The Film (3.5/5)

    In a way Valley Girl could be seen as the ultimate 80's film. It's not as popular as the John Hughe's films, but it is a film that exemplified the trends of the period, and shone a light on them in a way that both satirized the films of the era, but also showed them in a serious style that other films were not doing. Valley Girl itself takes elements from Romeo and Juliet and the Graduate and remixes them for the 80's, and manages to do so quite effectively.

    Valley Girl stars Deborah Foreman as Julie the titular Valley Girl. She lives the cliché Valley Girl existence that has gone down in the books since the movie was made. It is a very upper middle class life with shopping, planning her life around boyfriends, prom, and her group of friends. However, she is not satisfied. She ends up breaking up with her perfect boyfriend Tommy, and dating New Waver Randy (Nicholas Cage), who her friends see as beneath her, and immediately begin putting pressure on her to break up with. However, this is not what she wants, even when she ends up doing it.

     Valley Girl is an interesting film. It feels like a time capsule of a certain view of the 80's. It mixes a serious, and occasionally dark tone, with a love story that is fun to watch, and bits of light comedy. As such the film holds up much better than other similar fare of the period. The performances from Cage and Foreman are both excellent, with Cage showing off the kinetic energy his performances are quite known for from this very early performance. The supporting cast also does quite well in brining their characters not only to life, but injecting them with a memorable energy. The film being an independent production does have a more raw tone to it, that I found impressive, and made it more endearing to me than slicker Hollywood productions of the same period.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Shout Select brings Valley Girl to Blu-ray in a splendid 1:85:1 1080p transfer from a 4k Scan. This looks quite nice with a solid grain structure brought forth from the 4k scan, nice stable colors, and detail are present.

    Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in English. Everything comes through crisp, clear, and quite loud.

Extras (3.5/5)

    We get new interviews with director Coolidge with members of the cast, a history of the Valley, archival interviews, storyboard to film comparisons, a commentary track with Coolidge, music videos from bands included on the soundtrack, and MORE.

Overall

    Valley Girl is a classic Hollywood lensed indie. The Blu-ray from Shout Select looks and sounds excellent. It is also loaded with extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.