[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Jen.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: And I'm Cybil.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: And you're listening to every rom.com, the podcast where we have fun taking romantic comedies seriously.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: This week on every rom.com, we're ending our high school movie series and beginning our LA story series.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: We'll explore a movie where opposites attract.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: We'll discuss the careers of director Martha Coolidge and actress Deborah Foreman.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And we'll totally dive into a tubular culture that, like, for sure still influences us today as we talk about the 1983 cult classic Valley girl.
So, Sybil, welcome back. Glad to talk with you again.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Always a pleasure to be here.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I was glad that we got to do that now streaming, too. That was super fun.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: So I do like them. It is fun because it does have you, like, rethink what's kind of streaming and what you've seen. It kind of has you kind of dig deep into the bowels of what's available as media.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: The bowels. Okay.
Well, on that note. So finally, we're getting out of the high school movie series. I'm, for one, I'm kind of glad to be graduating from high school. It was fun to go into the high school movies, but I feel like I've been living with them for so long now. And the LA story series is something that just occurred to me one day. I wanted to do the movie LA story in particular. That's what inspired it. The LA story movie with Steve Martin. Such a great rom.com.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: I love that one.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: And then I thought, like, well, what are some other rom coms set in LA? And I realized we have already covered a ton of them, actually.
Greece, for example. Think like a man. Jerry Maguire, clueless.
We've gone through a lot of them, but there's still a lot left, actually. Rom.com, i mean, it makes sense because that's the easiest place to film. Right?
[00:02:13] Speaker B: It's that it's on one of the two coasts, right? So you're talking New York or LA. And that's, if you look at most rom coms, they're set in usually New.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: York or Los Angeles or Chicago and Seattle. Those are two, like, up and comers, too, I would say, but yeah, right.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Like, bulk of. The. Bulk of, though I'm gonna say LA and York. I'm gonna stick very strongly. Bulk of.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Okay, maybe I'm so. You know how I am. I'm very anal. So I'd have to, like, actually look at the research.
But, yes, I think LA alone constitutes a huge number of romantic comedies, and I definitely have some favorites too. Rom coms and other movies that are set in LA. Do you have any particular favorites that are set in Los Angeles?
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Ones that are, like, seeing, like, love stories to LA? I mean, besides LA's story, I don't know if there are any.
I don't know if there are any that I'm like, oh. And I think about that as an LA kind of film. Maybe clueless, because, like, I also love clueless.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And I don't think it necessarily has to be a love story to LA to, like, you know, like, any movie that's even just set in LA, that's, like, obviously set in LA. You know what I mean? Like, got you.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: I know it's harder for me because, like, as somebody who's now been living there for a long time, like, I literally will be like, oh, this supposed to be taking place in New York, but, like, that's down the street from where I work.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: So, like, it's one of those weird things. Like, especially. Cause I'm in Burbank, which is where all the studios are. Literally, things are shot. Like, I'm like, oh, that's the, that's the back of the building I work at, and that's the coffee shop I go to.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Sure, sure. Yeah. And I've barely spent any time in Los Angeles. In fact, the only time I've been in Los Angeles, I think we were there for a day once when I was visiting you in San Diego, and that was like. And you were kind of bewildered, too. But, like, I wanted to go to, like, some frank Lloyd Wright house, and you're like, okay, jennifer, we'll go.
Instead of going to some of the.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: More, that's not what they're doing when they come to LA.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: I know, I know.
We did see some of the Walk of fame, too, though. I have my picture taken with, like, I think Olivia Newton John star and stuff like that.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. I worked off the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the first two years I worked in LA. And, like, it was, like, the weirdest thing, because, like, there'd be days where I'd be like, I walk on these stars every day. How random is that? When people are, like, taking photos and stuff next to them? It would definitely have that surrealist effect.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: So, yeah, so LA has been more of a strange place to me, and so I will notice it when I see it in movies. I mean, like I said, la story is one of my favorite rom coms set in LA. I also love Pretty Woman, which we're also going to cover. I didn't love it when it first came out. It's one that's grown on me over time, though, actually. And I think that's kind of this, that shows an interesting, sort of like rags to riches Cinderella version of LA still set in the eighties, like this movie today.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: And I like that movie less and less as I've gotten interesting.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's like, it's the same with, like when we were talking about love, actually. That's what I didn't like when it first came out and you all liked, and then we went opposite directions.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's true.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. But another, but other, some other movies I really like that are set in LA. I love once upon a time in Hollywood, the recent Quentin Tarantino movie, I just, for some reason I really responded to it. I love Quentin Tarantino anyway. But that movie, I don't know. I don't know why that one, it's, the look of it maybe is so great and like the, it sort of transports me to a different time and place, I guess that is a film.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: That they literally shut down the street that I work on a bunch of times because they were filming on it.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: So you have grudge against this film perhaps?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: No, just be like. Well, that, like, just remind you. Like what? Like, it takes sometimes in LA to get the job done, you know what I mean?
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Like people have to be put out, but, like, because we all live in it, we're just used to it.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And then some other, like, industry focused movies I like are like singing in the rain, of course. And then the player from Robert Altman with Tim Robbins from the nineties is such a cool movie.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Right? I love swimming with sharks.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Oh, I think I saw that once. That's like Kevin Spacey, isn't it?
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. And although Kevin Spacey has not aged well, apparently in our world, the movie still holds true. And it's probably the most, probably Kevin Spacey, like, movie ever because he is such a just horrible jerk.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: And that's another holly film industry movie, right?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: If I recall.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Which also apparently became a tv show, which. So it's on my list of cutest of things to watch because it became and became with women. It's a tv show with women as like, the people who are the protagonists.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Hmm. Cool. Very cool. Yeah. So we've covered a lot of the LA movies on the show. I'm sure I'm going to highlight some of those in our social media as we go through this series. But, yeah, there's so many cool movies about Los Angeles out there. And if you'd like to tell us what your favorite is like, feel free to email us at
[email protected] and maybe we'll either consider it for the series or just give you a shout out on the show. Yeah. Anything else you want to say about La movies before we get started?
[00:07:06] Speaker B: I'm surprised you didn't mention, no one mentioned La la Land, which is one of the films that I hate.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: I don't really like La la Land.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. I hate la la land so much. I love the intro scene. I love the musical number. I think it's so, like, well developed and designed. But I hate the rest of that movie.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: I don't like, I can't say I hate it. I only watched it once, and I watched it when everyone was like, this is so great. And so I was definitely underwhelmed. I'm like, okay, I don't really understand why everybody thinks it's so great, but I can't say that I hate it either. I think at some point I do want to watch it again, but I suspect it is going to be one of those cases where I just disagree with a lot of people, basically.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
So before we get started today, a few notes. First, as usual, there will be a spoiler free section at the beginning of the episode, and we will warn you when the spoilers are about to start.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: We'd also like to remind you that you can follow the podcast on social media. Our Facebook page is everyromcom podcast and blog. Our instagram is everyromcom. Our Twitter handle is very romcompode, and you can also find us on bluesky at everyromcom.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: And as always, you can find the
[email protected] dot. Send us
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[00:08:29] Speaker A: And finally, if you'd like to help support the show financially, we are always grateful to people who visit our buymeacoffee
[email protected]. everyromcom. And now let's listen to the trailer for Valley girl. Ow, gang. Me. How could you? Oh, sure, gertie. Besides, it's totally gnarly birth control.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Garry can't stand it.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Okay, so he's awesome.
Valley girl. She's out there somewhere.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: This is the story of a boy from Hollywood who never dreamed the girl he'd want most was down here.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: I'll stop the world.
Hello.
Who invited you?
Oh, wow. You mean you have to be invited? That explains it.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: What?
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Well, everyone is dressed with. See, if I had been invited, I would have known this was a costume party. Right.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: It's the story of a girl from the valley who never dreamed she'd ever be seen with a boy from over here. Like, I'm not getting out of this car.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: All right. But when they attack the car. Save the radio.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: So when can I see you again?
[00:09:43] Speaker A: I'm here with you now.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: I know.
This is the story of Randy and Julie, the way they come together and the people who try to pull them apart.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Like, don't you think they have parties over there? Where?
[00:10:02] Speaker B: At the zoo?
[00:10:03] Speaker A: This geek that she's with could scar her for life.
Life.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: If you think she's confused, you should see her father.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: I'm together now.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Be right there.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Julie's cool.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Randy's hot. She's from the valley.
He's not Valley girl.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: So some basic information about Valley girl. Valley girl came out on April 29, 1983. And a little tidbit here. Apparently this came out two weeks after Flashdance, so it's competing with this major cultural force in Flashdance there. It was directed by Martha Coolidge, written by Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford, and it stars Nicolas Cage as Randy and Deborah Foreman as Julie.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: All right. The basic premise of this is not, like, a very complicated film. I'll be straight with you. So Julie, who is our main female character, she's in high school, and she's from the valley. So she's a valley girl. She's grown bored of her, of her, like, valley boyfriend Tommy. So she breaks up with him. And at a party, which is like a valley party, she meets this guy Randy, who she's immediately infatuated with. Okay. And he's a boy from Hollywood, so he's like, you know, not part of her crew. And his fashion and music and culture are so different than hers. It, like, opens up her life. But it's also awkward because he doesn't get along or mingle with her crowd. So Randy and Julie begin to date, but as they continue to move on, Julie's friends begin to pressure her to leave him. They're like, don't be with Randy because, like, Randy's not our person. And I. So the movie's about will julie kind of stick with Randy? Can he integrate? Can she integrate together? And, like, will their friendships, you know, be able to stand them being together?
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. It's like, opposites attract.
Yeah. Star crossed lovers a little bit. Yeah. So now's for some interesting facts, and there's actually a lot of facts out there about this movie. So, according to Film Comment magazine, the original Valley girl script was more like a humorous sketch comedy, which would capitalize on the Valley girl girl phenomena and include enough sexuality or nudity to attract young men.
Yeah. The film porky's came up a few times as a reference for, like, what they were maybe expecting of the film, the writers and producers.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Okay, well, that. I mean, that makes sense for the time period because, like, that's what everybody wanted to have, right?
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah. That's what they thought would sell. Yeah. To their audience. Yeah. And director Martha Coolidge said that she was brought on to direct because the writers and producers felt they didn't understand girls, and Coolidge ended up adding key scenes which developed the romance aspect of the story. You're going to be shocked later when I tell you which scenes weren't in the movie originally. And I do like the self awareness, though, of these male producers and writers being like, hey, maybe we should get a woman to direct this film about a girl.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Well, it's interesting because also, one of the things I know is that in this time period, I mean, there aren't virtually any female directors now, but, like, here she is, a female director, working.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Yes. There were way fewer back then. I found an article around the same time talking about, you know, oh, there have been five movies directed by women this year, and they were proud of it.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: And I was like, that's what I'm saying. Like, we have barely any now. And, like, back then, it was like. It was. It was beyond a novelty. It was so crazy.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah. It was like, can women do this? Like, it was like. They were shocked. Anyway, so Coolidge. Coolidge has referred to the story of Valley girl as a Romeo and Juliet story about a girl from the valley and a boy from Hollywood. And she also says the movie is about conformity and peer pressure. So that's what she was going into. Like, the theme she was trying to bring out in the movie. And prior to working on Valley girls, she had been researching LA's music scene for a different project for several years.
Basically, that film fell apart, but she ended up. She said, I'd spent literally three years in clubs. I knew every club, every band, everybody. I'd prepped for this movie, but I didn't know it was for this movie. And I love that the idea that the thing you're working towards can end up leading you in a totally different area.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Yeah, totally.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: The movie had a budget of $350,000. And Coolidge called in a lot of favors so that a lot of people in the crew actually worked for free. Like, she'd been working in the industry with Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope studios. So she knew a lot of people. And, yeah, she got people to sort of volunteer to work on the film. And she herself took a salary of only $5,000 for the duration of the film. And she actually had to borrow money from her parents to be able to get by while she was making it.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Not much has changed in the industry. Let's be real.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: The entire art department budget for the film was $3,000. On the dvd commentary, Coolidge said that she had to convince the producers that she needed an art department in the first place. So, yeah, because of the low budget, many of the actors used their own clothes and props, and Coolidge described everybody putting their clothes that they thought could be used for the film into a giant pile, and then people would choose outfits from it. So I love that. I love that.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: I love it, too, because, like, the costumes actually seem very cohesive. So, like, you'll see that, like, stripes are everywhere. So there are all kinds of stripes, and there's pastels that, like, all of the, like, valley people wear. And then, like, there's the darker, edgier colors that, you know, the knot Valley people wear, and that anytime that, you know, our, you know, our heroine starts kind of moving away from the valley, she starts wearing bolder colors and more prints that aren't stripes.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: That's cool. Yeah, they. Yeah. And they just did this with, like, they sourced from their own clothes, and it worked out, and that's. That's how I did, you know, community theater in Korea. So that reminds me of that experience, and it's kind of fun. Okay. Another result of the low budget of the film was that Coolidge was very economical about using film, and almost all the scenes in the movie were shot in one or two takes. She also storyboarded everything very carefully. So, yeah, she wasn't leaving a lot to chance there, which is great.
The movie ended up being shot in 20 days, so not much time as to casting. Nicolas Cage was not the first choice to play. Randy Coolidge had looked into getting Judd Nelson and Eric Stoltz, but apparently they were busy. But she said that when she saw Nicolas Cage's audition, she found it riveting. And she added, quote, she told the New York Times, quote, he was goofy and intelligent and a rebel, but also handsome in his own way. I said, I want you in the film. I'm going to make you a star, end quote.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: I will say that I try to think of this with, like, Judd Nelson probably would have done a very good job, but Eric Schultz. No, no. Well, he would have been too serious.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: He could have, like, been. Yeah, you're possibly right, judging on his back to the future work. But the.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Oh, he was very serious at this point in time. Like, he's already pretty serious. Like now even. But, like, he's. He loosened up a bit as he got older. But he was so serious of an actor back then. Jen Nelson probably could have done a really good job.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: We love you, Stoltzy, though. We love you.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: But he wouldn't have. I don't think Jed Nelson would have been nearly as charismatic.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Oh, no, no, no. It's. It's the. Nicolas Cage was absolutely the right choice. Yeah. Yeah. So apparently at the time, even though Martha Coolidge had worked for Nicolas Cage's uncle, Francis Ford Coppola at Zoetrope Studios, she did not realize that they were related when she cast him. So it was kind of a funny coincidence.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Well, I mean, Cage kept that very quiet.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, isn't it funny, though, of all the people you could have then found a cast, though, you end.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Up with, okay, so this is the thing. Think about, like, she's pulling in all these favors and everything.
I guarantee you, somebody who knew Francis, if it wasn't himself, was like, you know, you should put Nick on that. Go send him for an audition.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Possible. Yeah, yeah.
So this ended up, this then ended up being Nicolas Cage's first big part in a movie. And he was the youngest cast member at 18 years old. Deborah Foreman, who played Julie, was 21. Most of the other valley girls and boys were in their early twenties, but Tommy, who plays Julie's boyfriend and then ex boyfriend, was played by Michael Bowen, who is 30. And the person who played Julie's mother, Colleen camp, was also 30, so. Which I thought she looked super young.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: I wanted to comment on this because when I watched this movie, the first thing I noticed is that the parents looked exactly the same age as the kids.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: I don't know about the actor who played her dad. I think he was a little older.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: But, yeah, it felt very 21.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Jump Street.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: I was like, everybody's the same age. But then I was like, like, I'm like, tommy, are you just, like, doing a lot of steroids? You're living a really hard life for, like, 18. Okay. It's like a really hard life.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: So like, I noticed. And I. And I think to myself, when I watched these when I was younger, did I notice that these people looked older? Is it only because I've become older that I can look back at these people and be like, oh, my God, they look so old.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: I'm really good at suspending my disbelief. Except with the woman, Colleen camp, who played Julie's mom, I could not suspend my disbelief with her. I'm like, uh huh. No. What's going on here?
[00:20:00] Speaker B: She has a really good nine step aging protocol.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah, something.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: So in terms of Nicolas Cage, he was doing method acting during the production, which included sleeping in his car in Hollywood so he could understand Randy's life better. Like, there's no indication actually, in the movie script as to where Randy lives, but I guess Cage decided he lived in a car.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: I thought Randy lived with. I felt like Randy lived in an apartment somewhere, like a hovel with, like, probably, like, nine other guys.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, there's actually no indication. Like, he could just very. He goes to Hollywood high school. He could very well just be living with his parents. But, like, 100% true.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: He never talks about his parents, really? So, like, there's that.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Like Coolidge said, she left his parents out of it just to make him seem more mysterious and possibly dangerous, so.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: And Cage really enjoyed working with Martha Coolidge as a director. They've done, like, some interviews together since. And he says that she gave him freedom to work, which gave him a, quote, sense of dignity as an actor. And he also cited some of the, you know, acting advice she gave him during specific scenes is stuff that he's used since. So he had a lot of respect for her, which is really cool. That is, there's a lot of other, like, pretty good talent working on this film. The cinematographer for this movie, Frederick Elms, has also worked with directors like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, and others. Like, a lot of great indie directors. There's also cast from the movie Apocalypse now due to the Coppola connection, actress Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest, who play the parents. Julie's parents and editor Ava Gardos also worked on Apocalypse Now. Eva Gardos is the editor on this film, but she worked in the casting department on Apocalypse now. And the writers of the movie, Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford, were also producers on the film. Crawford also worked as an actor during a lot of his career, and apparently he appears in this movie as a character named Lyle. But I have not yet found Lyle, so maybe I'll watch it one more time and see if I can find Lyle. Have you seen Lyle?
