Father and child sit together smiling while looking at a smart phone.

Want more recommendations for your family?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter for entertainment inspiration

Parents' Guide to

Valley Girl

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

'80s tale about fitting in has sex, drinking, cursing.

Movie R 1983 99 minutes
Valley Girl Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

See all

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

Julie (Deborah Foreman) is the VALLEY GIRL of the title, a teenager growing up in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley during the over-the-top 1980s. Her friend Suzi (Michelle Meyrink) is throwing a party at her parents' large house, where a group of girls in shag haircuts and boys in tight, high-waisted jeans eat sushi, drink spiked punch, dance, and make out. The kids all go to Valley High, except for Fred (Cameron Dye) and Randy (Nicolas Cage), who are politely crashing. Randy and Fred aren't dressed properly in the Valley Boy uniform of tight, collared polo shirts, and for that reason are immediately spotted as undesirable outsiders. Julie's ex, the hunky Tommy (Michael Bowen), doesn't hesitate to express his displeasure when Randy starts charming Julie. He punches Randy and throws him out of the house. Randy returns through a window and persuades Julie and her best friend Stacey (Heidi Holicker) to accompany him and Fred on a ride to a Hollywood club, showing the girls a world they'd never known. Keeping Julie out all night, Randy delivers her home early the next morning. Julie's parents are pot-smoking ex-hippies (Frederic Forest and Colleen Camp) who run a health food restaurant and who want their daughter to learn to make her own decisions. Such decisions are difficult when Julie learns that her friends won't accept the outsider Randy -- it's him or them, they make clear. Tommy and Randy fight over Julie, and she makes a choice in the end, but there's no indication it's a permanent one.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This '80s coming-of-age tale is a movie of lost opportunities. Unlike the 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High, there are no truly admirable characters here. Julie's ex-hippie parents are the closest thing to role models because they want their daughter to make her own decisions uninfluenced by social pressures. Like its teen subjects, Valley Girl is superficial and scattered. Even when it seems as if we're going to see Julie show some spine, the next scene depicts a complete capitulation to peer pressure. That feels like a gap in the filmmaking process, as if some crucial explanatory sequence was left on the cutting room floor, or, worse yet, never shot at all. It often feels as if the writers and director missed chances to show the kind of character depth that helps engage an audience. Julie seems cruel when she breaks up with her boorish and egomaniacal boyfriend. The break seems to mean nothing to her. Later she takes up with him again as if she hadn't insensitively dropped him, and when she drops him again, we care so little about her that it makes no difference that she's finally chosen a better guy. By this time, we also have to wonder why the better guy even likes Julie.

Those who grew up in the '80s may enjoy a soundtrack that includes Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way," as well as songs by Men at Work, the Plimsouls, the Payolas, and The Flirts. On the plus side, Foreman and Cage manage to realistically portray the excitement of young lovers who can barely tear themselves away from each other. But similarities aside, Romeo and Juliet this is not. Only Julie's friends refuse to accept Randy, not the other way around. The many visual and contextual references to the famed 1967 film The Graduate -- including an attraction between a teen and his girlfriend's mother and the final shot as the couple ride off into a hopeless future -- also fail or make no useful point. Enjoy Nicolas Cage at age 20. He's a riveting presence, laying the groundwork for the passionate, earnest, and endlessly watchable outsider he would later play in Moonstruck.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the difficulty of the teen years. Why do some teens feel it's important to fit in? What do you think would happen to them if they went their own way? How are the teens in Valley Girl similar to or different from teens today?

  • Julie's parents are teaching her to be responsible by letting her make her own decisions, about whom to date, about how late to stay out, etc. What do you think of that parenting style?

  • The kids in the movie talk a lot about sex and sometimes rate the hotness of the boys and girls they see. How do you think rating people based on their looks, bodies, and other superficialities helps or undermines the self-confidence of the raters? Do you think they apply the same standards to themselves and worry that they might not be attractive enough?

Movie Details

Inclusion information powered by

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended movie lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate