Episode 37- Valley Girl (1983) with OUR MOM!!! (MOTHERS DAY SPECIAL!!!)

WHOA LIKE TOTALLY RADICAL!!! We have SUCH a special ep for you all on this Mother's Day weekend y'all! As part of 80's month, we decided to watch an old family favorite, Valley Girl, from 1983 with OUR MOM!!! We mostly overwhelm her with questions about the 80's (spoiler: she cannot remember too much) and also dive deep into this sleeper cult film, discussing fashion(of course), interior design, method acting, malls, body hair, May-December subplots, class consciousness(Saysha cannot help it), family travel, and alternate timelines where our Mom has two boyfriends! We got REAL weird with it!!!!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome to VHS Sisters, a nostalgic movie podcast with two actual real life sisters.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

I'm Melanie and I'm Seisha. Get into some comfy clothes, grab your favorite beverage, and come hang out with us as I force my little sister to watch all the movies she missed growing up. I'm freaking ready, guys. Freaking ready. And your mother today. Welcome everybody to VHS Sisters. I'm Seisha. I'm Melanie. And today is a very special day because we have another very special guest star today, who happens to be our mother. And mom, introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Hi, I'm mom.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

My name's Marie. I was gonna say you you can give your Christian name if you want. Today's a very special day, like I said, because this month, in this month of May, we are doing all movies that are what I feel are representative of the 1980s, everybody's favorite decade. And we've already talked about Back to the Future. And today, usually we talk about a movie that Melanie has never seen, but today we had to go with a family classic and bring on more family. So today we are talking about the 1983 classic film Valley Girl. A family favorite, a family favorite, and through you know, my prep for this pod, I realized that it is still kind of a sleeper hit. Yeah, it's a sleeper movie. I've been doing research. I'm like, no one has really like talked about this movie. I don't think it's like on criterion. There is a DVD Blu-ray, which I don't have. I just have like the regular DVD. Uh, but we watched it on streaming, whatever. It's also free free on YouTube, anybody who cares. Um so yes, it's a family favorite. And usually on the show we start with Melanie's memories. We talk about if Melanie has any memories of the movie. Usually she doesn't. But I think we should start with your memories of this movie, mom. So, you know, you can tell us like when do you remember seeing this movie for the first time?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I would say when it came out in '83. I don't recall going to the movies for it, but I definitely watched it when it was on HBO or whatever movie channel we had at the time. Which is about it. It was like we got 50 channels. That's it, if that so let me a day.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Yeah, let me set the stage for you. So it's 1983. This movie would have come out in April of 1983. So I would have been two and a half, two and a half, right? Two and three quarters. What gifts two and three quarters. So how do you yeah, how do you remember 1983? Like, how did that feel to you? I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, everybody went to the mall, lived for the mall. Okay, I took you to the mall as much as I could, even when we went on a mini trip around that time to Boca Ratan to visit my Aunt Shirley, which is Grandma Carol's sister. Sure. I was changing my life around, packed you up, took me on a road trip down to Boca Ratan, and with my aunt Jerry and her best friend Joni, and we stayed there for probably uh two weeks. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

So mom was a freshly single teen mom. Yeah, I was not a teen.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

I was too you were 18 when you had Seisha. I was one month shy of being 20. So I still call you a teen mom. Yes, I was a teen mom, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

So anyway, you so you remember in 1983, the mall. So, like the depiction of the mall in the opening scenes, that was real. Like you went to the the galleria or our our version of the galleria, which would have probably been like Lakeside Mall in Michigan.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Because Lakeside was built the year I graduated in 78. So that was a go-to for every all the all the kids, back then moms, whatever. Yeah. Because we didn't have what you have in your hand or nothing. We socialized in public. We didn't have phones to carry, not a cell phone in sight, no internet.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

We were in suburbia, so everyone had to drive everywhere. Everybody drove everywhere. You weren't walking to uh, I mean, you could probably walk to the park from here where we're at now. Definitely back when you lived in that apartment not too far away. Yeah, yeah. But um took Sasha there all the time. You know, a lot of third space action happening in the 80s.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