[00:22:02] Speaker B: I was not looking for Lyle, but I did not know Lyle.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Yep. Anyway, Lyle Coolidge said in the commentary that the producers of the film were very pleased and surprised by the quality of the movie. When she screened it for them. They were kind of expecting something a little more low rent. You know, like, just, let's get this out and make some quick money. And they were like, oh, it's a real film. Valley girl did go on to then make $17.3 million on its $350,000 budget, which is pretty respectable at that time.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: And the film has maintained popularity over the years, kind of as a cult classic. And in 2020, a jukebox musical remake was released, which Sybil in particular is going to tell you a little bit about more later. And it had cameos from Deborah Foreman, who played Julie, and several of the other original valley girls. So kind of nice.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: All right.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: It was interesting when I first watched this movie, because I didn't watch. I didn't watch this until, I think, well, after college, for the first time, was at a party.
The first thing I thought about this movie was that it looked, like wild at heart, which I talk about later. And it's. Because it has the same cinematographer.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Nice. That is awesome. I actually haven't seen Wild at heart. You're making me want to watch it, like, immediately. That's so cool.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: I mean, we'll talk about that later.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: So.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: But, yes, but so it is something that, like, literally, like, when I watched it, I was like, wow, this feels, like, wild at heart. There's so many things that are like it. And then. So, you know, I looked at the cinematographer, and I was like, that's why. There you go. Same feel.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Awesome. That's really cool. All right, so let's talk about our opinion of the film. So you already just mentioned you didn't watch this until later. What led you to watch it, and what was your kind of impression of it?
[00:23:38] Speaker B: I was at a. I think I was at a party with somebody, and they're like. And they were like, oh, we're watching Valley girl. And I'll be honest, I really, for whatever reason, in my mind, three days in the valley and Valley girl were the same movie in my head.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: If you ever see me either, they're not the same movie at all.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: I know. That's awesome.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: So I was like, I don't really want to watch three days in the valley. That's not like. Like, it's just too dark right now for that. And she looked at me, she's like, it's not dark. It's a love story. I'm like, it's a. What world is that, a love story? It's like Spader being all spade. She goes, Nicolas Cage is in this. And I'm like, well, we're thinking about different movies. And so she put it on.
I was instantly enthralled by it. Like, I was like, this is such a weird, quirky movie. I loved how the parents are utilized in it because it just doesn't happen really anymore. Like, parents actually have full characters and are well developed.
I did not feel that it made me feel like this was a, like, in the valley, a truthful Valley film.
But at that point, you know, I'm, I wasn't there in the eighties in the valley, so I don't know. I'm more of a Valley nineties girl. And I, I really loved it. I've showed it to other people because I think a lot of people have not seen this film.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: All right, so you're a valley girl lover. You're a thumbs up kind of a person. I am, yeah. So me, I also don't remember seeing this until probably after college at some point, I'm sure I probably watched it in one of my, like, I need to, like, be a completist, right? See all the teen films of the eighties or something like that. And I was kind of approaching it from, you know, comparing it to maybe like, a John Hughes film or like, some, or some of the other, like, you know, teen romances. Right. And I think as a teen romance, it doesn't function particularly well for me. Like, I really like both the actors as their own things, and I like some of the romantic scenes, but I don't think it stuck the landing at all for me. And I don't feel like Julie's character was, I guess, proactive enough for me to, like, enjoy it as a love story.
It really does. Like, I can tell that a woman directed it, but I can also really tell that men wrote it, if you know what I mean.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Agree. And I actually would never call this a love story. So, like, that's like, it has, it has, like, a romance in it. So also, I always thought of west side Story when I would watch this, which then makes sense if she was like Romeo and Juliet, right? Yeah, it felt very like west side Story.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So I, because I was trying to approach it, though, as, like, a teen romance. Like, I didn't like it as much as I might have liked it otherwise. If I just approached it as like, oh, here's just like a movie or here's a comedy movie.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: What if you had thought it was three days in the valley? Would it?
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Isn't it two days in a valley, though? That's been bugging me. I think it's two days in the valley.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: It might be. I just know that, like, and I haven't seen that movie forever either. But, like, that's the thought I was.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: No, I think. But, but I mean, it just kind of prejudiced my view of the film. And so I don't really remember liking it when I first saw it. And I was like, I don't know what the big deal is. But then, like, when I'm thinking about teen movies and I'm thinking about transitioning to our LA story series, I'm like, well, this is an obvious one and everyone brings it up. And it's also a female director, which we like to highlight. So, you know, I watched it again. I think watching it again, I have more of an appreciation for certain aspects of it. Like, obviously, the use of music, the use of, you know, production design and costuming is really good and very awesome. Authentic compared to a lot of modern movies, especially.
And when I, when I then listen to the director's commentary, this sometimes happens to me. Sometimes when I find out how things are made, I also appreciate them more. Just knowing that it was such a low budget and they were really pulling this together, you know, like, as a community, makes me appreciate the final project more. So. And the cinematography, I did notice is special. Like, when you compare eighties movies to other eighties movies, almost all eighties movies have more thought put into production design and filming than any movie put out today, like, for kids. Agree, literally. Like, I think I mentioned this on the show before, one of the, to all the boys sequels. There is like a wall with fake books on it and they're obviously fake books. And I hate that. Like, give me, like, Andy's kitchen in pretty and pink where, like, there's a random assortment of, like, flour and canned goods just put in a crazy manner on the wall. That's what I want. I want authenticity. And this movie also has that authenticity. So I appreciate that.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
True, true. I also really appreciated the, like I said, the characters in this are just, they're, they're all, like, unique people.
They all stand alone. And I appreciate, and I appreciate that, considering, like, it's a very. Right. You only. It's like 90 minutes. This film is really short, right? It's a short film. There are a lot of characters, a lot of moving parts, and yet every. I felt like I knew all of the people.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: That is true. That is true. Definitely. Yeah. The parents are very nicely differentiated. The four different valley girls are differentiated pretty well. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And Nicolas Cage is phenomenal in this. Like, you really do see the beginning of his Nicolas Cagedom. We're not going to talk about Nicolas Cage on this particular episode. We did sort of talk about him on the moonstruck episode, our first ever episode. Someday, I hope we can talk about him in more depth, but, yeah, not today. Sorry, guys. You probably already know a lot about him anyway.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: True, true.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: So instead, we're going to first talk about director Martha Coolidge. And director Martha Coolidge was born in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Her father was a Yale professor, but he died when she was just nine. So her family struggled financially after that. And she said it made her identify more with outsiders, so it gave her, like, a different perspective on life. She ended up going to the Rhode Island School of Design to study directing during the Vietnam War. She then moved to Canada and worked in television, but she returned to the States later and got her masters in film at NYU. And in the seventies, she was making documentaries and short films. She wrote and directed her first short, David off and on in 1972. And then. This is interesting. One of her best known early works was the documentary not a Pretty picture, which came out in 1975. It dealt with the topic of date rape, and Coolidge put her own experience of being sexually assaulted into the film. Coolidge moved to California from New York in 1976. She was mentored there by Francis Ford Coppola. She worked at his company, Zoetrope Studios. And I don't know what she did at Zoetrope Studios. I was trying to find out what kind of work she did.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: I mean, she could have just been pa ing. You never know. It's like she just did whatever it was. I mean, honestly, at that time, for her to even be working with, like, Francis Ford Coppola and, like, in his. In his stuff and film is really remarkable.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: She had also apparently done an internship at the American Film Institute earlier with Robert Wise, who directed, like, the Sound of Music, for example. So she's. She worked with some heavy hitters in her.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Yes, she did.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And then Valley girl was Coolidge's first non documentary feature film. Then. A lot of people will say that her next feature film was real genius in 1985 with Val Kilmer. But I found out, just looking at her IMDb page, she also directed a movie called Joy of Sex in 1984, and it's on Netflix. And it has several supporting cast members from Valley girl in it, like, some of them in starring roles. And I started watching it. It is more porky's than Valley Girl is.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: It is called the Joy of Sex.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it is called Joy of sex, but it's very funny. It's like, wow, she kind of went and did one of these films, like, after resisting that in Valley Girl, but I don't know if I can recommend it. I'm not putting it in the double feature recommendations, but it is an interesting historical artifact. If you really like the cast of Valley Girl, you should check it out. Or if you want to see this kind of dated. It's supposed to be based on the book the sex Manual, Joy of Sex. So they'll talk about things like diaphragms or birth control and, like, sex. I don't know. I can't explain it. So she only directed one more movie in the eighties called plain clothes, but she also started directing for television at that time. In the nineties, she continued to direct for film and tv, but she also did some movies. Some of the better known films were rambling Rose, lost in Yonkers, Angie, and introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Of those, I've only seen rambling Rose. I really do want to see introducing Dorothy Dandridge, though.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: I've seen all of those.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Wow. I know.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: Into not even knowing I was a Coolidge fan, apparently didn't even know it.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: So in 2002, she became the first female president of the Directors Guild of America, which. Wow, it took that long. She directed a lot of tv in the two thousands, but only two feature films, the Prince and Me and Material Girls. The tv shows she directed in the two thousands included Sex and the City, Weeds and CSI. In the 2010s, she also directed episodes of shows including Drop Dead Diva and Madam Secretary. And then her last directing work was the 2019 film I'll find you. I didn't see any upcoming projects listed for Martha Coolidge. She is, I think, like, 77 years old, so it is possible she's just like, yeah, I'm finished. Who knows? Coolidge has always been conscious of sexism in Hollywood. In 1999, she told literature and film quarterly, quote, now that I'm older, I realize that discrimination against women is absolutely everywhere and absolutely constant, but it can take subtle forms that you may not be aware of. It's involved in every part of the system, in subject matter, audience attendance, and interaction with the crew. Many men have problems dealing with female authority figures. I had to fire a production designer because of this attitude problem. Eeesh.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And then in 2012, she wrote a short opinion piece for the New York Times offering her opinion on women in Hollywood. She began with this.
I was raised to believe I was equal and discovered working in movies that this wasn't true. I've spent my life trying to change that. Though female directors are now a small part of the industry, we are an invisible minority. Even in government, we lack representation. It feels like we've gone backward. The cultural dismissal of women is so ingrained that the public, including women, doesn't seem to perceive a problem. 100%. I agree with that last part. I feel like there is so much sexism in the water that as the fish, we don't know we're swimming in it kind of. You know what I mean?
[00:34:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
She said this in 2012, people. 2012.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like, I just like the assumptions that are made about certain genres, including our genre here of the rom.com. like, people just automatically say, well, romances aren't as important. You know, relationship movies aren't as important. And it's like, not even something people question. They just like, you know, that's, that's true to a lot of people who involved in film. You know what I mean?
[00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Action, horror, sci-Fi all get more respect in general. So that's one thing, like subject matter, like she's talking about. Do you, do you respond to any of her quotes at all or.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: I think that it's, what I found was really interesting is that this was set in 2012, which means that it's over a decade, right? Over a decade. She said this. And she'd been working in film for that long. Right. So a long time. And this has not changed. It is almost identical now, especially in film, but in lots of things. And if you look at where we are in the state of America right now, we are moving backwards.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's depressing. Even since we began this podcast, we've moved backwards, unfortunately.
So she, in the 2012 article, she had some recommendations for changing things in Hollywood. They ranged from practical solutions like hiring quotas, which the oscars have started. Like, doing that at any rate, like, you have to have a certain percentage of your cast and crew has to be like, meet diversity standards. And then some of her other ideas, like her more amorphous ideas, were changing our society wide beliefs about women's behaviors and roles. And that's a good idea to have. I don't know how she wanted to implement it, but I totally respect her. She's had an amazing career, probably could have been much more amazing if she hadn't had to deal with all the sexism in the industry and really salute her, though, for sticking it out and making the films that she did.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, like, I have to. I have to wonder, like, how talented she was, you know, how, like, how she got on with everyone so well because she did work as a female in an industry that was not kind to females.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: All right, will you tell us a little bit about Deborah Foreman?
[00:36:25] Speaker B: Sybil, born in 1962 in Montebello, California, but she was raised in Arizona, in Texas. Originally, she came to LA to model, as you know, many people do, soon began working in commercials and on tv. Before Valley Girl, Foreman had appeared in small roles in a tv movie and the movie I'm dancing as fast as I can. She also had roles on tv showing shows, including TJ Hooker and Family ties. Oh, my gosh. TJ hooker. So long ago. Oh, my gosh.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: I know. I thought it was actually, like, I always think of, like, true romance when I see TJ hooker.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: That's exactly what came to my mind, like, oh, so long ago. Oh, my gosh. I. If you're out there, Gen Xers, and you're like, oh, that's so long ago, we feel you. The role of Julie in Valley Girl was her breakout role and remains her most well known role. Foreman appeared in a lot of other movies throughout the eighties. Many of them were horror movies, including Waxworks and April Fool's Day. She also had a small role in Coolidge's real genius and a starring role in another comedy, my chauffeur, in 1986, which I love that movie.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: Okay, I was about to ask you, Sybil, this is such a random movie. Have you seen this movie? Because I was sure, like, if anyone had seen this movie, it would be you.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: And I love this movie. Yes.
I think I watched this movie at least 40 times when I was.
It was just on all the time on HBO, but it was, like, really good. It's very well written, and it's very funny.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: Okay.
And it's like, you know how I like. I like what I call chick in pants films. And it's a, it's like a woman who's being a chauffeur, so that's cool, you know? So Foreman's acting career petered out in the nineties. Some of her last roles during the active part of her career were in MacGyver and the movie Lunatics, a love story.
Foreman made only three more acting appearances since 2000. In 2008, in the movie Beautiful Loser, her cameo in Valley Girl, the remake in 2020, and the movie the Demons within in 2023.
Foreman does not have any upcoming project listed right now in IMDb. Her bio when attending events lists her as photographer and actress.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I tried to find, I tried to find some of her photography work, but I was not able to. So I don't know, man, that's weird.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Because apparently she thinks she's a photographer.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: So she's got to work on promoting her photography, I think, a little better so I can find it more easily. Yeah.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: In a 2020 interview with Flood magazine, Foreman said this about her experience making Valley girl.
I feel like movies are about love, power or death. This movie stuck to the theme of love. When you're going through the rugged terrain that we were hitting during this guerrilla warfare that we were in when we made Valley Girl, at the base of it was love. We were doing it because we loved to do it. I was drawn to acting because of the love of it. I was drawn to any art and creativity because of the love of it. All of us had that same through line as we were making this film. That's why it's still around 37 years later.
So, I mean, clearly. Clearly she enjoyed her time on that project.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Yeah. It really sounds like, like everyone involved with it that has given interviews anyway, was, like, really jazzed about the movie and enjoyed the communal experience of making it.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Which she describes as guerrilla filmmaking. Like, I. Yeah, I mean, if it.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Was made with that kind of budget and if people are pulling stuff out of their wardrobe. Yeah, it was, you know.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: For sure. For sure.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Here I am with the vestiges of Valspeak here. All right, so, yeah, I guess we can get into the movie now. So we get into the opening of the movie. It opens with this helicopter shot looking down at the Hollywood sign, and it shows a physical divide between the characters, locations. And apparently, it was really hard to get this helicopter shot because they had unusually bad weather during the shoot. Martha Coolidge says it's a little shaky, but it's what we had, basically.
And on the soundtrack, when we see have this helicopter shot, we also heard radio stations, and I think it's two different radio stations because you hear two different dj's. Well, there's a guy who's, like, on the first station who says he's listing, he's with Holly Power 92, and he gives the weather in Hollywood is 75. And then there's a woman who's giving the weather in the valley as 83 degrees. And so I think that's why I think it might be two different stations. But she doesn't do a station id. So I don't know if you know much about the radio stations in LA.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Or not in the eighties. Yeah, not in the eighties, but yeah. So like, I don't know anything about Holly Power 92, that's for sure.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Do you know about K Rock? Because that comes.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: Yes, KRoc is still around. We've all listened to K Rock. We all know the dj's from K Rock. They're famous all over the world. K Rock is literally, you can say k Rock in almost any country. And people know what K Rock is.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: And I think you also see some like radio towers. Like above the Hollywood sign. Would that be correct? Is that what I'm looking at when I look at that shot?
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. There were radio towers there.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: So yeah, I think that's like centering. And it's also. It's showing this divide, but it's also kind of centering music as being a really important thing in this movie is. That's what I think.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Like when I say that I like that she spent money on a helicopter shot. She's like, I have no budget, but helicopter shot is where we're going.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: I mean, I think it's. I think you almost need something like that to open the movie. I don't know if it's going to be about the valley. You know what I mean? Going to proclaim that it's about this. This divide of locations. I don't know how else you would achieve that necessarily so succinctly. I don't know, maybe a split screen, but I don't know.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: I don't know. I would have been. I just like. Like that. That's like. That was very important to her.
Like, you're a judge. I just like. That was like what was important to her? When you have a very small budget, right? You're making choices and helicopter shots are not cheap.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Maybe that was a favor though. We never know.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: It could have been. It could have been a favorite, for sure.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: So the next section. The next section is Julia shopping with her friends at the mall. And there's a lot of close ups of credit cards being like hardcore swiped. Like. And when we say swipe, we don't mean like the. The new. Like, hi, I'm swiping and I'm tapping it. This is like you're putting it in a device. And if you ever worked in retail in the eighties, this is what it was like. You put in device and you have like, what are those what is this? It's like this multi level carbon paper.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Carbon.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: Yes, carbon paper.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: You have these carbon paper sheets that you swipe across to get the imprint, and that's how you charge people's charge cards back then. And I totally didn't even notice that.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: But you're so right. Yeah.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: And they wouldn't understand that. They wouldn't go through for, like, because remember, I worked. We had a restaurant. So, like, I did all this. So this, like, your people's credit cards wouldn't even go through until two to three days after they charge stuff.
It wasn't instantaneous like it is now. So, like, that was fascinating to me. Okay, so then you have the song. You have, like, songs in the background, like girls like me by Bonnie Hayes with the wild combo. It's like this boppy, poppy music, and it's like all these fast cuts of, like, girls, like, buying things, rummaging through stuff. It's like this mad dash of consumerism.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: I want to go back to the song for a minute, too, though, because I think the song is kind of significant in some ways, too, because it's, like the song that's about being kind of maybe fast or promiscuous or wild or something like that, but in a very defiant kind of way. Like, it's like. It's. It's kind of like the girls are daring you to make fun of them. You know what I mean?
[00:44:03] Speaker B: I think that was neat is that that particular song with those lyrics are layered over these girls, like, taking what they want.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: Right?
[00:44:10] Speaker B: So it's like, there. It's like there's this mad dash that they're buying all the stuff. They're just pulling stuff off the rack. They're putting things on, and it's all about what they want. It's about them. And it's about this me generation of girls at the mall. Because also the valley girl was about the mall. They brought in this idea that you hang out in the mall, okay? And then you have this, like, final credit card tally of, like. And it's a bunch of money. It's $192.95, which apparently in that time would have equated to, like, now, $606.42.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a lot for one day at the mall for me as a.
[00:44:48] Speaker B: Teenager who's doing this, like, all the time.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: And you're with a bunch of your friends. You can totally see the consumerism at this time. And then you end up in the perfect place, the food court. Because this is what this is where everything happened. When you were, like, if you were in the valley and you were a teen, you hung out in the food court, right?
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Did you live this life at all, at any time?
[00:45:12] Speaker B: You did actually live a bit of this life like you really did.
Like, I don't know if it's exactly the same as Los Angeles, but I can. I definitely, like, I live this. So what happened? I live in the valley of San Diego, and it would be, like, a hundred degrees, and so you have to go to the mall because there's nowhere else you can be.
Right? And I was like. Like, I grew up, like, very poor, but I grew up in a very affluent area, so all my friends would be, like, buying crap and stuff, and I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonna give it an orange, Julie, because that's what I can afford. Right, but, like, that. But this. I mean, this is how it was. So, like, this. This felt so, like, real to me of, like, what you did.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I did not. We did not even live anywhere near a mall, so when I went to the mall, like, when I got a little older, I would go to my friends, but it was an hour to drive there. Right. And I went with my mom when I was younger, so I did not have the same mall experience, which it's kind of. It kind of seems like fun to me. Seems great.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: And if you look at, like, a lot of teen movies, this is, like, something that comes. That continues to spread out. You'll continue to see girls in malls and shopping a lot. And it's because of this generation in this era when the mall became this very huge piece of a culture.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:26] Speaker B: And malls are now dying. Right? So now malls are not a piece of the culture.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: All right, so we're going to do a little bit of the valspeak scene from the food court really quick for you here.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: So we're going to give it a shot. We just, like, literally improvised it in our practice it right now.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Like, Lauren's starting the conversation here, and then Stacey and Julia are responding. So there you go.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: I don't want to, like, start a family. Like, you got to get all puffed out to the max and all. For sure.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Barf out. Oh, God. Gag me. How could you?
For sure, I'd be freaking out.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Like, I'd be scarfing up everything in sight. I don't know. You know, like, oh, and I get so fat and. And all. And what had happened to my zits? You know, they can get also grodyvere.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: All right. And then I've got a clip that's actually going to continue unless you want to comment on this part first. I've got a clip that continues the conversation.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: I liked how much they just, like, smashed into here. They're like. Like, let's get. This is like listening to Gen Z's talk. Like, literally, they smashed so much in here, it was amazing.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So much of the vowel speak at once. Yeah, Coolidge said she basically wanted to, like, put a lot of vowel speak right in the opening. Or actually, that was probably. I thought that was the. Must have been the writers, too, though. I don't know. Now I'm confused about who wrote this. Well, anyway, Coolidge said about the film that they were trying to get as much valspeak right in the beginning, and then they would taper off later in the movie so people could actually understand what was going on. Because I can totally understand all of the stuff they're talking about here. But, I mean, maybe in the early eighties, it wasn't widespread enough what these words meant that people would understand them. I don't know. It's interesting.
I guess that could be a reflection of how quickly this stuff spread. Right?
[00:48:04] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: Anyway, okay, so we've got now a clip. Oh, and also, like, these girls are, like, constantly talking about their weight, too. Like, it is a huge thing. Like it was the eighties. Yeah, we'll get to more of that later, but here's the continuation, sort of. Of that scene.
Like, he's not so awesome.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: He's okay, I guess.
Yeah.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: You know, mix my mouth water rattle. Be at my party tonight, right?
[00:48:34] Speaker B: That'll, like, attract every girl west of Van Nuys Boulevard. Your place will be packed.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Okay, so he's awesome, Julie, like, don't.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: Be so greedy, you know, save some.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: For the rest of us.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: I mean, Tommy is such a hunk.
[00:48:49] Speaker A: I can't stand it.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: I mean, he is so bitchin'I.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Can't even believe you'd give Bradley the time of day. Yeah, but Tommy could be such a dork, you know? Like, he's got the vibe, but his brains are bad news. But he is a bitch. And you really are so lucky, Dooley.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: I know, but we've been going together.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: So long now, like, I'm beginning to think I'm a piece of furniture or something. Like an old tear.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Oh, bad news.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: I definitely need something new.
We have established now that Julie is bored with Tommy. Heredithe. And right after this, right after this mall, like, right after this food court scene, she basically just breaks up with him at the bottom of the escalator.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: Most, like, random breakup. She's like. I mean, I guess we're just broken up to buy.
[00:49:38] Speaker A: I guess. He hasn't called her in two days. Is like one of the.
[00:49:40] Speaker B: Yeah, he even called me. It's like, whatever amount.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: But to be fair, Tommy doesn't really seem like much of a prize, like, throughout the rest of the movie, so.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah, no, but he sees himself as a prize. The whole rest of this school sees Tommy as a prize. This Tommy, though, like, he is so, like, his double pop collars. His double pop collars are all the rage.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: All right, so let's get into, like, valley girl culture a little bit here. So I really wish I'd had more time to research this. There's actually a lot out there about this. A lot of it is concentrated in linguistics, too. I got to tell you, I was not in the mood to read, like, 20 page academic essays about linguistics. But if you are, it exists out there. So, basically, the movie Valley girl is contrasting kids who live in Hollywood with kids from the San Fernando Valley. And I don't really have a huge grasp on that geography. Sybil, can you enlighten me a little bit about.
[00:50:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so what's important between. So, once again, Hollywood is a very small section. Like, la is, like, very large. Right. And then you have. Hollywood is, like, a very small section. It's, like, really tiny. It's maybe, like, I don't know, like a five mile radius in all directions. Like, really?
[00:50:47] Speaker A: Kind of like the downtown area, more or less.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: No, it's not even downtown. No, that's downtown. Hollywood lives. So, like, there are hills because it's a valley. Right. So there's hills. There's Hollywood hills, and then there is actually, like, Hollywood, which was where the studios, like, originally were.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: And that's the Hollywood area. And it's really grungy and it's like.
Yeah, it's very grungy, and it's, like, full of, like, prostitutes, and it's dangerous.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: It's cockroachy, and it's gross still or just in the eighties to this day. Okay, and why. Why do you think that is, like, geographically? Is there a geographical reason for it?
[00:51:21] Speaker B: Like, that's a great question. I don't know. I mean, it's definitely within the last decade, they've been building it up. So, like, it's nicer than it was. So, like, even five years ago. Like, it's gotten nicer because there are all these, like, high end, like, condos and stuff. There but very few people are like, I can't wait to move to Hollywood. No one is once you live in LA, because I first lived in Hollywood when I first moved there, and I was like, oh, Hollywood sucks. Like, nobody wants to live in Hollywood. So then what happens is you move to West Hollywood, North Hollywood, or the valley or the beach area, which is Santa Monica.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: And so what happens is those hills, those Hollywood hills, you have to go up and down them. And for years, there was no freeways that really went around them easily. So you'd go up through these canyons, which if you look, they drive through those canyons, right? They drive like you see them driving, and then you go over the hill, and then you're in the valley. Now, people didn't want to live in the valley because the valley is bald hot. Like, it is so hot is not. And it's a far away from the beaches. It's crazy hot. And it's also where, like, all it was, it's, like, more suburban.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I definitely got that sense of it's very.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: Now, now, today, it's not suburban, but it is more suburban than Hollywood, but it is not very suburban anymore. But at that time, it was far more suburban. Yeah, but it's balls hot. So, I mean, Hollywood can get hot, too. But, like, let's say Hollywood is like 89 degrees.
[00:52:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:47] Speaker B: The valley will be 104.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And we saw that in the opening. Like, in the. We heard that in the opening, in the running reports, there were different temperatures. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: It's like, it's like the microclimates within Los Angeles are so diverse. That can happen. And then Santa Monica, which is by the beach, will be, like, 60 degrees and foggy.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: Ooh, nice. That's where I want to live, probably, essentially.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: So it's very diverse. So I think a lot of the reason why you would have this, like, idea of, like, the Hollywood section, you know, you have this Hollywood section where people. That's also where, like, all of the clubs and everything were. It's, you know, it's where the nightlife happened.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: It's okay.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Where if you're in, like, the valley, which is, like, Van Nuys, Burbank, studio City, like Glendale, those areas, they're definitely more family oriented. There's, like, parking on the streets. There's a lot of green grass everywhere. You know, it's not just, like, city feeling.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Well, good. This is. This gives me a little bit more information because, like, I was going off of books before, and basically, like, books will be like, brat pack America by Kevin Smoker said La had deep cultural and economic inequalities. So that's like. Like the sentence he devoted to it. And it's good to have your insider perspective here a little bit more.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: So I'm glad, because, I mean, I live in the valley still, and I've lived in the valley for quite some time. I've lived near where a lot of these places, a lot of the stuff was done, like, shot on. The filming was done. Like, I looked down the block from two of the places that it was, you know, filmed that. I lived on Van Nuys Boulevard.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:23] Speaker B: You know, so they're like, we're cruising Van Nuys. That's literally a street in Van Nuys that you would also just cruise down because there's, like, so much stuff to see down that river.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: What would you see, though? Like, I'm curious.
[00:54:36] Speaker B: Right. So you're gonna see, like, movie theaters and diners, and you'll see beautiful homes.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: And. Yeah, like, you just. You'd be cruising. Whereas if you go to Hollywood, when you show. When they show the Hollywood cruising, you're going to see more, like, people walking around. Like, it looks like a city. It looks like more like San Francisco, right? It's more of a city.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, cool, cool. All right, so the valley culture was brought to kind of national attention. One of the things that brought it to national attention, anyway, was the release of the 1982 Frank Zappa song Valley Girl, and that featured his 14 year old daughter, Moon unit, speaking Valley girl phrases over the music. And I'm going to play a clip of moon unit being interviewed in a moment about this movie, or sorry about this song. But Zappa made the song not out of love for Valley girl culture, but out of contempt. Like he told David Letterman, quote, I hate the San Fernando Valley. I mean, it's perhaps one of the most disgusting places on the face of the earth. And I wrote this song about the values of the people in the San Fernando Valley, but it turned out to be cute, and so everybody thinks it's cute, end quote. Some of the lyrics in the song, you can tell that it's, like, made from disdain. They include lyrics like, tosses her head and flips her hair. She got a bunch of nothing in there. And, yeah, it's an interesting song. Like, it's interesting to listen to, but it's.
I'm kind of. Of two minds about it, you know, because it, like, there's a sense in which. Okay, maybe he's just critiquing a culture, but it's whenever you're critiquing girls as a man, there is like always this sense of like, is there misogyny in here too?
Do you know what I'm saying?
[00:56:20] Speaker B: Yeah. No, because like, what are the Valley boys like? Are they different? Not really.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: So here's. I want to play a clip, though. This is of the time when this movie came, when this song came out, it made like this sort of national news. They wanted to hear about the Valley girl phenomena. And this is a show, the Mike Douglas show. He's going to introduce the Valley girl culture. And I'm going to just have a quick clip too, with Moon unit doing some valley speak for him. So funny historical artifact for you here.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: New York has New Jersey, Chicago has the Cubs, and Los Angeles has the San Fernando Valley. Way back over the Hollywood Hills lies an infamous stretch of shopping centers, fast food and middle class Americans in an simply referred to as the valley. And from that valley there has emerged a subculture that is quickly gaining the attention of the nation.
They're not punk rockers with shaved heads, nor are they long haired pot smokers. They are high school girls with a lingo style of dress and philosophy all their own. They are valley girls. My name is Andrew here for sure is Moon unit Zappa. Hi.
[00:57:33] Speaker A: Like, hi.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: What exactly is a valley girl?
[00:57:39] Speaker A: Oh, a valley girl is.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: Do I call you Moon or unit?
[00:57:43] Speaker A: Moon.
[00:57:43] Speaker B: Okay, I'm sorry.
Basically, a valley girl is someone that.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: When you meet them, you can say, oh, you're from the valley. She knows how to.
[00:57:54] Speaker B: It's that that distinguishes the minute they open their mouths. She knows how to handle herself in.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Such a way that she knows all the right tricks.
[00:58:04] Speaker B: But the effervescence, I mean, they're all so excited and seemingly so happy. Is that part of the act or is that just the way they are? Well, like, I don't know.
You don't consider yourself a valley? No.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: You heard part of the song there and you heard part of moon unit mimicking the language totally.
[00:58:23] Speaker B: And you saw you listen to a very, like, lame man having an interview.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: I mean, he's alright. It's just like, that's the way news. They had to be very serious. And like, that's the way culture was back then. I mean, adults just like, you know, we didn't have the Internet, so adults nestle weren't necessarily up on youth culture to the extent that you can be these days. I think, like, I wouldn't know half the things Gen Z is doing if I weren't on Twitter. You know what I mean?
[00:58:47] Speaker B: True that. That is true.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: So. Or if we didn't have streaming that had a lot of young girls.
[00:58:51] Speaker B: I mean, it's all TikTok, but. Yeah, true.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Any thoughts on moon unit there or the song or anything else you want to say about that?
[00:58:58] Speaker B: I mean, moon union is super, super cute. She's.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, she's adorable.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: So I don't.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: I don't know. I'm not sure. I think she had partial disdain for the valley girls, too, though. Maybe not as much as her dad.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: I mean, a bunch of people had disdain for valley girls. They, like, made fun of them all the time. It was not like the idea of valley girls was like every blonde joke ever.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: Mm. Mm hmm. You're right. Yeah, yeah. She went on in the interview to tell Mike Douglas that you can spot valley girls by few things, and she mentioned hair flipping, wearing ruffles and mini skirts and metallic things and chewing their gum and then twirling it around their finger. I totally did the chew gum, twirl it around my finger when I was.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: Those are all true valley girl things.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: Yeah, but I did the gum twirl. I don't know where I got that from. If it's just, like, something you naturally do with gum or if I saw it in a movie or something, I don't know.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: Who knows?
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Did you do any of those things? Did you have. Were you ever, like, a valley girl? Like, in spirit? Do you feel?
[00:59:57] Speaker B: I mean, I definitely. I mean, you grew up in California. I think that there's always a part of you. Like, I sunned my hair, so I was blonde, and I definitely, like, I definitely spoke. Some of valley girls speak, and I loved glittery things. And, you know, I wore all the makeup that they wore.
I think it was just. It was just a period of time that was there.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it definitely infused the eighties. Like, it filtered out to the midwest to a certain extent, too.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: For sure.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: Especially the language. Especially the language.
[01:00:33] Speaker B: Right. Did I sit around going for sure?
No, but I mean, I definitely, you know, I use. To this day, I use, like, a lot.
[01:00:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:00:42] Speaker B: And I want to mention that I thought it was really interesting that the Hollywood people use fuck a lot, because guess what? So do I.
And it is something that, like, bleeds out.
[01:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, one thing some of the linguists I saw were cautioning, though, that the use of, like, wasn't actually necessarily specifically pioneered by the valley girls. It was just the way. But because that became the cultural phenomenon, it kind of got affiliated with them. But I guess there was already a tendency to do that in american culture.
[01:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we did. We use, like, as a pause spot.
[01:01:14] Speaker A: And for sure, as well. Fuck as well. But, yeah. And of course, words like awesome. Awesome are and totally already existed as words, but it was kind of just a way that they were used differently by the valley girls, right?
[01:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It was the. And also, valley girls had a very, very, like, up and down.
[01:01:32] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[01:01:33] Speaker B: You know, so it'd be like, oh, my God, totally. You're so right. Yeah. You know, it's like. It's very up and down.
[01:01:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Some other things to talk about. Valley girls, as we said, are very associated with the mall. Apparently, the Sherman Oaks Galleria was like, the mall.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: That's my mall. That's my mall.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Oh, really? Okay.
[01:01:51] Speaker B: That's my mall.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: And they show that mall in exteriors in the film, but it said. Martha Coolidge said the interiors were actually shot in a torrent, the Del ammo. Okay. Okay. So you recognize.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Which is Torrance, California, which is really far away.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: So you actually recognize the different malls.
[01:02:07] Speaker B: Then you were able to recognize the different mall. And by the way, this is a good time to say, I made a map. I have a Google map. It has all of those things on it.
[01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes if you want to look at the map of the filming locations.
So then Valley girls, like, the Valley girl language, obviously kind of infiltrated culture, as we mentioned. But also, the Valley girl is kind of an iconic figure, or like. Or similar. Similar girls to Valley girls became a thing in popular culture. So one thing I wanted to mention was there was another movie in 1983 about Valley girls. At least one more. It was called the Vals. I just found it on YouTube. I haven't been able to watch much of it yet. It's definitely, like, being more extreme about how they are portrayed. But I don't. I don't know what the. It's very low budget. I'm not sure what the plot is. It sounds kind of like a silly eighties plot. It doesn't look too exploitative, but I haven't seen much of it yet. I don't know. But there was another one in 83 trying to capitalize on this. And then writer producers Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford from this movie. Valley Girl produced Night of the comet in 1984. And I've watched most of this movie. I don't think that, to me, the women in the movie don't really seem like Valley girls. They're not speaking in any kind of heightened way. But this is what it says on IMDb. A comet wipes out most of life on earth, leaving two Valley girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:03:26] Speaker A: Totally recommend the movie. It's really fun, but they don't really seem like valley girls other than they're blonde and they are from the valley. That's about it.
[01:03:33] Speaker B: I think about movies that are. That have valley girls in them that even if they're not, like, about valley girls, like earth girls are easy. Comes up to me right away.
[01:03:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:03:42] Speaker B: Because I literally like, you know, that's a Gina Davidson alien comes to Earth, and she's in Hollywood, and she lands in a Valley girl party.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: Also, I wanted to do one more thing, too, from the guy Lane, from the movie, Andrew Lane, the writer. He also went on to write and co produce Bad Girls from Valley High in 2005. He's really trying to still get into that valley mood.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: So he's like, I like Valley. He's. I'm about that life.
[01:04:06] Speaker A: And then I think clueless and legally blonde are also obvious, you know, successors to the Valley girl.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: You know, Valley girl 100% clueless feels very valley like. It's. It's like more nineties Valley, but it's still valley, and it takes place in the valley.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: Is there anything more you want to say about the icon of Valley girl or the Valley experience or anything like that?
[01:04:27] Speaker B: No, I think this movie does a really good job of showing the divide between the two. I think it does a really good job of that.
[01:04:36] Speaker A: Cool.
All right, so we gave now a lot of information about Valley girl culture. I'm sure we can bring up some more stuff as it comes up throughout the episode, but time to dive back into the movie. After the mall, they go to the beach. I like. I like a beach scene just because I like going to the beach so well.
[01:04:55] Speaker B: Also, I thought it was really interesting because, like, the beach is probably the one of the farthest places that they went. If you're in LA, it's called, like, over the hill. Like, you're going over the hill, you're gonna go to the west side, and you're gonna go to, like, the. Like, they're in the Malibu beach. I looked it up. They're like, down in the Malibu beach. And so they're like, on the PCH, and it's like, really. It's very beautiful down there, but it, like, it's a drive.
[01:05:15] Speaker A: Pch? You mean pacific coast highway?
[01:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:18] Speaker A: Okay. Just for the people who might not know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. It looked like a beautiful beach. And they also are checking out people's bodies, and one of the people they check out is Nicholas Cage, who runs into the scene, and he is looking quite fit.
[01:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he does look very fit. He was very young.
[01:05:38] Speaker A: Right?
[01:05:38] Speaker B: So he's only 18 in this, but he looks very fit. He's like, clearly, he's been working out, and he wants to attract the ladies.
[01:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Except that he doesn't want to go to the valley. His friend Fred comes up to him, and he's found out about the valley party just by, like, overhearing Lauren talking about it at the snack bar. And Nicolas Cage is very much like, I don't want to go to the valley.
[01:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah, well, like, why would I like that? Like, it's the idea that, like, the valley kids are, like, afraid of Hollywood and wouldn't want to go there. And, like, the Hollywood kids are like, why would I go to, like, the boring valley with a bunch of stuck up people?
[01:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Except for Fred. His friend Fred, who just, like, really wants chicks, basically. That's, like. And party.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: He wants to party. He's like, he's gonna be a good party with a bunch of babes.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's. Yeah, again, it's about the chicks, though. Like, I don't. Like. I don't think he cares about any other aspect of the party, but, yeah.
[01:06:26] Speaker B: I think he liked the idea of free booze, too. I think he mentions, like, the free booze.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
All right, so we go to the party.
[01:06:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the party scene.
[01:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So this party scene, I think one thing that's interesting about it is. Okay, so, first of all, in the first draft of the script, and I don't even understand how this is possible, but there wasn't a scene where, like, Randy and Julie fall in love.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Like, they don't, like, have the eyes across the room moment.
[01:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm assuming that, like, there was a party scene, but there's no, like, them falling in love moment. And, like, Martha Coolidge had to add a bunch of stuff, and you know how she conceived of it as, like, Romeo and Juliet? Well, in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo goes to a party at Juliet's house, and that's where he meets her and falls in love. So this is pretty much echoing that theme. And Julie's wearing this, like, puffy, lacy white shirt in this scene. And I'm wondering if that's, like, trying to telegraph Romeo and Juliet.
[01:07:20] Speaker B: I think you're absolutely correct. Once again, like I said, I think the costuming in this, considering, like, they had, like, no budget and, like, now we know that people were just pulling some other wardrobe. The costuming on this is very precise, in my opinion.
[01:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's well done. Yeah. It's very symbolic here.
And there's a b plot that's introduced in this scene as well. Suzy, whose house the party is at. Her stepmom is kind of trying to compete with her for this young guy that she's interested in. And again, like you said, everyone looks the same age. Suzy and Beth absolutely look the same age. I could not find a birthdate for Lee Purcell, who plays Beth. It just wasn't listed on IMDb, so I don't know. They could very well be.
[01:08:01] Speaker B: What I thought was interesting is, like, literally, this plot is the most, like, random plot. Like, kind of thrown in there, like, I guess.
Yeah. And also, like, I wasn't really sure what was going on with the stepmom. Like, was she divorced? Did she have a guy? What? Like, oh.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: So I think what happened was, I think that, like, she had married Suzie's dad, and then Susie's dad maybe died, and then she was left with his stepmom, and I'm pretty sure the guy. Okay. And I figured out who Lyle is. The guy the writer plays Lyle, who's the stepmother's, like, boyfriend dish guy that's hanging around.
[01:08:38] Speaker B: Gotcha. Why? She's making the sushi.
[01:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. The sushi that has, like, something that's obviously peanut butter being put into it.
[01:08:46] Speaker B: I literally was like. I'm like, is it tahini? This is the weirdest sushi I've ever seen.
[01:08:50] Speaker A: It's supposed to be some kind of fish, I guess, from the commentary, but it looks nothing like anything. Peanut butter.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: And nobody eats. That's not how sushi's eat. I'm like, why isn't it. Wait, I gotta get to the wasabi part. I'm like, and then, why is it wasabi? And then when.
And then, like, I'm pretty sure Nicolas cage just eats wasabi.
[01:09:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:09:10] Speaker B: Like, no business. Like, nothing happening.
[01:09:13] Speaker A: I bet it's not real wasabi, but, yeah, when he put that in his mouth, I'm like, what is happening here?
[01:09:19] Speaker B: So much going on in this scene that I was like, I don't even understand what's happening right now. There's so many things going on. So I rewatched the scene twice because I was trying to figure out what was going on with the stepmom, because I was like, I don't at first, I wasn't paying enough attention. So, like, I didn't even realize it was a step mom. I thought she was just throwing a party.
And then I realized she was supposed to be older and she was supposed to be a mom.
[01:09:42] Speaker A: Cause she was with the old dude.
[01:09:43] Speaker B: Lyle, and I was like, oh.
So I rewound it so I could actually pay attention more. And then I was even more confused by what was happening. Except that it's intriguing to me that we have to have a subplot where, like, the stepmom is, like, I totally need my daughter's or stepdaughter's boyfriend.
[01:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:07] Speaker B: As if she doesn't get enough, like, you know, d on the side herself.
[01:10:11] Speaker A: This is totally, like, the porky's aspect of this. Like, you know.
You know what I'm saying? This is, like, the remnants of the sex comedy that this movie was originally.
[01:10:20] Speaker B: That makes way more sense. That makes way more sense. It is very, like, random, based on the new plot. But, yeah, it was just like, well, the scenes here and, like, that's fine. We'll just work with it.
[01:10:31] Speaker A: All right, so let's see. What else did we need to talk about here? Oh, yeah. Oh, man. And so Tommy is trying to make Julie jealous at this party as well. So he's, like, hitting on all these girls, and then he, like, basically pushes Lauren, the really cute valley girlfriend of Julie, into this room and, like, kind of dubious consent there. He's, like, pushing her down on the bed. Like, she does seem to be, like, into him, but then, like, you see?
[01:10:56] Speaker B: But she keeps saying no. She keeps saying, like, no because she's, like. Because she was a friend, I think. Not because she didn't want to have, like, do the sexual stuff because she's, like, a friend, and she's, like, morally, you know.
[01:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:11:07] Speaker B: Worried.
[01:11:08] Speaker A: This also gives us the first of four required breast shots actually, I think it gives us the first two of four required breast shots that Martha Coolidge was supposed to put in the script. Yeah.
[01:11:17] Speaker B: She's also wearing a really amazing jumpsuit. Did you notice that? Like, so good.
[01:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah, but, like, yeah, this is, like, Martha Coolidge put this breast scene in, and she does have very nice looking breasts, but, like, it's interesting because she plays the scene as kind of melancholy because Lauren's, like, she wants to have a real relationship with Tommy, maybe, and he's basically like, oh, you're just not a good friend who, like, screwed over. You're a girl who screwed over a friend, and I'll do you a favor and I won't tell anybody that this happened.
[01:11:44] Speaker B: It's. It's really kind of a creepy scene. So it starts out where he's like, no, we broke up, and she broke up with me, and I'm all sad, and I'm so lonely now. And she's like, well, you know, like, we'll totally get together. It'll be cute, whatever. And he's like, well, she doesn't want to go all the way. When she says, no, I don't want to go all the way with you, that's when he starts being like, oh, well, let me blackmail you into not saying that we've been together. And I was just like, I'm like, wow, he's a real douchebag.
[01:12:13] Speaker A: But then he does go and tell all his guy friends that he slept with her, too, so I know you're just like, okay, so we do now get this moment where Randy, he's not feeling the party until he sees Julia across the room. Martha Coolidge, like, carefully storyboarded this, like, eye gazing between the two of them, and I think it. It just works really well. Like, I buy.
Yeah, I don't usually buy this love at first sight crap. Like, I usually want a little more conversation or something more, but I think she made it work, and their acting made it work.
[01:12:42] Speaker B: I was gonna say, I'm gonna not. I'm gonna not tip my hat to both of their acting ability, too. Like, the. Like, Nicolas cage does such a good job being like, look at how hot she is. I'm really into her. Like, she. He's so great, and she's like, I'm just really excited that somebody's looking at me who's not freaking tommy, and he's, like, a bad boy, and he's kind of hot. That's awesome.
[01:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah. She actually, like, tries to hit on that guy they saw at the mall earlier at one point in the scene, too, and he's totally indifferent to her. And I think I have a head cannon now that he's actually a gay man who just is not interested, but.
[01:13:13] Speaker B: I'm here for it also, like, she's a little. One of the things I don't like much about her character, which I'm sad about, is that she. How desperate she is to, like, be with somebody constantly and then, like, doesn't actually, like, really seem to care enough about being in the relationship.
[01:13:29] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. Yeah, we should. We should pack. Unpack that a little bit later.
[01:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah. But this. I think it starts here, where she, like, where she. I feel like she's kind of like I'm just really excited to be in the male gaze.
[01:13:40] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this is also showing where men wrote the screenplay, too, though. Let's be real.
[01:13:44] Speaker B: But I, like, I felt that it was, like, a good scene, as in, like, I knew what was happening without words.
[01:13:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
So Randy and Fred then get thrown out of the party when Tommy notices that Randy is hitting on Julie. Randy's got it bad already. They drive away. Randy and Fred drive away for a little while, but then Nicolas cage, like, comes out, like, so random. He gets out of the car, and he starts ranting about how they have to go back to the party. And I'm like, that moment. I'm like, this is, like, the first Nicolas Cage rant in a movie. Really?
[01:14:19] Speaker B: It feels so random. Like, were they, like, just talking about this the entire time in the car and it, like, built up to it? Or it's just like, he's driving on Mulholland and then he's like, I can't leave her. I'm so in love.
[01:14:30] Speaker A: So they drive back to the party, and this is, like, the weirdest. This is the weirdest scene to me.
[01:14:35] Speaker B: This is also such a weird scene.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: He, like, creeps into the bathroom window, and he goes into the shower stall, and his big plan is he's gonna wait in the bathroom until Julie comes in to.
[01:14:48] Speaker B: Because clearly she's going to have to go to the bathroom at some point because she's a girl.
[01:14:53] Speaker A: And, like, a ton of people, they have this thing where a ton of people come in the bathroom and, like, we see some more breasts because, like, some guy's trying to have sex with this girl in the bathroom, and she doesn't want to. Eventually, other people are, like, doing drugs. Like, it's a very weird peep fest. Yeah. And, like, apparently, Nicolas Cage, Martha Coolidge let Nicolas cage, like, improv all these different reactions in the shower. So she's just. Just, like, shot a bunch of him hanging out in the shower making reaction shots to things.
[01:15:21] Speaker B: So I think this is also remnant from, like, the porky's kind of thing where it's, like, it's supposed to be, like, you know, slapsticky and funny and, like, you know, but, like, really, it's just like, why is this creeper in the shower, like, watching people, like, use the bathroom?
[01:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, how many people literally would have had to, like, poop, too? Like, come on. Just. So what if Julie had come in and she had to poop? I mean, like, how? That would be awkward.
[01:15:45] Speaker B: You're just like, well, I don't know if I love you now because it's gone too soon, it's too fast.
[01:15:51] Speaker A: Or I'd be. Or if I knew that a guy bid in the shower when I pooped, I'd be like, um. That's terrible. What are you doing?
[01:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, it's such a weird. Like, the whole time, I'm like. And it goes on for way longer than I expect it to, right? If it had just been. He was in the shower, one person came in, and then they leave, and then, like, Julie walks in, or he goes to get. Walk out, and then he sees Julie coming.
[01:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:16:14] Speaker B: That. I've been like, oh, this makes sense. But no, he's just literally, like, just chilling in the shower. Yo.
[01:16:19] Speaker A: Yep. So then he, like, sneaks, basically sneaks up behind her and surprises her, and then they have, like, a little conversation. So I have a clip of that, if we can play that right now, if you don't mind, because it's not.
[01:16:33] Speaker B: Psycho at all to freak people out in the shower.
[01:16:35] Speaker A: Well, I think the clip is okay, but here we go. Here's the clip.
Don't be afraid. What are you doing here?
[01:16:42] Speaker B: Do you have a death wish or something?
[01:16:44] Speaker A: That's what Fred said.
[01:16:46] Speaker B: Fred said?
[01:16:46] Speaker A: Never mind.
[01:16:51] Speaker B: You live around here?
[01:16:54] Speaker A: Like, this is very strange.
What are you doing back here?
[01:16:58] Speaker B: I forgot.
[01:16:59] Speaker A: I'm, like, home.
[01:17:01] Speaker B: Really? Now?
[01:17:03] Speaker A: Well, to tell you the truth, I kind of thought that maybe you and I could.
We could what?
We could get out of here.
Like, I don't think you'd be any.
[01:17:17] Speaker B: More welcome down there right now.
I mean, let's leave the party. I'm so sure killed.
[01:17:25] Speaker A: I'll meet you out front.
