypal valley girl tropes, even if she seems unsure how to really express that. Because she has that nuance early on, it helps keep her journey engaging rather than having her be someone who has to grow out of a broader stereotype. Likewise, Cage's Randy could have been seen as a lot more of a jerkish character – the fact he is presented to us instead as more of a awkward/charming guy who just happens to be more at home on the fringe helps keep him from being a 'what would someone see in this guy?' figure. In fact, his invitation to Julie to experience life outside of the valley is presented all around as a good way to set up their relationship – neither party is being overtly judging, she's interested in seeing more of life outside of her world, and he's happy to show it to her.

Beyond our leading couple, most of the rest of the cast also do well dodging the pitfalls of being stock characters. Julie's friends (including a pre-voiceover role by E.G. Daily) mean well (okay, most of them) and if they can be guilty of anything, it's just being a little less curious of that larger world compared to Julie. Their attempts to get her back on the more socially acceptable track aren't out of cruelty as much as simply not realizing she wants more than this. Likewise, Randy's friend Fred is occasionally weird, but the movie is careful to keep him from ever being framed as a charming creepy as much as a guy who is just not so great at picking up social cues, but when push comes to shove will still do the right thing, even if not in the best way. Even Julie's parents (Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest) are presented as dancing the line between archetypes – in their case the former hippies who got 'respectable', but still keep their roots in wellness – but giving them enough moments of genuine human feeling to keep them likable

I know it's not actually him, but it is kind of
distracting to me how much Fred reminds me of
Gerrit Graham

Alongside the cast, Martha Coolidge is similarly keyed in to the necessary balancing act to keep this watchable. This was kind of surprising to realize on finding out this was her sophomore directorial effort after an earlier feature that was decidedly less light and fun (though given what Not a Pretty Picture is about, I'd be genuinely disturbed if she DID make that light and fun.) She takes to the comedic side of this movie well and getting her cast working with the material well.

For the most part. If I'm being fair there are a couple of beats that do feel a little bit off in the larger mix. For an early, example, the movie mostly keeps Julie's ex at a reasonable level of jerk, but there is a moment early on that dips into genuine creep territory that winds up feeling somewhat out of place with a lot of what comes later. Not in a way where I'd say it ruins the movie, but it is a moment that you almost feel like should result in some harsher karmic comeuppance for him than what he ultimately gets, as the act is unknown to all but the character he carries this out on. Likewise, there is a subplot involving one of Julie's friends and her stepmom competing for the feelings of a man that feels somewhat out of step with the overall tone of the rest of the movie. Again, not in a way that kills things, but it is definitely a weird vibe that the movie keeps checking in on and I wonder if this was a remnant of a larger storyline from an earlier draft that got whittled down and maybe should have just been scrapped in the finished product.

Having said that, again, these beats are odd, but don't weigh the movie down too much. To put it another way, they ding the movie rather than fully denting it, and the pros definitely outweigh the cons on this.

Incidentally, one other big pro for this – the soundtrack. This is one of those that's up there with Fast Times at Ridgemont High (also an early Nic Cage movie, come to think of it) as just getting a good slice of 80s music that works both for the movie in general as well as being enjoyable in its own right. Even if you opt to skip out on the movie, the soundtrack is still worth a listen for a good 80s selection.

I'm still surprised how much I liked this. Not one of the best have seen, but it has a lot of charm and goodwill going for it, and it's nice to watch this and remember there was a time when people looked at Nicolas Cage and thought “This guy can be a charming, likable romantic lead.”

I mean, yeah, I still love the weirdo Cage, but it is nice to remember he had this phase.

With that, February is coming to a close here, but the draws continue as 2026 continues its weird, wild, sometimes horrifying journey.

To anyone out there who has been missing the international flavor of January, good news – next month is starting things off going abroad, with a combination even I didn't fully see coming.

From a combination of French and Japanese filmmaking – it's the story of one woman's erotic journey from Osaka to Tokyo, it's Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses.

Till next time.