So your memory of this movie, like it probably would have been not your first depiction, but it would have been like a snapshot of what California was like at the time. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Was that very different than like your reality? Oh, definitely. There was nobody eating sushi on this side of the country. Some gross sushi that they were ahead of us in so many ways. Food, fashion, uh, music, because they had their own punk scene out there, beach rock, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Uh, would you say, like watching this movie at the time, did it like did California or like that kind of music, like the LA punk scene, yeah, Hollywood, did that all seem very interesting to you?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Oh, definitely. Wanted to get out there and live it. Oh, oh, it's like, well, where's my Nicolas Cage on the beach?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

You know what? I asked myself the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Wow. And you know, he doesn't want to be credited for this movie. I thought he did also. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

I mean, we can get into Nicolas Cage's mental health problems later. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna talk about the movie Melanie. Let's shift to you. What are your memories of this movie?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

I want to say we had a VHS of it at some point. We did. If I still have it. I mean, I think maybe the earliest I've watched it, maybe semi-inappropriately, might have been like seven, eight years old. Yeah. Like my first real memory, I remember we had my one friend over Jennifer, and we were like, oh, let's like watch a we're having girls' night, you know. So we put on Valley Girl, and it was like our first time as like teens watching it. And we were like, ooh, so cool, so fun. I mean, like a lot of the stuff, like watching it again as an adult. And it's funny because mom and I actually had just watched it last summer or maybe the summer before.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Like I was setting up the apps on their new smart TV. Sure. And I was just scrolling through and I'm like, oh, look, Valley Girl. Boom, just put it on. Um, but like watching it now as an adult, like there's a lot of things you're like, oh, yeah, this is what's happening in this scene.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Okay, like that's that's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

I mean, I feel like a lot of movies of that era, you watch it and you're like, you couldn't make this movie nowadays. It's very of the time. Um, this movie was extremely low budget. It was like made for like $300,000. Incredible, which is like nothing for a movie. You know, it was like what what do we say for Beastmaster? Four mil.

unknown 7:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

And also that was just for the animals. But yeah, that was like four, like one million was just for those tigers. Exactly. Yeah, I think my first memory of this movie is the soundtrack first for me. I would say that too. Uh, because I wore out that CD. I was obsessed that it was the music that brought me into where my CD went. I I don't have it, so it's gotta be somewhere around your house, probably. But yeah, I was obsessed with the soundtrack and then became obsessed with the movie. And upon this last rewatch, you know, we just watched it last night. I I think for the first half hour, I was mimicking the movie, like I was saying the lines as they were being said because this is one of those movies that I know. Oh yeah, I by heart. Like I could, I could, and it's a very like quotable movie, too. It is sort of like a movie that like obviously it's beloved by us, but I guess I understand why it's a sleeper movie because most of the movie is just people hanging out and chatting. Like that's it. There's like nothing, like the plot is pretty thin.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

And it's just like it's a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, you know, instead of Romeo, we have Randy. Instead of Juliet, we have Julie. And it's uh, you know, it's it's a pretty, I don't know. I'll say like it's a pretty fluffy 80s teen romance, but there's also like a depth to it. Like I was watching it like this most recent time, and I was like, wow, they're really like doing it acting-wise. They're really giving like, especially Nick Cage and Deborah Foreman. I think they're both really perfect in these parts. So yeah, no, this uh yeah, this came out in 1983, starring, as you said, Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman. How did you feel about those two in the lead roles, mom? They did uh excellent.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I thought, you know, they were up and coming actors and never seen them before on film. So they fit the part. She's a few years older than him. So oh, really? She's yeah, he was born 64 and she's 62. So no, no big deal.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

The fun fact about my mom, she knows the year where everybody was born.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

So it's like, oh, okay, not a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

So he would have been Nicolas Cage would have been 18 or 19 then in 83. He was born in 64.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