Wait a minute. Where are we gonna go?
I don't care.
What are we gonna do? Anything.
Okay, but I have to bring my best friend.
[01:17:44] Speaker B: That's fine.
[01:17:46] Speaker A: I'll be waiting for you.
[01:17:52] Speaker B: Like, you know, like, when he's like. He was like, I mean, we're gonna get out of here. But also, like, I was hoping that you would finish, like, let's have sex in the bathroom.
[01:17:59] Speaker A: What? I don't think so.
[01:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. That's what. Well, that's like. Listen, he's in the car, and he's yelling about how nobody can tell him who he can have sex with. He's come back, and he's like, you know what? We're in this bathroom. I've watched a lot of people do crazy things in here. We should do crazy things.
[01:18:13] Speaker A: He doesn't say he's have sex with specifically, I think he says hook up with or something like that, which could mean sex, like, but. But I think he actually is, like, romantic towards her. I think he, like, feels, like, even, like, later in the movie, we find out they haven't had sex yet, so. And, like, I think his.
[01:18:30] Speaker B: His character arc is, like, his feelings grow for her and he becomes more mature where she becomes less mature as her feelings grow for him.
[01:18:38] Speaker A: Well, I think. I think he did really just want to take her out of there. That's my opinion. But, yeah, I like that they've got love my way playing from the psychedelic furs. I love that song. So, yeah, very good. Very good vibe there. But, yeah, that's their little bathroom conversation. I like. Another thing about the acting here is Nicolas Cage is breathing pretty heavily, but that's something you do when you fall in love. And I wonder if that's something he researched or if he just came about naturally when he was feeling the feelings. When you're really into somebody, you start breathing more heavily naturally.
[01:19:11] Speaker B: Or maybe he's really just been into people before. He's method acting, you know?
[01:19:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's great, though. I think it's a very good portrayal.
[01:19:18] Speaker B: I mean, I believed enough. Do you, would you. I'm gonna ask you as a person, would you be like, I'm gonna go with this strange guy, but I'm gonna definitely make sure I take my friend.
[01:19:28] Speaker A: I think taking the friend is, like, a safety measure, I guess.
[01:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, because you're going, strange guy.
[01:19:34] Speaker A: If it was a guy who looked like that, maybe.
I mean, he's hot in this movie. Nicolas Cage is looking really fine for an 18 year old, I gotta say. Like, true. And I don't know. They were just talking and chatting at the party. He didn't seem too bad. Like, yeah, maybe.
[01:19:53] Speaker B: All right.
[01:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, like, maybe I just go for a walk instead, though. I don't know if I go out in the car or not.
[01:19:59] Speaker B: I definitely would have gone for a walk. That's something. I'm like, I don't know. I know. Mind you, I have the belief of my life up till now, and you had mentioned at one point when we were just talking that this could be easily become, like, a horror film. This is where I was like, this movie could be a horror film. This could have easily, like, he's like, and then I'm gonna wear your skin later. Like, right there is when I thought that.
[01:20:21] Speaker A: I don't know if it would become that kind of horror film, but I think it could be like, a. More. I don't want to talk about the horror film more later, like, when we get to that part.
[01:20:27] Speaker B: But, like, this is the place where I, like. Like, I got like. Like, if I was a girl now living, I'd be like, oh, I got like, this is weird vibe. This guy who sneaks up in on me in the bathroom.
[01:20:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:20:39] Speaker B: Right?
And then he's like, let's get out of here. And I'm like, I don't even know you, sir. We're gonna go drive around. I'm like, I'm gonna bring my friend just to make sure it's harder to kill both of us.
[01:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I guess it is a good point. But, like, when she's hanging out with such ridiculous, terrible dudes to be good with, it's just. Yeah, I'm just so.
[01:20:58] Speaker B: Just so the listeners know. Like, that's just, like, something like I thought about while I was watching it as. As a person who lives in this day and age, but I watch it. Like, if in the eighties, you're just gonna watch this and be like, of course she's gonna go with him. They're gonna drive around. They're gonna cruise. It's gonna be amazing.
[01:21:11] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe don't try this at home. If a guy sneaks into your party through the bathroom window, but there's a reason he snuck in. I mean, I'll say that it's not like he came to the party in the first place through the bathroom window. Now, that would be weird.
So they do go out in the car now, and they're cruising now in Hollywood. And I noticed a lot of different sites here, like, some of the obvious ones, like man's chinese theater, but there were a lot of ones that I'm not familiar with, but, like, seemed like she was really highlighting them. Do you. Are you familiar with some of the sites that they drove by?
[01:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So, like, of course they do the man's theater. They also do Muso and Frank's grill, which is, like, a staple on, you know, in the Hollywood area.
They do, like, a few different, like, movie theaters, which, like, one of them has now been converted to a Barnes and noble, but, you know, before it was converted, but that's how popular it was. Yeah, they wanted to keep it as historic place and not tear it down. Where we've torn down a lot of the old movie theaters in Los Angeles, they make sure to show, like, street names, like, cross street names. So you kind of get, like, an idea of, like, how far they've kind of come if you've ever been in that area, you, you know the areas they've been in, you definitely feel like you have been in Hollywood, cruising around.
[01:22:25] Speaker A: So, yeah, there's a lot of, like, Nicolas Cage's character, Randy. He's shouting out at people on the street, seemingly. But, like, really, they shot these in two separate bits. Like, they shot the kids in the car, and then they shot the streets, like, as a separate thing. And, like, nicolas Cage was improving all these, like, things. He's just yelling out at the people on the street. And then they just matched them together with some of the coverage they got of people walking the streets. And quite a few of those people were not actual extras they got no clearances for. They were just regular people walking around Hollywood.
[01:22:55] Speaker B: So. And you. You have a note in here that, um, he made up. He kind of made up his own dialogue, and she let him. She's like, yeah, just like, like, you know, you know, wing it. His dialogue is not particularly amazing. So I'm just like, that's. But if he didn't have any idea, like, what he was, like, shouting out to you, I kind of can understand a little bit more.
[01:23:14] Speaker A: And he does some of these, like. Like Nicolas Cage laughs like, ahaha.
[01:23:17] Speaker B: Like, yes.
[01:23:22] Speaker A: My husband was loving it just on a purely Nicolas Cage basis.
[01:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause you can see, like, the young Nicolas cage, like, working it. He's working towards his, like, full caginess soon.
[01:23:32] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. And they start playing this song as they enter into Hollywood, too. It's called I la la love you by the Pat Travers Band. And it's this kind of. To me, it seems like this very unremarkable, early eighties kind of heavy rock song. And, like, Stacy in the backseat is like, I hate this song. And Nicolas Cage keeps saying, I like this song. Like, and I was actually with Stacey on this one. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if you remember this song at all.
[01:23:59] Speaker B: I do not recall the song even.
[01:24:01] Speaker A: A little bit, but, like, it's emphasized several times that she hates it and Randy loves it, and it's like the valley. The Hollywood boys are pretty proud of their music, but all in all, I'm going with the valley on the music front here.
[01:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:24:15] Speaker A: Okay, so we come to the nightclub, where we're gonna get some more music. The nightclub they go to. The interior of the nightclub they shoot in was called the Central at the time, but it became the Viper room in 1993. A lot of people have heard of the Viper room because River Phoenix unfortunately died of a drug overdose just outside the Viper room in 1993. So pretty sad kind of infamous reason for knowing about it. I don't know. Have you ever been there?
[01:24:41] Speaker B: I've not been to the Viper room, but, I mean, everyone in Hollywood knows about the Viper room. The Viper room's been around forever. A lot of bands get. A lot of bands will go there and just, like, do, like, small, like. Like, unofficial shows. Like, you'll be going to the viper room, and then all of a sudden you'll be like, red hot chili pepper. I. You know, like, you. You never know who's. Because they're. Who's going to be at the Viper room, per se.
[01:25:01] Speaker A: So apparently the band that's playing in the club scene is called the Plimsolls. They were together from 1978 to 1984. They've also had sporadic reunions since then. Apparently, they were a very popular La band. Like, specifically, like, one of those, you know, cities each have their bands where it's, like, their favorite band from the city, and they ended up having a national hit with one of the songs playing in this scene called a million miles away. And that song's kind of a thematic song for the relationship between Randy and Julie over the course of the movie.
I think one thing, when I saw this, they. Them going to the club in the movie, my initial reaction to this club was, oh, my God, I would hate being in there. It is way too crowded and dark and noisy, and it looks, like, oppressive. And it's funny because that puts me squarely where Stacy is coming into the scene. She's, like, not having that club all.
[01:25:50] Speaker B: It's true. It's true. Well, it's very grunge. Like, it's a very grunge. Kind of like club.
[01:25:55] Speaker A: Well, yeah, pre. Pre. The actual, like, nineties grunge era, but yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Like, grungy. Like, yeah. Like, yeah, she can put. I'm not, like, the level where she's complaining that they don't have straws and stuff like that. But.
But I was like, yeah, you couldn't really talk there. Like, coolidge, like, deliberately made it like this, though. She sort of criticized some movies where the people will go in a club and all of a sudden it'll be quiet. You can hear everyone talking perfectly. She really wanted to reproduce the real feeling of what it's like to be in a club.
[01:26:23] Speaker B: I think she did a good job because, I mean, let's be real. When you go to the club, you're just like, what? I mean, mostly I'm just reading your lips now.
[01:26:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So I wanted to do some every rom.com theater of, like, this club scene a little bit here.
I would be happy to do Randy and Stacy if you would be willing to do Fred and Julie. How do you feel?
[01:26:44] Speaker B: Okay. Done. All right, cool.
[01:26:46] Speaker A: So this is them having a conversation in the club. So I'm starting out with Randy. This is the real world. It's not fresh and clean like a television show.
[01:26:57] Speaker B: I always thought that the valley was real enough for me.
[01:27:00] Speaker A: Do you think they could crank this noise up a little louder?
[01:27:04] Speaker B: Noise? Noise? This music's got emotion, power.
[01:27:09] Speaker A: That techno rock you guys listen to is gutless.
[01:27:12] Speaker B: I'm sure you guys think you're so different, don't you?
[01:27:17] Speaker A: We are. We're ourselves.
[01:27:19] Speaker B: Oh, and we're not?
[01:27:21] Speaker A: You're like her and the rest of her friends. You're all fucking programmed.
[01:27:25] Speaker B: So what does it take to be so free?
[01:27:28] Speaker A: That's a good question.
So when can I see you again?
[01:27:37] Speaker B: Listen. And it's all about freedom, people. This is what we're learning from Valley girl.
[01:27:43] Speaker A: He's like, I don't know. It's crazy, this scene. The guys kind of annoy me here because they're kind of doing the thing where guys will try to explain that their culture is superior. Their music is so much better. You know what I mean?
And honestly, the eighties was way more about techno rock than it was about the plimsolls in that club. Right?
[01:28:07] Speaker B: I mean, the eighties definitely about technical rock. I mean, there's a lot of pop. There's still a lot of pop.
[01:28:11] Speaker A: Yeah, pop, exactly. Pop. Which is what the valley girls are listening to more than, like, you know, like. Like, the eighties was the era when, like, we started having, like, more synthesizers and more, like, produced stuff. Right.
[01:28:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:28:23] Speaker A: And he's like, our rock is more authentic and, like, our music is better.
[01:28:27] Speaker B: And, like, my lawn.
[01:28:31] Speaker A: And he's nagging her a little bit. Really? Like, he's saying she's fucking programmed. And he's like, so can we go out again?
[01:28:37] Speaker B: I'm telling you, he's just like, it's fine. I can un program you with my penis, I guess.
[01:28:42] Speaker A: Like, I mean, I think it's a natural interaction between men and women. I also think it's, like, unfortunate, you know?
[01:28:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:28:51] Speaker A: Like, it doesn't show an incredible amount of curiosity about, like, the things they like or kind of writes it off.
[01:28:57] Speaker B: This conversation gets them hot because they start hardcore making out.
[01:29:01] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Although her defense of the valley isn't very good. Like, we go to normal places and do normal things. Like when he asks her what they.
[01:29:11] Speaker B: Do, she's like, I don't really know because, like, it's all just normal. It's just normal.
[01:29:16] Speaker A: We go to normal parties in normal places. Like, what are those? Like, I don't know. You could at least, like, be more specific and make a list. I don't know. That's all.
[01:29:24] Speaker B: Once again, Julie is not the smartest.
[01:29:29] Speaker A: Maybe not. Yeah.
[01:29:30] Speaker B: Or maybe the most, like, eloquent, either.
[01:29:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, Randy's the one who's going after her, so.
[01:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah, but she makes Randy feel smart.
[01:29:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that could be. That could. That's definitely something. That could be. Yeah. So they. Before they. Right before they start making out, Julie says, it's like, I feel connected to you somehow. And, like, she's then says she's starting to sound like her hippie parents. And, like, I totally buy that, though. Like, I have definitely had that feeling of deep connection to someone that I really had almost nothing in common with. Like, my first boyfriend. Like, on a lot of levels, we were very different, but I just felt the connection to him. So I get that. Yeah. And they go out to, like, an overlook point and they're making out in the car while Fred kind of chases Stacey around, which isn't great. I mean, it was a little weird.
[01:30:16] Speaker B: You're just like, I guess we're together because we're both the friend sidekick.
[01:30:21] Speaker A: He's kind of too short and non threatening for me to feel like he's being super rapey. But at the same time, that shouldn't excuse him chasing her around the car. So.
[01:30:28] Speaker B: But I felt that the chasing was just, like, cute. Like, he wasn't like, I'm like, I'm gonna grab you and I'm gonna make you do things. Just kinda like, I don't know, it's flirty. It's so flat because I'm a boy and I don't know how to flirt. So this is, like, what you get.
[01:30:40] Speaker A: They do end up kissing, like, once, I think.
[01:30:42] Speaker B: Right. And she seems fine. She seems okay with it.
[01:30:45] Speaker A: Okay. Now we have the continuation of the bee story. The high school guy from the party goes to visit the stepmom. He said that he purposely asked to do the grocery store delivery at her house.
[01:30:57] Speaker B: Remember? Like, he shows up and I'm like, that's weird. And also, who has groceries delivered back then?
[01:31:02] Speaker A: I mean, it was a thing. It was especially for rich people. And she's definitely rich. She's, like, doing stock buys on the phone, like, outside. It's your cordless phone, mind you. Cordless phone in 1983.
[01:31:14] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:31:14] Speaker A: Totally.
[01:31:15] Speaker B: And she's talking about plastics.
[01:31:16] Speaker A: Well, that. Yeah, that's a straight up graduate reference. Reference to the graduate. I caught it when I was watching it, and then I watched the director's commentary, and it was confirmed that she's basically trying to remind this guy of the movie, the graduate, which people would have watched at that point, be like, I'm an older woman, you're a younger guy.
Let's do something right now. This plastics reference, though, it's like, this would totally go over the head of people watching the movie today, I'm sure, like, because we don't have a lot. We don't all have the same shared film vocabulary anymore. You know, not everyone is graduate, let alone probably seen it several times, so. Yeah, right. And then she basically tells the guy, like, in so many words that, like, he should come back at a better time when they can do something.
So now we go, Julie's working at her parents health food store, I think. Yeah, food for health is the name of the food. Health food store. Apparently, the biggest part of the costume budget was having these t shirts custom made for the store.
[01:32:19] Speaker B: All right.
[01:32:20] Speaker A: And we. Yeah. Julie's working with her parents. She's totally embarrassed by the health food store. She says, I'm humiliated to the max.
And, yes, her parents, as we mentioned, are hippies.
[01:32:32] Speaker B: Like, I really like her parent. Like, I like her parents. I like that they're full people. I like that these parents are just like, I could believe that these are real parents who grew up in the sixties and seventies, and we're like, you know what? We just want our kid to have, like, autonomy and be her own human and, like, grow up as a powerful woman, and he or she is, like, doing none of those things.
I'm not 100% sure why Julie feels humiliated that her parents have a successful health food store. It's not like they, like, are dressed up like clowns and go to parties.
[01:33:05] Speaker A: Well, she likes clowns, as we'll talk about.
[01:33:07] Speaker B: Right.
They literally just have, like, a health food store.
[01:33:12] Speaker A: I guess health food was embarrassing to valley girls. I don't know. Like, they like chips and coke and pizza hut and stuff like that.
[01:33:19] Speaker B: I mean, that's all very true, but, like, she's just working there. Like, it's one thing. She's like, oh, I have to work here. Because it's like, I shouldn't have to have a job. Right? But at the same time, you're just like, well, you do, so it's okay.
[01:33:32] Speaker A: I don't know if that's it, because she says, why couldn't my parents own a pizza hut? I think she's specifically embarrassed by the natural, healthy food aspect. Okay, now we have this great, like, Julie, like, leaves the health food store to go have a coke with Randy. Her parents don't believe in coke because they supported the war, I think, or something like that. Yeah.
And it rots the enzymes in your gut. So, yeah, so they go out and the first thing they do is have a coke. I think they have it at that Dupar's restaurant you were talking about. So can you tell me anything about that restaurant?
