Valley Girl does not reinvent the wheel for romantic comedies or musicals. You won’t see anything in the remake of the 1983 cult classic that is unexpected or surprising. But there’s an odd comfort in that. Maybe it’s due to the troubling times we’re in and my thoughts would be different were we not in the middle of a global pandemic. But when you can settle in for a lightweight, breezy, fun romantic comedy musical? Well sometimes, that’s just what the doctor ordered.
Told mostly via flashbacks from now-adult Julie (Alicia Silverstone) to her teenage daughter Ruby (Camila Morrone), Valley Girl tells the forbidden teenage love affair between younger Julie (Jessica Rothe) – the titular Valley Girl – and Hollywood-residing punk rocker Randy (Josh Whitehouse). As Julie tires of her shallow and superficial friends, she is drawn to Randy; he’s new, he’s rebellious, he’s a little bit dangerous. Her new relationship alienates her from her friends and family, and she struggles to decide what is right for her life (because all of these major, important decisions need to be made before you’re done with high school, right?).
Paint by numbers
Based on that brief plot description alone, anyone who has seen a romantic comedy before can pretty easily lay out the entire sequence of events in Valley Girl, just with the addition of musical numbers. If you’re looking for an in-depth character study that really dives into human emotions, this, as the kids say, ain’t it Chief.
But sometimes all you need is the comfort of a predictable story of good-looking people hanging out and trying to have fun as they navigate through normal teenage angst. It’s a setting as old as time, and there’s a reason it made John Hughes one of the most successful writers/directors of the genre (side note: if you want something similar to Valley Girl but with more depth, Hughes’ 1987 Some Kind of Wonderful is available on Amazon Prime).
Fun music, if mishandled
Musicals should have a built-in advantage over other similar movies. When you can insert several of what are essentially music videos into your movie, it should give it a jolt of life that other movies, by their nature, can’t match. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again executed this to near-perfection in 2018, and that’s a huge part of what made it one of my surprise favorites from that year.
But Valley Girl stumbled here. And it’s not like the songs or sequences themselves were the problem. It was how and when they were used; it was surprisingly jarring at times. In Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the songs began almost seamlessly and their insertion felt natural. But in Valley Girl, it was the complete opposite. It felt like the studio set a quota and the songs were simply inserted when and where the powers that be demanded. By the time you recover and can get into the song, it’s nearly over. They’ll make for more fun watches on YouTube than in the actual movie.
Carried by Rothe
If only one good thing can come from Valley Girl, it’s that Jessica Rothe should be more of a star than she is. Say what you want about the Happy Death Day movies, but she’s fantastic in both. And she continues to prove her mettle in this role too. Aside from maybe being a little older than you might want for someone playing a high schooler, she was a pitch-perfect casting choice.
A role like this requires a certain form of energy and personality and Rothe nails it. And that energy is infectious from the first moment you see her on screen. With little to no depth given to the supporting characters, the movie would be nothing without a standout performance from the lead. Luckily Rothe proved more than up to the task.
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Oh look, Judy Greer is underused again
This is one of the more baffling recurring themes in Hollywood. Judy Greer is an excellent actress. She knocks every role she has out of the park. She’s great here in Valley Girl as Julie’s mom Diana, because of course she is. But she’s given so little to do. It seems like she draws the short straw over and over. It makes no sense.
The same applies here to Julie’s dad Steve, played by Rob Huebel. Huebel is one of the most consistently funny actors working today. He pops up in tons of smaller guest spots across film and TV and kills it every time. Just like Greer, he’s dynamite here, but could have been even better with just a little more meat to the role.
In a movie not exactly hurting for time, adding a few extra minutes for these two to shine could have added a jolt of energy and personality to push Valley Girl over the hump from “eh, it’s fine,” to a firm “good” movie.
Not great, but you could do worse
I think the above line of “eh, it’s fine” about sums up Valley Girl pretty well. Jessica Rothe is almost worth the price of the rental alone. And if you can get past the awkward handling of the musical numbers, there’s some real fun to be had there. If you find yourself itching for new content, then by all means pull the trigger on the rental. But with a completely paint by numbers story and nearly no depth given to any character outside of Rothe’s Julia, Valley Girl won’t blow you away.
The Verdict: 6.5/10
Valley Girl is showing in select drive-in theaters and is available on VOD.