He's he's a Capricorn, he's January.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Oh, yeah, that's Melanie's kryptonite.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah, I love a Capricorn. We, anyways, yeah, he's like Uncle Mike's age. She's doing the math, she's she's right now. Well, if I was 22, 23, yeah, he would have been 19. He's four years old. 18, 18 years old. 18, 18, 19.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

So fun fact, I found out while doing research before we get into summarizing the movie, and then we'll talk about all of the favorite.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Okay, go ahead. All movies are made a year in advance, so he's definitely probably 17 or 18. Oh, yeah, good point. Great point.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Great point. At least another fun fact about Nicholas Cage is that he is a method actor, so he wants to like stay in character the whole time, even in between takes. So he insisted that everybody call him Randy for the whole length. I'm serious. That is actual movie trivia that I found out from the cinematographer talking. And yeah, this movie was originally conceived as a teen exploitation film to capitalize on the idea of the Valley Girl, which at that time was pretty new. And I don't think people like kids, you know, the kids who are listening to this, you have to understand that like everyone as a nation was like fascinated with like these young, mostly white, affluent girls from the San Fernando Valley who spoke in a very particular way. And the reason that it kind of came into the zeitgeist was because of it. Actually, you might know this mom who wrote a song about Valley Girl. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Oh, Frank Zappa.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Exactly. And his daughter, Gold Star, exactly. Yeah. So Frank and Moon Zappa.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Moon Unit.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Moon Unit Zappa. She has a pretty like iconic performance as the Valley Girl, like speaking through the song. And it's funny because I feel like in the movie they kind of get the dialect right, but like not really. It's more kind of like the surfer girl, specifically like E.G. Daly or Elizabeth Daly, who plays Lauren, like the slutty friend. Yeah, she has sort of like a laid-back kind of surfer vibe. But I'm like, you know what? You get a pass, it's fine. You're all doing the best you can. And the premise, like I said, it's a basic Romeo and Juliet story. Melanie, why don't you describe the beginning of the movie? Because you usually do. So the beginning of the movie is a montage, mall montage, swiping those credit cards, old style, going through all the bangles. The girls are shopping at the mall. They're kind of establishing like who's who.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And um, you know, Julie's boyfriend, Tommy, at the time, who she thinks is a total, what did she say, a total pukoid? A pukoid.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

She's like, yeah, he's got the bod, but his brains are bad news. Yeah. And I was like, girl, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. We've all been there. We've all been there. Yeah. We have the core group of Valley Girls. So it's Julie, her friend Susie, her friend Stacy, and Lauren. And they're all racking up those credit cards. Like, first note that I wrote was like, Do you remember Melanie? Do you remember swipy credit cards? No, I don't. Wow. Okay, that's the generation gap. I sure do. I remember having to like work with them. Oh, God, a nightmare for me. Yeah, you had to make like um a carbon copy. One for the retailer, one for the customer. It was a huge pain in the ass. Yeah, so they're they're running around the mall, and we get a sense that everything's going pretty good except Julius with this guy named Tommy who sucks.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yeah.

unknown 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

He sucks.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Narcissist. And he, like you were saying, weeb. He's been in a few movies and he always plays the same character.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

He's the nasty guy in every movie he plays.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Yeah, he's been in a ton of stuff. Um, the actor's name is Michael Bowen, and he went on to be a pretty big character in Lost and Breaking Bad and tons of stuff. Yeah, he always plays a jerk, and that's just sort of like his own the pussy wagon and kill Bill. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. He slammed his head in the door. That's right. That's right. We'll have to do the Kill Bill episode later. So yeah, Michael Bowen as Tommy. And I think he does a great job just like coming on screen, and like you just know he's a jerk.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I don't know if he was in Karate Kid or not, but he might have been in that.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Ah, you mean he was like the bully guy?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, on that group that always fought against um, you know, what's his name?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I don't know. I've never seen Karate Kid.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Oh my god, Melanie. Melanie, I know every single time we talk about another movie, she's like, Oh, I haven't seen this thing that literally everybody has seen. Yeah, wax on, wax off. I know that. I don't, yeah, no, I don't think no, he I don't think he was. I think that was another mean-looking blonde kid.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, I just I know who it is in the face, but I I thought maybe he was in.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Well, he does bust out moves later. That makes you think that way. You know, that's that's very true. He does some karate moves later. So Julie breaks up with Tommy at the mall. Yeah, like I'm not totally in love with you anymore.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

That's that's I haven't heard from you in two to three days.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

I haven't heard from you in two to three days. We're over. We're over it.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

I mean, if like I didn't hear from a guy in two to three days and we were dating, I would be like, Yeah, what's what's up with that? That seems a little long, and we again an era before cell phones, but like you knew everybody was home in the evening after school. You could give them a call, right? You know, that's how it worked, right? You you had your your call time when you would chat with people. Uh, so anyway, yeah. So now Julie is she's single and she's ready to mingle, and the girls are at the beach, they're talking about this party that Susie's gonna have. Everyone's got like these great 80s suits on, and that's yeah, and who does Julie lock eyes with at the beach? She locks eyes with Randy. Randy. Yeah, well, uh his friend is named Bailey, correct? It's Fred Bailey, but he's Fred.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Fred Bailey, okay. So because like he calls him Bailey at some points, and then he's also called Fred. So I'm like, what's the name? Fred Bailey.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, you know, you call your that's like a a thing, you call your friend by their last name. So he overhears the girls talking about the party. In line. Okay in line at the concession stand at the concession stand. And so he gets news, he tells Randy, and they kind of like walk over to where they're at in that area, and he goes, Hey, these are the girls or whatever. And then that's when they start locking eyes. And I was like, Oh, yeah. Oh, they're in love already. I'll ask both of you since we're already in it. Okay, who would you rather Randy or Fred? Randy. She she can't resist that Capricorn man. How about you?

SPEAKER_01 17:53

I like them both. They were had their own. I mean, I like they're both their characters, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Because mom goes, I was both.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah, Fred had it.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

He had more sense about him at times.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah, he had like real, you know. Speak your truth, mom. Speak your truth. I don't know. He had more character. He had his colored hair, and he always tried to reason with everybody and not be so pushy.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

He was a social butterfly, too, like in a way.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Like he was more extroverted, where I would say Randy's a little more introverted. Yes, that's that's true. Mom's out here, like, why choose? Yeah, why choose? Have them both. Yeah, have them. Go with the two boyfriends. In an alternate reality, mom lives in California and she dates two guys. No, why not? Why not? Hey, it's an alternate reality, so it can be whatever you want. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, if you had to choose an alternate reality, would you go to LA or London?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Oh shit. You got me there.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Well, wait, have have you ever been to LA or London? No, I've just been to London, not LA though. And I've just been to LA. There we go. Which daughter are you choosing? Yeah, which one? Rank us, rank us right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Sophie's choice.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

I know. Uh, I feel like a trip to LA or London would be in order for you. Yeah, it's got its place. Pretty sistery. Yeah, yeah. We gotta go. I'm ready. Uh, yeah. If you guys flew out to LA, I would fly out to meet you for sure. We could do the Valley Girl tour. Ooh, for sure. Like, totally go to the whiskey at Go-Go. That'd be bitching. Totally red. Yeah, that's perpendicular, dude. I I just have a note here that says Nick Cage's chest hair. It's an insane. That's the that's that cobola. That was a catch. It looks like the triangle, like on the front of a car. It's just very weird and like way too high. I'm like, did you shave that? What's going on? I don't get it.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Mom's like, well, this is a later scene with Skip.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

With Skip, but she's like, who has this much body hair and face in high school? Who has a chest hair like that guy, Skip, who sees Susie on the side, you know, when she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