[01:34:04] Speaker B: Like, it's just like. It's just like, there's a couple of, like, the. There's a couple of restaurants that have been, like, in Los Angeles for, like, forever. And that's one of them. So, like, I think they opened in, like, 34 or something like that. Like 1934. And guess what? They're still here.
[01:34:17] Speaker A: And is it in the valley or is it in Hollywood?
[01:34:19] Speaker B: It's in the valley.
[01:34:21] Speaker A: Well, they go there, and they go there several times more in the movie. The whole montage is to the song melt with you by modern English. And when you hear that song come up on the soundtrack, it's like, it wasn't a big hit then. It kind of became a big hit alongside the movie. I'm not sure if it was because of the movie. I think they just happened to explode at the same time. Like, you're like, this is an amazing song. How did they get this? You have that kind of feeling, you know what I mean? Yeah, but no, the movie helped create the popularity of it. It's perfect. Coolidge apparently heard the song on K Rock, but the announcer didn't say what it was. So she had to sing the song to her music supervisor, Michael Popoli, who then had to track it down. And it was really obscure at the time, but he did, and they got it.
[01:35:04] Speaker B: Awesome. Good job, Mike.
[01:35:06] Speaker A: And then they play the whole song. Lee noticed that. My husband, he noticed that they play the whole song. And I'm like, if you have that song, why not play it?
[01:35:13] Speaker B: Also, if you've paid for it, you've paid for it, so you might as well just use it.
[01:35:17] Speaker A: And the montage is very long, and I do not mind that at all. It's very well done. They go and do a variety of cool things. We see a lot of different sites, and there's a whole, like, kiss on the beach kind of thing. They pass by a marquee that has Romeo and Juliet in the background. It's just. It's kind of a perfect montage. Like, were there any sites you wanted to talk about in the montage or any ideas about it?
[01:35:37] Speaker B: I just really like. So we remember when we first met them, they are cruising through the Hollywood sites, and here they start cruising through the, like, the encino, Van Nuys, the valley sites. So it's like he's now, like, he's now moving into her world more where she has, like, she was excited by seeing his. And now she's being like, come explore mine.
[01:35:59] Speaker A: Sure.
Any of those sites that you've been.
[01:36:01] Speaker B: To or, like, I have been to every single one of those sites. The encino bowl, which just recently was torn down, actually.
[01:36:08] Speaker A: Oh, it's so cool.
[01:36:09] Speaker B: And then I know, well, this is what happens, right? So the ensuing bowl, in touch lounge, actually, my favorite sushi house is right next to that. I actually didn't even know where the heck that was, but, like, when it showed up, I'm like, wow, that sound looks really familiar. And then, like, I looked up where it was, I'm like, oh, my God, that really is, like, that's within, like, 0.1 mile of my home, Winchell's donut house. I mean, there were a bunch of them, but there's only a couple left that still have the original sign and that were on, like, a corner, like, the one that they show. And so that, like, I've been to that Winchell's and picked up donuts, you know? And there's. I'm surprised that they didn't use more diners because that area has so many diners.
[01:36:50] Speaker A: I guess they're just, like, mixing it up. It's interesting, too. Like, they don't show them, like, inside a lot of the places. A lot of it is shown just, like, them standing with the marquees, like, high in the background, like, you see just the top of their head and then the marquee behind them. Yeah, yeah. A lot of it, like, reminded me, and of course, this movie is later, but a lot of it reminded me of the shots of the signs in Once Upon a time in Hollywood, like, Tarantino's film. And apparently, according to Michael Bowen, who plays Tommy, he's actually been in some of Tarantino's films. And he said that, like, Tarantino used to quote Valley girl dialogue to him, so definitely he was familiar with the film.
[01:37:24] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[01:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it is kind of fun.
[01:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Valley girl gets the recognition that it deserves among the right set of people.
[01:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So we have now a sleepover scene. The girls are dancing in their underwear to the song girls like me that we heard at the beginning.
One thing the most.
[01:37:45] Speaker B: Wait, hold on. This is the most eighties male written sleepover scene I have ever seen.
[01:37:52] Speaker A: Okay, explain.
[01:37:53] Speaker B: Okay, first of all, they're all, like, in their underwear. Just, like, chilling, talking in their underwear. Like all girls do when you go to, like, sleepovers. We all just hang out in our underwear. Right?
[01:38:03] Speaker A: That's true. Yeah, you're right.
[01:38:05] Speaker B: We don't just hang out in our underwear. That's what we like to do with each other. We also only talk about bras. We only eat junk food.
[01:38:12] Speaker A: They also talk about bulimia. Don't forget Sybil. There's a whole.
[01:38:15] Speaker B: It was the eighties, so, like, bulimia was, like, you know, a staple.
[01:38:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:38:19] Speaker B: You know, and then boys, and that's fine. But, like, I literally, like, sat there and I'm like, are they gonna have a pillow fight? Is somebody's church is gonna fall off?
I was waiting, and then they're going through, like, her, like, step mom's drawers and looking at, like, the lingerie and not even understanding how to put the lingerie on.
Right. Like, one of them, she's. It's like a. It's like a glove or something. She, like, wraps it around her waist. Like, it. I'm like, what is even happening?
[01:38:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it is, definitely. I. You know, it's funny. I don't even think about that. The Hollywood stereotypical sleepover has been so ingrained in my mind that I don't even really realize that. Like, of course we don't sit around in our underwear at sleepovers. We wear, like, pajama pants like normal people and, like, a t shirt or something.
[01:39:10] Speaker B: Sweats. Sweats. A shirt. Like, whatever. Like, we're not like, look at my butt. Oh, my God. My boobs are out. That's not what we're doing to each other.
[01:39:17] Speaker A: No, it's not. Yeah, sorry, guys.
[01:39:21] Speaker B: We don't have pillow fights where are, like, where our boobs pop out.
[01:39:25] Speaker A: It's not.
[01:39:25] Speaker B: We don't accidentally kiss each other.
[01:39:27] Speaker A: Okay. We do eat junk food, though. I'm sorry. Like, the junk food was on point. Like, I was like, doritos, ruffles, oreos. Yes. Okay.
[01:39:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I looked at the Oreos and was like, that's what Oreos used to look like.
[01:39:41] Speaker A: I love looking at the eighties version of the junk food. It's so nostalgic for me, actually.
[01:39:45] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, no, like, you're like, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:39:49] Speaker A: All right, so we're going to begin our spoiler section now. I'm beginning a little early. I'm not sure why. I just felt like it. But we're beginning our spoiler section early, so if you haven't seen Valley girl and you don't want to be spoiled, go and check it out now and then come back.
[01:40:02] Speaker B: That's right. I did want to make sure because we talked about, like, also, this is a sleepover is when, like, her friends are to really pressure Julie into, like, dumping Randy. Like, he doesn't fit in. Why would she be with him? She's spending so much time with him and not with them.
[01:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And it's okay. This whole part of the plot, though, like, the part, the falling in love part, made total sense to me. When Julie and Randy fall in love, the falling out of love part made zero sense to me. I'm like, you are so into this guy. You're spending all this time with him. I know what it's like to be in love for the first time. There's no way I would have just been like, oh, my friends told me not to date this guy. I'm totally gonna dump him. I just would not have happened. I'm sorry.
[01:40:41] Speaker B: Okay, so the peer pressure is real. So, like, she's definitely feeling the peer pressure, right. And I think that also, like, you have to look at the way she, like, dated Tommy and just, like, was like, bye. At the escalator. Like, I don't know if she has actually, like, actually emotions. She might just be a robot.
[01:40:59] Speaker A: Well, Tommy. Okay. Tommy lacks really any charisma. And I could see them just being together because, like, that's who people date at her school, and she's involved in this social, you know, situation. But for me, it's like, once you've dated the guy from Hollywood, once you've actually tasted something a little more, you know, interesting. Why would you go back, like, to me, I just don't understand that motivation, I guess.
[01:41:20] Speaker B: Like, let's go and let's move forward and, like, talk about. Because I. There is a. There's an important scene that comes up, which I 100% agree with you. Like, the. They're not like them. Kind of, like, breaking up feels very contrived, but at the same time, it's how the plot had to go. Right. This is how it has to happen. She. Romeo and Juliet.
[01:41:38] Speaker A: Okay, but I'm going to tell you. Well, Jordan and Julia don't break up, though. They have more different out. Like, different you know, obstacles, different obstacles would have made more sense to me, to be honest. I'm not sure exactly what it would have been, but, like, not this, but, like, the breakup scene was also not in the original script.
[01:41:53] Speaker B: Interesting. Interesting.
[01:41:55] Speaker A: They had to write that, too. And I'm, like, even wondering how they even had these characters, you know, together then, like, was it just, like, it was so throwaway that it wasn't even, like, a storyline. It was just, like, sketches, I guess. I don't know.
[01:42:06] Speaker B: Yeah, apparently. Apparently the stepmom did have a bigger storyline.
[01:42:11] Speaker A: I know.
Oh, yeah. And let's go on to that. So we finish. We're gonna finish the skip saga now. So I think this scene is trying to fool you into thinking that skip, the.
[01:42:21] Speaker B: The guy that that daughter I, like, want to walk through the scene.
[01:42:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:42:27] Speaker B: Was so freaky to me. Okay. So skip enters, just walks in to the house.
[01:42:33] Speaker A: Yeah. But he does call out, and he says hi at skip. Like, that is a thing people used to do. Like, in my actually walks in, he's.
[01:42:39] Speaker B: Like, having to walk in, and that's fine if you walked in and just were like, I looked around. But then what does he do next?
[01:42:46] Speaker A: He goes upstairs. But, like, here's the deal.
[01:42:49] Speaker B: He picks up a book.
[01:42:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Because he's trying to, like, have an.
[01:42:52] Speaker B: Ex have a reason to, like, be looking for, you know, around the house or something for somebody.
[01:42:58] Speaker A: Okay. But the reason. Okay. The reason he's doing this, though, is because the previous time he came, the stepmom was, like, hinting that he should come back, back at a better time. So my opinion about the scene is he's 100% trying to take the stepmom's, like, queue and come look for her and have sex with her. And so he's doing. But he's bringing the book as plausible deniability in case somebody else is in the house who doesn't want him to have sex with the stepmom.
[01:43:20] Speaker B: Right.
[01:43:20] Speaker A: But then it totally twists you.
[01:43:23] Speaker B: But then do you walk up the stairs? It's like if you walk into somebody else's home, okay, I don't care if you think you're gonna have sex with them. Maybe if you haven't had sex with them and don't have that relationship, you don't walk into somebody's home and then walk upstairs to go into their bedrooms.
[01:43:37] Speaker A: He was, like, shouting out, like, the thing, though, and he thought that the lady was inviting him. So, like, I can see why it's there. Like, obviously, don't try this at home, but like, I. But I. But for movie logic, it made sense to me.
[01:43:49] Speaker B: Made no sense to me. I was like, that's a creeper. Stand your ground. Shoot him in his. In the.
[01:43:54] Speaker A: Shoot him.
[01:43:55] Speaker B: Stand your ground.
[01:43:56] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[01:43:57] Speaker B: Okay, go ahead. Let's keep going.
[01:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So he goes upstairs, and you totally think that, like. And then he, like, here's the shower. And he's like, ooh, sexy. And, like, he must think. And, like, I guess you could interpret it that, like, he's interested in the teen, but I really don't think so. I think he's, like, trying to come for the stepmom.
[01:44:14] Speaker B: He's definitely coming from the stepmom, 100%. And then I don't care if you're looking for the stepmom or, like, whatever. You don't walk into a chick's bathroom.
[01:44:23] Speaker A: True, true, true.
[01:44:24] Speaker B: She's naked, and he's, like, hot. Mm hmm. That's so amazing. This is so written by a man.
[01:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And you don't see, like, you don't see nudity very clearly, but you kind of see it through the glass shower curtain door kind of deal. So I don't know if that counts as one of the boob shots or not. But anyway, you then kind of see from far away, he's having sex with the person who was in the shower, and then it's revealed that he's really having sex with the daughter after all. And the stepmom comes in and is shocked to find that, you know, it's not her having sex with.
[01:44:55] Speaker B: This is the porky strip. Like, I could literally hear, like, they're like. Like, isn't this hysterical music? Like, look at. He's totally getting on with a chick now. And he just, like, he just found her. She was just in the shower waiting for him because she's just horny and hot all the time, waiting for whatever man will come in and have sex with her.
[01:45:12] Speaker A: I mean, she did really want that guy.
[01:45:14] Speaker B: So this was the most porno scene I have ever seen in an eighties film.
[01:45:19] Speaker A: True, true. But I will excuse it by saying that she did really, really want that guy. And, like, I. Me personally, like, if I were, like, in my teens and the guy I most had a crush on came in and suddenly wanted to have sex with me, and I was, like, in the shower, I might have gone for it. That's terrible.
[01:45:37] Speaker B: Again, stand your ground.
[01:45:39] Speaker A: It's terrible. But, like, if you. But he's the guy that you have, like, a super crush on, though. A super. He's a creeper.
[01:45:46] Speaker B: He's some kind of weird creeper.
There are too many dudes standing in bathrooms in this movie. Creepers.
[01:45:53] Speaker A: That's true. There are a lot of dudes in bathrooms.
[01:45:56] Speaker B: There are too many dudes who do not know bathroom etiquette.
[01:46:01] Speaker A: The movie logic works for me. But I hear you. I hear you.
[01:46:05] Speaker B: But it is a scene where when the stepmom comes in, you're like, oh, there you go. Apparently, this dude will actually have sex with any chick who's available.
[01:46:14] Speaker A: Or chicks. A variety of chicks. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:46:20] Speaker B: Whoever was available in the shower, he was like, that's hot. I'll take that, too.
[01:46:22] Speaker A: He's amenable, right?
[01:46:24] Speaker B: The girl was like, I want to. I totally want to hook up with you, so it's going to work out.
But I do like that it does come full circle and that it's all tied up nicely.
[01:46:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it is that story. We've settled that story in some way.
We have the aforementioned conversation now with Julie and her dad, where she's just asking her dad, like, what should I do? And dad's giving her, like, some advice. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, what your clothes are. It's what you stand for. It's who you are. And, like, you'd think that getting that advice from her dad, she'd be like, oh, yes, I should be with Randy.
[01:46:53] Speaker B: But, like, so this scene is for me. Like, this scene is so powerful. It's so beautifully written. Now, he's not like, get away from that. That dude. He's, like, weird and not one of us. Or like, he's like, hey, you know what? Like, you love who you love, and your heart wants what it wants. And, like, remember that. Like. Like, you don't. The person you are now is not the person you're going to be later. So, you know, you might find that your friends that you're friends with now, they don't matter later, but the person that you love matters, right? He gives this big speech, and then she's like, what I learned from that speech is I should totally dump Randy, right? I was like, what?
[01:47:33] Speaker A: Her friends arguments are so much less convincing. They're like, you totally won't be able to be, like, I don't know, some kind of student representative.
[01:47:39] Speaker B: The prom to get, like, what? You're not gonna be the prom together. You can't dance. He doesn't know how to dress. Like, it's like, stuff like that.
[01:47:45] Speaker A: You're gonna miss out on all the bitch and Val dudes. And it's like, she has a dude.
[01:47:49] Speaker B: Yes. You miss out on all the. On all the hot valve bods.
[01:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway.
[01:47:54] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Yeah. No, I was like, what?
[01:47:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so, yeah. And then Julie, like, ends up getting back together with Tommy before she even breaks up with Randy.
[01:48:05] Speaker B: She doesn't even break up with him. She doesn't give him the decency. She's a horrible person. She doesn't give him the decency to, like, you know, call him, drop him a line, be like, hey, you know what? I've decided that we shouldn't go out anymore. Sorry. Not sorry. No. She, like, sits down with Tommy and is like, I guess we should date again. I guess.
[01:48:23] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[01:48:24] Speaker B: And he's like, cool.
[01:48:25] Speaker A: And then Randy shows up to Julie's house to, like, kind of hang out with her, and she breaks up with him. And I've got.
[01:48:31] Speaker B: I'm gonna. I'm gonna mention. So if you pay attention to that, once again, the costuming on this, if you pay attention to the costuming, Randy's costuming gets more and, like, more and more kind of, like, nice. It gets, like, less, like, punk and stuff. It gets nice.
He comes up in a suit. Like, he's in a suit, and he's trying to look really nice. He's coming to her house. He wants to look nice for her. He's working on himself.
[01:48:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's good shout. Yeah, right on.
[01:49:00] Speaker B: And, you know, and so there you have it. And, like, instead, she's just like, oh, yeah, get away. I don't want to be with you. Whatever.
[01:49:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So here's that breakup scene that I've clipped for us here. So what's the matter with you? Why didn't you call me first?
Well, you know, it slipped my mind. I really didn't think it was that important. But I will tell you what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna reach in my pocket, I'm gonna get a dime. I'm gonna go down to the phone booth, I'm gonna make a phone call, come right back up and talk to you.
[01:49:28] Speaker B: Damn it. Why do you always barge in like that?
[01:49:30] Speaker A: You shouldn't talk like that. Don't tell me what to do.
You have no control over my life. I could see anybody I want to. Okay?