No, I know Skip, yeah. And I I was gonna say Skip is fully 35 years old.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Oh, yeah. He's got leg hair, he's got chest hair, he's got a whole body.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Nobody has it at 18. No way. Skip, Skip had early puberty, I guess. He that's why he's so horny. He's like ready to go and have kids with whoever, apparently. Anyway, we'll we'll get to that subplot in a second. So, anyway, the the two punk guys, Randy and Fred, decide to crash this party in the valley. So we immediately like transition to like one of these ranch houses in the valley. I'm obsessed with this kind of architecture, just sort of like all of these suburban houses. It kind of reminds me of like the house that's in poltergeist. They're having a valley party, they're playing new wave music, everyone's dressed in pastels. Um, I I want to sidebar really quick. What were you feeling about all the fashion, Melanie? This is a fashion movie. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Like there's so there's so much happening. It feels so authentic because it is authentic. Like, this is a not an 80s movie that's made, you know, it's not like Stranger Things, you know, where it's pretending to be the 80s.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Not that they didn't do a bad they did a good job, I felt, but like it just feels more true to have everything as it was in the mall, filming, and it just looked so great on screen.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

So like all the fashion I really love, especially like the girls just like in their rooms, you know. Like, so like Julie had a tank top, it's like a red tank top with the white trim that I really love.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

And I like a I love uh it's her it's Lauren right the other friend this the slutty friendly friend Lauren yeah she was wearing like a tiger print like uh matching like a tank top matching like bikini briefs or whatever and I was like oh I want that right now oh yeah her swimsuit yeah the swimsuit no it's not a swimsuit it's just in the house like when the girls have a sleepover later oh later it looks it's not like a big fashion moment but like I look at it and I'm a scamasole yeah I look at it and I go I want that yeah mom were there any fashion moments that you loved like any outfits that stood out to you well I liked what Randy oh yeah that too the pump I like their outfits over the uptight suburbanite polo shirt wearing whatever you call that fashion you weren't into the valley preppy style is what you no not a prepper no I like the rock and roll look you know you know it just depends there were some outfits that were okay but I didn't like all that frilly puffy like Julie's outfit that she wears to the party yeah that lacy top yeah it's such an elaborate like almost like Renaissance fair style blouse that Stacy has to help her button the sleeve yes and I was like was there some sort of a mom would probably remember this more with this was there like a medieval um revival in the early 80s or was that sort of an odd thing to wear I don't recall I have a note reminds me a lot of like the stylings of the culture club ooh yeah maybe and they have a lot of that like romantic new romantics style yeah yeah yeah yeah billowy tops and yeah I was thinking too that because Julie has hippie parents maybe it was a hand me down from her mother and that would have been a choice yeah Julie's what did you feel about Julie's parents love fucking love them could do you what do you remember people like that mom like the sort of like 60s 70s like leftover people you didn't there were people there were not people like that who owned a health food store in Michigan is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Oh yeah health food was not in over here not over here it started a little bit like in vitamin shops and stuff probably like before better health there were a few mom and pop health food stores you could go to shout out better health shout out yeah we'll we'll tag you on the pod yeah yeah yeah but not like in LA where I don't know maybe they started going all health kick way before we did you know right probably the 70s too because that was all granola generation so you you wouldn't have you wouldn't have been able to go to a restaurant and get like a side of alfalfa sprouts like they do in the movie no notcha michigan yeah just try I I remember thinking at the time like I I watched this as a kid and I was just like what a cool thing for your parents to own a health food store.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