I'm sorry. I I didn't think it was that big a deal.
Look, I have to go to bed now.
Hey, come over here.
Hey. I love you.
That's all I wanted to say.
I love you.
So we can see.
[01:50:05] Speaker B: Hey. Hey.
[01:50:08] Speaker A: I'm gonna see you again.
[01:50:14] Speaker B: You can't what?
[01:50:17] Speaker A: Don't do that to me. You can't save me anymore.
[01:50:20] Speaker B: Is it your father?
[01:50:21] Speaker A: Is it your mother? Just let me talk to them. I can really fix. No, there's nothing to fix. It's not them. It's not them at all. It's me.
[01:50:27] Speaker B: Okay?
[01:50:28] Speaker A: I can't see you anymore. Okay, okay, okay.
I know what it is. I know what it is.
I know what this is. It's your fucking friends, right? Shit, Julia.
[01:50:43] Speaker B: I mean, what is.
[01:50:43] Speaker A: This is between you and me, not.
[01:50:45] Speaker B: Between the rest of the fucking world, so fuck off.
[01:50:49] Speaker A: It's your friends.
Well, fuck you.
Now fuck off for sure. Like, totally.
Yeah. And once again, cage improv'd the fuck off for sure. Like, totally. Which I think is one of the best lines in the whole movie.
[01:51:09] Speaker B: The best line in this movie.
[01:51:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
So. Yeah. Anything about the breakup scene you wanted to add or.
[01:51:18] Speaker B: I mean, I felt that, like, she, as an actress, gave nothing, and he was holding that scene together.
[01:51:24] Speaker A: Hmm. I don't know if I criticize her acting. I just think, like, I mean, how are you supposed to even motivate this breakup? It feels like it comes out of nowhere.
[01:51:32] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. Like, it's just, like, I have nothing I can do. Because I'm not saying she's a bad actress. I'm not. I think she was like, I don't even understand my own motivation of why I've left you. I don't. Yeah, and she's like, you can see she, like, tried. She's like, I'm gonna try to pick a fight with you, so I have a reason to break up with you then. Also, you're not, like, playing that game with me. So I guess just. It's over. And he's like, oh, my God. Well, I'll talk to your parents. Because obviously it's your parents that would be the problem. Like, that's why. And. But really, like, her parents be like, no, I think you're great. Whatever.
[01:52:02] Speaker A: I. Yeah, no, it's. It's. It's. It's. Yeah, it's a scene that. I mean, it's fine, because what cage does. Yeah, exactly. But, like, it's. The story just doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.
[01:52:13] Speaker B: It doesn't. It, like, this section makes this breakup makes zero sense. And she wrote it, so, like, that means, like, she could have written this different ways, I guess.
[01:52:22] Speaker A: Well, I think she had to make it fit in with the rest of the script that existed, though. So probably what happened. I think it's not that, like, they didn't break up in the original script. I think it was like, they broke up, but it wasn't dealt with in the script. You know what I mean? Like, she probably just started being with Tommy again, and they just never dealt with what happened with Randy or something.
[01:52:39] Speaker B: And then he just started, like, stalking her quietly, I guess.
[01:52:43] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe there just wasn't a breakup scene, and she just offhandedly said, oh, I broke up with him. You know what I mean?
[01:52:47] Speaker B: Right.
[01:52:48] Speaker A: I don't know. I love to see the original script. Honestly. I would love to see what the evolution was here.
[01:52:57] Speaker B: Someday, maybe it all appears.
[01:53:00] Speaker A: So now we have Randy, Nicolas Cage's descent into self pity and self destruction. He just starts drinking from a bottle. He goes to a club, and I think one of his, like, ex girlfriends kind of seduces him. And they have sex in a bathroom so we can see more breasts.
[01:53:15] Speaker B: This is the most you learn about Randy in the entire movie, by the way. He's a guy who has no purpose except for to be with her in this movie because, like, you. So you don't really know anything about him, but then suddenly you're like, oh, my God. Wait, does he have an ex girlfriend? Does he actually live at this club? Does he live in this bathroom?
[01:53:34] Speaker A: I don't know, but Nicolas Cage did live in his car for, like, the whole shoot just to, like.
[01:53:39] Speaker B: That's right.
[01:53:39] Speaker A: So he must have thought that's where his character lived and. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah. Like, so this is a really kind of. It feels almost like it's coming in from a different movie. Like, it's very dark. And then he's brought back to think about Julie when the song a million miles away is being played again because that band is always there, the plimsolls, apparently.
[01:53:58] Speaker B: And, yeah, we just play this one song over and over again. Don't worry about it.
[01:54:02] Speaker A: He tries to get himself beat up by some guys in a passing car, and then Fred shows up and saves him and talks with him while they're. While he's heaving in an alley. So. Yeah, right.
[01:54:12] Speaker B: That part that, like, all of a sudden having, like, the chicano element, I was like, I mean, yes, we did have gangs in LA, but this seems, like, weird to just, like, throw it in right now.
[01:54:21] Speaker A: They just pull up and they're like.
[01:54:22] Speaker B: Hey, they're just like, we haven't seen us anywhere else but now. Hello? Hey, sa.
Okay, yep, yep.
[01:54:31] Speaker A: Fred's plan is that Randy should just, like, keep pursuing Julie. So now we get a series of just, like, randy stalking Julie in different ways.
[01:54:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And do you get the impression that, like, Fred is actually the brains of this team? And that's sad because he doesn't have that many brains.
[01:54:45] Speaker A: Hmm. I don't know. I don't get that impression. I get more the impression that Fred is optimistic.
[01:54:51] Speaker B: Well, but Fred's also like, if you think about this movie, Fred's always the ones who are like, we're gonna go do this.
[01:54:56] Speaker A: True.
[01:54:57] Speaker B: Right. I think this is where I was like, fred is actually, like, the hero. Randy is the sidekick.
[01:55:03] Speaker A: Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, you're right.
[01:55:06] Speaker B: I knew what was going on with Fred's life. I might know so many more things.
[01:55:09] Speaker A: That's true.
[01:55:10] Speaker B: Okay, so we see, like, this montage, which I actually think this is a fun montage of Randy essentially stalking. There's no better way to saying it. Julie, how he's doing this, I do not know.
Is he, like, just bribing people? Is he beating them up? Right. But you have one where, like, they're all, like, eating. They're, like, all eating in a car where, you know, they come by and they have delivery of food, and he's, like, the waiter. And then they have one where he's at a. He's like the ticket clerk at a.
[01:55:42] Speaker A: Movie theater with, like, a whole uniform. Yeah, with, like, the whole uniform uniform. All of these and 3d glasses when he's the ticket taker, too, like, like, which was a great look, by the way, but, yeah. Like, what, did he suddenly start working at this movie theater, coincidentally on the same day they went to the theater? Did he beat up, like you said? They beat up the usher, the ticket taker.
[01:56:00] Speaker B: And, like, take always know where she's going to be. It's not like his geolocation, instagram or something. Right?
[01:56:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep.
[01:56:09] Speaker B: Right.
[01:56:10] Speaker A: I mean, sleeping. Sleeping in the sleeping bag on your front lawn is more understandable because that's, like, a place she would definitely be. But, yeah, you're right.
[01:56:17] Speaker B: And he sends a radio message, which I like. This made my heart pitter patter because, like, I. If you grew up in the eighties, this was the thing. Like, if somebody sent you a going out to you on the radio, it was everything.
[01:56:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, dedicating the song to you. Yeah. I never had one of those. Did you have one dedicated?
[01:56:35] Speaker B: No, absolutely not. But it would have been amazing.
[01:56:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:56:39] Speaker B: Cause literally the eighties, you hear those. Oh, that's so sweet. I wish that was me. I wish somebody wanted to call a radio station, dedicate something to me.
[01:56:50] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Yeah. Like, some of them are sweet, and some of his, like, approaches are sweet, like, the radio dedication, and some of them are just like, dude, like, I don't know. And then he somehow leaves photo booth photos that he took of himself in, like, one of her textbooks, like, in multiple pages.
[01:57:06] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know how he did that because you don't watch it, but, like, she opens up a book, she's hanging out. She opens up a book, and it's like, all these, like, cute photo booth pictures of them, and you're like, oh. And that's apparently. That's what really, like, gets her heart.
[01:57:18] Speaker A: No, it's literally. It's literally just him, though. It's not even with her. He's just him, like, making.
[01:57:23] Speaker B: I realized that it's just, like, him being creepy in this picture. Like, look at me, I'm so handsome.
[01:57:27] Speaker A: All I could think about, though, is, like, how much those photo booth pictures would be worth if you could get the original photo booth pictures they used as a prop.
[01:57:33] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. So that'd be such a keepsake for somebody. So the last thing I was going to say about this, like, the randy stocks Julie is that I actually found that this, like, again, that this scene worked really well for, like, how into her he was and how, like, all in, he was willing to be when she was like, whatever. But then, like, you could see the progression of her being, like. But, like, I do like him. He's so dreamy.
[01:58:01] Speaker A: True, true. Like, she laughs when he dresses up as the chef, for one thing. Yeah, yeah.
So, like, now I want to talk about this thing that I noticed, and you noticed, too. We both noticed this independently. There's this.
There's, like, more than one scene where Julie's in her bed and she's hugging, like, a creepy, creepy ass clown doll with, like, a creepy clown face and a little, like, fabric body or something. And this is, like, apparently her, you know, comfort item is this creepy clown doll. And I was talking, I posted this on Twitter, like, on my Twitter account for the podcast, and somebody pointed out that it looked like a still from a horror movie. And then I was thinking, oh, my God, there's. You could easily make a horror movie trailer of this film. Like, there's so much material. All these stalking scenes we just talked about, these cl. This clown scene, fucking, like, the slumber party with all the, like, girls in their underwear. The scene where Randy, like, appears behind her in the bathroom, like, and even hiding in the shower?
[01:58:58] Speaker B: Yeah. When he's looking over the shower all the time.
[01:59:00] Speaker A: And the one, the bathroom scene where he's with that ex girlfriend is really dark and creepy. The alley scenes. Like, what do you like, what do you think about our new horror movie version?
[01:59:08] Speaker B: I definitely. When you put this in the notes, I was like, this whole movie could have been a horror movie if you slanted it a different way. If Cage was, like, a psychopath and wanted to kill people, you could. And I think you could make a trailer out of this super simply.
[01:59:23] Speaker A: Or even if he was just the Mark Wahlberg fear version of this movie. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah. That clown doll killed me. Oh, my God.
[01:59:32] Speaker B: Like, I put in the show notes. So we have shown us back and forth, y'all. And so I, like, I put in the show notes. A couple of things, like, I wanted to mention. And I was like, what's up with the creepy clown she's sleeping with?
And you're like, I freaking tweeted about that. I'm like, it's so creepy.
[01:59:51] Speaker A: Yeah. This is what happens. You miss. If you look at your phones during a movie you might miss the creepy clown doll. That's all I gotta say. Say, like, your eyes up so you don't miss these amazing production design decisions.
Let us now go to prom. I love. Okay. Tommy shows up pre prom to Julie's house to get pictures taken by the hippie parents. And he's wearing a pink tuxedo. Full on pink tuxedo.
[02:00:14] Speaker B: Yep. And he comments that, like, he comments to her when she comes out and she's not wearing pink.
[02:00:22] Speaker A: Are you sure you're not mixing up the remake?
[02:00:24] Speaker B: Nope, nope, nope. He does. He makes a comment or they talk. It's in the second one too. But he does. He makes a very offhand comment. He's like, oh. He's like. He's like. Because she's wearing this beautiful, like, white dress.
[02:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:00:35] Speaker B: And he makes a comment.
[02:00:36] Speaker A: It's very Xanadu.
[02:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it's beautiful. And he just. It's like, a very offhanded comment. Whereas, like, in the, like, remake, like, spoofy thing of it. It's, like, a huge deal. But that's the reason, I think, is because he does give, like, an offhand comment. So. Okay. So she's in this, like, white, beautiful, like, off the shoulder dressed. And you said it is very, like, xana Dewey.
[02:00:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And the hippie parents. There's this big joke about the hippie parents taking the prom photos and the dad getting stoned in the bathroom. I guess, like, it was really hilarious that the parents were, like, hippies or something, so they had to keep playing on that, right? Yeah. And then they finally get to prom, and apparently the extras in the prom scene were real college kids, and they ended up being from rival fraternities. And Coolidge said, quote, they decided to start a fight and trash the gym.
[02:01:24] Speaker B: That's very on point. That's very, like, eighties on point.
[02:01:27] Speaker A: So it's. It's crazy, though. Like, they're filming this movie, and these frats decide they're gonna fuck up your filming location. Terrible.
[02:01:33] Speaker B: I mean, very porky's as well.
[02:01:35] Speaker A: So, you know, in the prom scene, we see a band. So. Yeah, let's get this out of the way, too. So, in the prom scene, the band we see is Josie Cotton and the party crashers. It might just be Josie Cotton. I'm not sure if she actually performed as, like. But that's what the band name is that's printed on the equipment. But I think she might, in reality, just be known as Josie Cotton. And there's a couple of songs she sings, but the one that this movie is kind of famous or infamous for is Johnny, are you queer? And I think super creepy. It's weird, but, like, kids today might not understand why, like, that would be a problem, because now the word queer has kind of, like, been sort of reclaimed by the general culture as even, like, kind of a preferred word, you know, instead of gay. But back in the early eighties, this was not the case. And this song was criticized, actually, both by liberals and conservatives. So, just to give a little background on the song, it was written by Bobby and Larson Payne. It was initially performed live by the go gos, but then they gave the song to Josie Cotton. At the time, the advocate and the Village Voice both accused her and the songwriters of homophobia. So this is Jim Feldman writing in the Village Voice at the time. Quote, it's 1981, guys. Reagan Falwell, the fabulous Phyllis Schlafly. Then he quotes some song lyrics from the song, is there something wrong? Why are you so weird, boy? Okay. And he says, and the like do reflect, even if written with putative good humor, a specific, distasteful point of view. And then he also goes on in that article to point out that, quote, gay people can use the word queer. And he compares it to, like, how black people are the only ones who can use the n word, which he does actually, though, print out. Like, that used to be, you know, pretty common to just print out that whole ward two. So. But today, like, so he's really pointing out some legitimate criticisms of the song at the time. Josie Cotton apparently responded to the Village Voice, quote, fuck you, Jim Feldman. This is an honest depiction of a real life social phenomena for girls everywhere. I have sonar like gaydar and an unabashed, undying love for this community that your bitter, thin skinned, humorless wasteland of a review cannot ever come close to diminishing. Just to be clear, the word queer has now officially been defanged on the world stage, as should you. So it was quite a defensive response. But so I just to give more of Cotton's point of view on this, apparently she said that many gay men actually did write to her at the time and said they had come out because of her song, which is about a guy not really being into a girl. And then the girl wondering, are you queer? And, like, she also told the magnet magazine in 2006, quote, I had a large gay following on the west coast. After a gig at a gay latino biker bar, they presented me with an enormous gold plated dildo. I loved them and they loved me. End quote. She claimed that there was a west and east coast divide on reception of the song. So maybe. But I still think it's kind of, like, churlish of her, kind of rude of her to write this, like, super rude response. I don't know.
[02:04:28] Speaker B: Also, I don't know. I try to think of who I was in the eighties, and I still would have been like, this song is not appropriate.
[02:04:36] Speaker A: So this is a perspective then, from out magazine in 2010 about some other reactions to the song at the time. So out magazine said one religious network played Johnny, are you queer? At half speed. So Josie would sound like a man. They even said there was no Josie Cotton and that she was actually a gay man who was trying to convert unsuspecting straight men into a homosexual lifestyle.
[02:04:58] Speaker B: Oh, no. The horror movie continues.
[02:05:01] Speaker A: So, like, there's, like, conservatives are criticizing the song and liberals are criticizing the song. Like, it did become a fairly, I guess, kind of a hit at the time, but, like, yeah, like, legitimately, it wasn't, like, very. It was a little bit.
I would not have used the word queer lightly at that time if I were not gay, put it that way. No, I mean, honestly, I've still had a hard time using it now because there were so many people who gay bashed using that word when I was younger.
[02:05:29] Speaker B: Totally. I agree.
[02:05:30] Speaker A: Okay, so Josie Cotton, though, has continued to record music. She also formed the company b girl records. So she's kind of been out there still if you're interested in, like, learning about her. But that's the story of Josie Cotton and Johnny. Are you queer? So there you go.
[02:05:45] Speaker B: The song that is playing that she sings the entire time, it's a very odd choice for.
[02:05:49] Speaker A: Well, she sings three different songs in that prom scene, actually, but it is the most prominent. It's the prominent one. Like, it's a very odd choice of a song, though, for a prom scene, too, especially since there hasn't really been any theme in the story about people being gay. Unless that one guy at the mall at the beginning that didn't want, you know, Julie was gay. I don't know.
[02:06:10] Speaker B: Right. Like that one guy. Yeah. Like, it's like, it's not very. You're right. It's not a very prommy song. Right. Yeah, it's. It's not, like, important to this. It's not saying anything about what's happening in the scene.