I know that like that he does he was like no that is cool you know during their uh she's she seems very embarrassed by the fact but yeah we we haven't even gotten to the part where Julie and Randy meet but they do meet they they lock eyes at the party to the dulcetunes of eyes of a stranger by the Paolas I think I don't know Melanie were you feeling the romance again yes yes this you know what this movie made me believe in romance again did it after love month destroyed you love month truly destroyed me but now seeing this I said you know what there's a trickle of hope in my heart yeah I think it's just the way they play it too and I love like there's so one thing that was so affirming to watch too is like I'm just gonna say it now um the lack of Botox in this movie. Well yeah nobody nobody had Botox back then but it's like you just I'm saying like plastic surgery in general not like Valley girls didn't get nose jobs or whatever back in the day I'm sure they did. Oh yeah but I was thinking like watching them lock eyes with each other and I was like here's another example of two people with fucked up teeth who are looking real cute with each other. And I love that like Deborah Foreman has this little gummy smile and she's like you know she's so cute and she's clearly like so in love with Randy and Randy's just got that like I don't even know how to describe him he has sort of like a shaggy dog kind of look yeah like puppy dog eyes and stuff. Oh yeah he's got those coppola eyes baby um so they're hitting it off but Tommy sees them flirting at a party he hates that uh Tommy punches Randy Randy calls Tommy a slur that I cannot repeat on the pod I haven't said it yet and I'm certainly not going to say it for the first time in front of my mother Randy decides he he's gotta hook back up with Julie any way he can what does what is his great plan to hook up with her before the night ends can anyone remember he crawls into sleep in the bathroom yes he crawls in the bathroom window and he wakes up shower stall yes he hides in the shower and he is like just waiting and waiting and waiting he's like of course she's gonna have to use the bathroom at some point and my thought was I'm like I'm sure there's more than one bathroom right there's more that yeah so poor plan also how many people were just taking a shit yeah I don't know if there's people getting some action in there people hitting the the ganch you know and then uh she she shows up and he just walks out all creepy on her I'm surprised she didn't scream yeah yeah no it is a little he i'll say this like he is very cute in it but definitely some of his behavior in the movie is a little stalker ish yeah a little toxic it's a little toxic and like between that like I remember as a teen being like oh my god he's so romantic I'm totally into it but between like the stalker behavior and then also like I don't know things that he does later like to show his temper also like he negs her a lot in the beginning and I'm just like uh this is this is the main difference between watching this is like a 14 year old and a a woman in her 40s do you know what I'm saying it's like it's not it's not cute anymore right we don't play these games so so yeah so what happens mom tell like after Randy lures her out of the bathroom and convinces her to come to his neighborhood what what is the scene that transpires next do you remember well she convinces her best friend Stacy to come along yeah she's like no no I don't want to go with these guys where are we going oh no like just totally not into it can we all agree that Stacy is the worst she's the worst she yeah yeah she's Stacy sucks as a friend she yeah she pulls the rug out from her when they were in the car doing driver's ed yeah well we'll get we'll get to that later I know yeah yeah but yeah she didn't want to you know she was going for the ride she was like what you know but um who does that anyways but they went to go explore downtown which I don't I'm like do they ever go on this side of town you know well I if you've never been to LA so there's the San Fran there's the San Fernando Valley which would be like the suburbs and you have to like go through the mountains. So the area that they're driving in in their car is actually Hollywood like higher well they have to yeah they go up so it's like well it's weird because like West Hollywood is like you're driving towards the ocean so it's like you have to like go over the mountains and then like down into West Hollywood and that whole strip is like you see all these iconic LA places like that whole scene I love so much because I'm just like I just want to go to the rainbow we have the Roxy all the old neon the movie theaters and I was just like yeah I'm a New York gal but like when I watch that I'm like oh that's really cool and it's just it's so showbiz you know yeah I was gonna say call back to one of our movies from last season Rocky horror the Rocky horror picture show is in the marquee Wizard of Oz and Wizard of Oz yeah incredible yeah because Rocky Horror was on every single week like since they put it out so it would have been like seven or eight years like after Rocky horror had come out. But yeah I love the the whole scene has such an improved quality to it like they literally just let Nick Cage drive and just is like shouting things at people just sort of like in a way that like teen guys do or people do in general when they're trying to look cool. They end up at this club and what's going on at the club the pimisoles. Plimsoules yeah the Plimsoul are playing they they apparently are like the house band because they're always on which is cool. Yeah that is very cool. Yeah they're they're in it they go to a club there's a lot of punks uh they're seeing people with like leather jackets and spiky hair and it's like very different I love all the colors in this movie and I think they do a really good job showing the color contrast like when they're in the valley everything's like pink baby blue creamy yeah very you go ahead pastels pastels and in the in Hollywood like what's the color grading there it's like red it's dark tone it's like midnight blue um like these soft lights coming in from the back like it's just everything's a little bit backlit because they're in the club and it just looks so intimate. Yeah I think it's a great scene and I think it really it's very realistic in the sense I'm like oh yeah this is what it's like you're in a bar it's super loud you're trying to have an intimate conversation go ahead I like to know how they're getting into a bar if they're in high school because I know when I was 18 I was only legal for a few months and then they upped it to 21. That's a great question and I'm glad you asked it and I think it was just because Randy was cool and the owner knew him right Amanda enjoy the big boxer.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