[02:06:22] Speaker A: No, it's just random.
[02:06:25] Speaker B: It doesn't really like, hi. I guess we're gonna play this song because I like it.
[02:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah, kinda.
Okay. Martha Coolidge and the actor Joanne Barron, who plays a teacher at the prom. They came up with a speech about the prom king and queen, like, the night before shooting that she could give while some other action is going on. And if you listen to it, it's like a really strange speech.
[02:06:48] Speaker B: Listen to it. Because they like having a fight. So what happens is essentially the prom king and queen are announced because, like, that's what the big, you know, that's what's gonna happen. Randy has, has snuck into the prom because, like, you know, Fred, his friends, like, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna, like, go there and it's gonna be amazing. And so the prom king and queen are announced, and of course, it's Tommy and Julie. And so they go up to the.
[02:07:13] Speaker A: They go up to the stage before they're officially announced. The teacher tells them they're gonna be the prom kingdom. But before she said their names, she has this whole preamble that she did.
[02:07:23] Speaker B: Well, so, like, they're. But they're, I think. Are they, aren't they already on the stage?
[02:07:27] Speaker A: They're backstage.
[02:07:28] Speaker B: They're backstage. Okay, so they're backstage because I'm like, I'm like, they're not on the ground anymore. So in the backstage. And then Randy appears and literally starts a fight with Tommy.
And it's like a kung fu fight.
[02:07:41] Speaker A: And it is on Tommy's side. Tommy's the one breaking out the karate, karate kid.
[02:07:46] Speaker B: Suddenly busts out.
[02:07:48] Speaker A: Yep.
[02:07:49] Speaker B: For, like, whatever reason. And you're like, what is even happening? And in the background, you have this speech that's going on about, like, lost time and, like, things that were important that aren't important anymore.
[02:08:02] Speaker A: I didn't even catch that part.
[02:08:04] Speaker B: I don't know, like, getting old and, like, it's like a really, like, you're like, what is. Did she eat the brownies?
[02:08:13] Speaker A: Like, dude, you heard more of this speech than I heard because I just heard the part where she's talking about what is a prom king and a prom queen? Are they the best dressed students? I think not. And then she talks about how she wanted to be the prom queen. But after that, I didn't hear more. But maybe you heard more of this.
[02:08:27] Speaker B: Speech than I also, I watched it with subtitles on. I think it also shows you.
[02:08:32] Speaker A: Mine didn't. My subtitles didn't tell me. So.
[02:08:35] Speaker B: So, like, I, like, I'm just, like, so, like, I remember being, like, so random. Like, I can't even really watch the fight scene as much because I was paying attention to, like, this woman discussing her sad life and the philosophical dreams and ideals that have. Now she's standing here wishing she was. And also, did. Did I mention she's wearing, like, the so typical, like, eighties, like, dress that you, glasses. Those giant, giant glasses and you're just like. And then all of a sudden there's, like, karate kid fighting. And I was like. I'm like, everything is such chaos right now and none of it makes any sense. This seems real. This seems like prom.
[02:09:14] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure that, like, I'm pretty sure I read or heard in the commentary that the actors actually figured out what they were going to do for their fight choreography. So, like, this might have been Michael Bowen, maybe studied some karate. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, in my, in my head canon. He's part of Cobra Kai. So there you go.
[02:09:33] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. And like, then Nick Cage does the thing that you do when you are the underdog. You just kick him right in the ball.
[02:09:39] Speaker A: Yep. And then Julie has just been sitting there the whole time, like. Like she's waiting to see who wins the fight to decide who she's gonna date. You know what I mean? It sucks. Yeah.
[02:09:47] Speaker B: She's like, I guess whoever wins gets me. I'm a prize.
[02:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And then she just follows Randy out. And then they, like, she puts a pie in Tommy's face, which is so rude. Like, this dude got a limo. He brought you to prom. Like, granted, like, he's a jerk. He was a jerk to Lauren, and so I can kind of, you know, be okay with it, but she doesn't know that. And, like, yeah, he's trying to have sex with her that night, but, like, I mean, they had dated for a while, the Sheraton. So there are reasons that he's a jerk, but, like, she doesn't know about the Lauren thing. So it's, like, really, like, it's really rude that she's actually putting this cake in his face when, like, he brought her to prom and, like, making his suit all dirty.
[02:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Also, it's the greenest. It's the greenest green I've ever seen. Yeah, it looks like wasabi, in fact, that we saw earlier.
[02:10:29] Speaker A: Yeah, this is like bringing a whole troll two element into the whole movie now as well.
[02:10:33] Speaker B: Like, whoa, okay. Yeah, I didn't think that needed to happen at all. I'm like, that's like, why are we. Why are we doing Tommy dirty like that? You could have just left him on the floor, like, clutching his groin.
[02:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And then they fucking run off in the limo that Tommy rented. And then the driver's like, valley Sheraton. And they're like, sure.
[02:10:51] Speaker B: Tommy's room, apparently.
[02:10:54] Speaker A: Although I think that would be a really dumb idea because Tommy would know where the room was, and he could totally go there and beat you up and stuff, and that would be bad.
[02:11:01] Speaker B: And that would be the end of the horror movie.
[02:11:04] Speaker A: So it's like. It's just very chaotic. Just like you say, it's a very chaotic thing.
Yeah. And, oh, there's a scene in the back of the limo when Julie's driving off with Randy now, which is. I caught it, too. I was so proud of myself. I was like, oh, that looks a little bit like the bus scene in the end of the graduate. And it's supposed to be like the bus scene at the end of the graduate. And I'm like, yes. Which is funny, because the bus scene in the edge end of the graduate is supposed to give you sort of an uncertain feeling. So are we supposed to feel uncertain about the future of this couple? I don't know.
[02:11:34] Speaker B: I don't know. But, I mean, I'm uncertain.
[02:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:11:38] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure Randy's gonna have sex with her, realize she's stupid, and then move on to his hotter ex who's in the.
[02:11:45] Speaker A: Oh, his girlfriend is weird, though. She, like, wears, like, leather, leather gloves constantly. And she doesn't seem very smart either. She's like, you feel good? Did I tell you that you feel.
[02:11:55] Speaker B: Good about Randy is he likes to have women who make him feel smart.
[02:11:59] Speaker A: Like, you feel so good. Did I tell you you feel good? It's like, yes, I told him literally 2 seconds ago.
Also, how do you know he feels good when you're wearing those fucking gloves all the time? Do you have a skin condition affecting your hands only? I don't know.
[02:12:13] Speaker B: It was the eighties. Like, she's like, this is like my Madonna wear, but.
[02:12:16] Speaker A: But it's like. No, it's like. It looks more like she's in a giallo movie and she's going to strangle somebody.
[02:12:23] Speaker B: Well, once again, that's when you find out the horror section of this.
[02:12:26] Speaker A: Oh, yes. So many directions this movie could potentially go. Actually, it's amazing. We have a karate kid tie in Troll, two tie in horror movie tie in. Several different kinds. Yeah, we're really going. We got to make the extended Valley girl universe here.
[02:12:41] Speaker B: Totally. So then Julie throws away Tommy's bracelet, which is the bracelet that he gave her when they're at the restaurant, when they're like, all of a sudden, like they're going out again. And she throws it out the window because she can't apparently just give it to him later.
[02:12:53] Speaker A: I know, right?
[02:12:55] Speaker B: Because this is who she is. Once again, Julie is not a good person.
[02:12:58] Speaker A: She is not. Definitely not in this scene. No, no, definitely not.
[02:13:01] Speaker B: Repeatedly. As far as I can tell, Julie is not a winner. And then what song is playing in the background?
[02:13:07] Speaker A: Of course, we use I melt with you by modern English once again, which gives you a good feeling that this, perhaps this ending is not earned, but the song itself gives you a good feeling, like, oh, yes, I remember the happy times when we were going to dupars and eating food together.
[02:13:21] Speaker B: Right. And then they get onto the freeway, the 405 freeway at Woodman, because there's the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which is like the mall, the very important not, by the way, the Sheraton, which. I don't know where that one is.
[02:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay. So we're going to get on to our double feature recommendations, and that will include, I believe Sybil's going to tell us a little bit about the remake at some point. Point, too. So if you're waiting to hear about that, we can talk about it there. So. Yeah. Yeah. Sybil, why don't you do all yours first, and then we'll do mine.
[02:13:48] Speaker B: So the first one I'm going to do is wild at heart. And like I talked about earlier when we were talking about this, is that it made me, the first time I saw wild at heart, I loved it. It's great. It's also Nicolas Cage movie.
It's a Lynch film. And I had no idea at the time, but it is has the same cinematographer as Valley Girl. So you can go. And really, I think it's a really good double feature together.
Then I have clueless, which is from 1995, which we have ourselves done a every rom.com for. So you can, you know, watch that film and then also enjoy us discussing it. And I think clueless is a good one because you get a. This is an eighties Valley movie, but you can get, like a Valley movie from the nineties. And I find this is also very, very true la kind of film.
[02:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:14:38] Speaker B: And then the last one is the Valley Girl musical from 2020. You can find it on tubi. And I did not know this existed, except that when I looked up Valley Girl to watch this movie again, this one came up and I was like, what?
So I then watched Valley Girl again, and then I watched Valley Girl, the musical, which I really enjoyed. I had a really good time watching it. It has a lot of throwbacks and call calls to the original Valley Girl. And they even use two sections of the original cinematography, all the cruising sections. They use the real footage in that in this film.
[02:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So I did not love this one. I watched it also, like, for research. I would not have continued watching it, to be honest, if I wasn't watching it for research. The thing is, though, I think the movie actually got better around the halfway point. So it was kind of weird. Like, for me, what didn't work about it is it's a jukebox musical, and I think for a jukebox musical to work, for me, the music has to be super well done, and I didn't find that it was super well done here. Sometimes they play the music too quietly, and that actually is like a problem in a jukebox musical, and that was one of them. But also the music choices were just kind of like eighties greatest hits without, I think, in my opinion, without really differentiating Hollywood in the valley very much in terms of the music choices that they selected.
[02:15:57] Speaker B: That is true. I thought it was just like a snapshot of time. I thought they did a good job being like, because it's a jukebox, you're just gonna pick, like, things that make me think of the eighties, right? So I thought that was good. Also, the art direction is just absolutely brilliant.
[02:16:11] Speaker A: Hmm.
How so? What would you say?
[02:16:15] Speaker B: So, like, the costuming. So, like, I appreciate. I appreciate the costuming was. It's very, like, on point, and they, like, they extend out a little bit further than, like, 83. But also, they're calling back to the costuming from Valley girl. There's a lot of, like, literal pieces that you're like, oh, okay. So, like, that's because they're calling back to that particular outfit, or they're, like, they're using exactly this, the way that they changed stuff up where they use, like, different parts of the mall, but they're still using the same mall, or they're using. They use the exact same house that the party's in. So, yeah, so I appreciate, if you watch them back to back, I think you can really enjoy the overlap of them.
[02:16:59] Speaker A: So, for me, the things that I thought were actually stronger were things that differentiated it, though. They made Julie a much stronger character with motivations other than just going with whatever random guy there was. And she's played by Jessica Roth, who we've talked about on Happy Death Day. And happy death day to you.
[02:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:17:13] Speaker A: I love Jessica Roth. I really wish she was getting more work. She's not getting very much these days.
She is good in this, in my opinion. But I just feel like the movie, the script isn't, the story around her isn't as strong. But I do like, they give her more of a motivation. And I also like there's a little more diversity in terms of the valley girls, the main Valley girl characters, and. And the main Hollywood characters, too, are a little more diverse. So racial diversity and, actually sexuality diversity as well. I did appreciate that. Yeah.
[02:17:40] Speaker B: The breakup has a reason.
[02:17:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's true, too. Yeah. It makes a little bit more sense overall.
[02:17:46] Speaker B: Yeah. The breakup has a pretty good reason. Yeah. So, like, I thoroughly enjoyed. I can understand. I actually had not thought about the fact that the music. Maybe the choices should have been made by the music director to have, like, more Hollywood like feel and more Valley girl feel. Didn't even think about it. But, like, that absolutely is a weakness to the film.
But the picture, I also. When you said so, when you said that you felt that it wasn't well done music, like, mixing wise, like, you couldn't hear this, or did you feel like the talent wasn't good?
[02:18:18] Speaker A: I feel like the talent wasn't quite there. And, like, the music, it's, like, for me, like, for jukebox musical to work, the voices have to be really strong. They weren't bad, but they weren't super strong. They were definitely produced a lot, and you could tell, but also, sometimes they play the music so quietly, like, they're not confident enough about it, and so it doesn't overwhelm you enough to, like, kind of, I don't know, seem like a real musical. I guess. It's, like, half hearted to me. That's what it felt like.
[02:18:43] Speaker B: Okay, I can, I can see that. I can see that. Like, I don't think that's something I noticed. But, like, now that you say that, I'm like, yeah, you're absolutely right there. There's a lot of, it was very, like, kind of, like, very subtle. It was very quiet. It wasn't like a big, it wasn't like big bang musical kind of deal.
[02:18:57] Speaker A: You gotta like Moulin Rouge me, man. I'm sorry.
[02:18:59] Speaker B: Okay, well, there you go. Not that kind of musical. Absolutely not.
[02:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Anything else you want to say?
[02:19:06] Speaker B: No. I think that anybody who watches them together, I'd love to hear your opinion on what you think of, like, it was as a standalone, but also as, as a callback to the original Valley girl.
[02:19:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Sweet. Now let us know feedbackeryromcom.com or on our social media.
All right. I will give my double feature recommendations. Now, my first recommendation is another Martha Coolidge movie, real genius from 1985. I actually first saw this movie a year ago at the Wisconsin Film Festival where they were showing a print, and it was delightful. My brother had mentioned it to me before. It's, Val Kilmer is the star of the movie, and it's basically about these kind of young genius kids at this school. And of course, there's, like, evil scientists that are trying to do, like, evil government things, and they're kind of, it's partly hijinks just among the kids at the school and partly, like, overthrowing this evil plot. Val Kilmer is great in this movie. It also has one of the Valley girls, the one who plays Susie in the movie, shows up as one of the love interests, a genius girl, love interest in the movie. And Joanne Barron, the person who plays the prom teacher, she shows up as one of the genius kids moms. I was like, it's her. And I realized then when I looked at her IMDb, she's pretty much in all of Martha Coolidge's films. So when you watch Martha Coolidge's films, you can be like, oh, there's that person. There's that person popping up.
Anyway, I really, I think it's a fun movie. It's definitely more of a dude focused movie, but, like, it's not toxic like the way some of the dude focused movies are. It's you can definitely tell a woman directed it and gave it a little more like a fee. Like a good female character and, like, a little more diversity and just. Just. Yeah, not too much toxic masculinity. Like, how do you feel? Have you seen it?
[02:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't believe it's. I mean, I saw a real genius in theater when you.
[02:20:49] Speaker A: When it originally came out. Yeah. Like, I saw.
[02:20:51] Speaker B: I've seen a bunch of times. I love real genius. It's great. The end scene is like. Like an iconic scene. I'm like, I can't believe you'd never seen it before that.
[02:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, no, just one of the blind spots I had. Yeah.
[02:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a great film, though. I love it.
[02:21:04] Speaker A: And Deborah Foreman's actually in it, too, in a smaller role as well, so kind of cool. Yeah. And then my second recommendation, and this isn't even a movie like I super love or anything, but when I think about early eighties, like, sex comedy, like romantic comedy movies directed by women, you have, your mind kind of goes to fast times at Ridgemont High from 1982. So here we have Amy Heckerling, who you already mentioned in clueless, showing up again in our double feature recommendations because her and coolidge were working in kind of the same territory at the time. So. Yeah. And I do think that you can tell that Amy Heckerling did put some of her touch on it as well, making the female characters, like, pretty strong forces in this movie, even if we do have, of course, our required boob shots as well. And then my last double feature recommendation is 1980 four's karate kid. And I'm basically choosing this because it's another story of somebody coming into the valley who's not really from the valley and encountering, like, he is coming into the La Valley. Right. Not like.
[02:22:03] Speaker B: Yes, he is coming into the La valley.
[02:22:05] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. Coming into the valley. But he's not really from the valley and falling in love with a girl from the valley who isn't really a valley girl in this case, but, like, you know, who hangs out with these kind of popular kids and these kind of dudes, like, who are a little bit, like, of a bully and so forth. And of course, most people have seen the karate kid. If you haven't, you should really check it out. Like, it is a really fun, sweet movie. Pat Morita is fantastic as Mister Miyagi. And, like, it'll also allow you to appreciate Cobra kai, which I think everybody should watch also. So just check out the karate kid.
[02:22:37] Speaker B: And you have those awesome karate kid moves at the very end.
[02:22:40] Speaker A: That's right.
All right. So I want to thank everybody for listening to the show today. And we're going to be now continuing with some more rom coms that are set in Los Angeles, including at least pretty woman and LA Story. But I think a few more will be coming your way as well. And, yeah, just thank you for listening, everybody. Goodbye.
[02:23:01] Speaker B: It's been a pleasure.
[02:23:02] Speaker A: Bye.