They look like they all had Cokes on their table you know regular pop or something.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Yeah you know what I will say this though there are is such a thing as like all ages clubs um and like if you have a stamp they would they would have X'd your hands if you were underage. So it might have been something a situation like that. I'm sorry I'm just thinking of a a a dead milkman song called Bitch and Camaro and there's a line in it where they're like we're going to this place called the sandbars where they let 16 year old kids drink yikes so that's what I'm that's the first thing that popped in my mind. But yeah no Randy's like telling Julie about like how she's just the same as her friend and they're different. One of my favorite lines in this movie that techno rock you guys listen to is gutless. Yes yeah there are any like other choice quotes that you can think of mom yeah when can I see you again when the music dies yes he screams it out when I so good it's so good I think he acts that part very well it's it's great because she's like her response to that is like why couldn't you have waited to the eat the end of the evening to ask me that and he's like I I just do what I feel and then it's like you see them from behind and you can't hear what they're saying but then they kiss. So I love that in the movie it's like there's all these little artsy choices. This movie was directed by a woman by the way Martha Coolidge icon woman director who's directed a lot of other like cute movies that I love from the 90s too she does a lot of like artsy stuff but also like romantic comedy stuff. But I love that choice of like the moment they before they kiss, we don't hear what they say. So it's like just between them and it'll always be between them and it's like really beautiful and I'm like this is such a like a like I don't want to say a cheap movie but like such a low budget movie and they just make these little choices that I love.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Another quote was like when Stacy didn't want to get out of the car she's like I just want to stay in here.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

I'm not getting out of here and uh Fred's like well when they attack the car save the radio yeah yeah no absolutely yeah Fred's Fred has so many good lines they make him sort of like you said he's the social one he's the comic relief whereas like Randy's a little bit more concerned with being cool. Yes. So so yeah so Randy and Julie you know they're hooking up they're in the car Fred's trying to get with Stacy she's very reluctant but she also seems to like it they have a little smooch Randy or not Randy it's Fred yeah she's like Fred and then mom what does he say Stacy? I think you're cute. Yeah no I think yeah that I think it's it's nice that they kind of like hook up a little bit a little bit Randy and Julie are going out and like you said before mom Stacy kind of like spills the beans to the rest of the friends and how do how do how do Julie's friends feel about this guy who dresses differently oh yeah they think he's a dweeb you know somebody they wouldn't ever look at I don't know if they think he's a dweeb they're like an outsider there you go they want somebody that's in their circle only right they're being very uh exclusionary yes there's definitely a lot of class commentary here we're not gonna get into it on the family pod but yeah there's definitely like there's a a big difference between the white affluent valley people and the the the lower income West Hollywood crowd I will say too just quick sidebar we never see Randy's house or if he has parents right I always thought that too right well does he live on the street don't we know where does he live in bathrooms like maybe he lives with uh um fred because fred's like driving his mom's car around right yeah it was his car his mom's car maybe I was like uh he seems to know the people at the club really well does he just sleep in that bathroom or in the alley like where is his home that's what you see you know him later like camping out in a lot of places I'm like maybe he has nowhere to go right and in that case I'm like maybe I do understand what her friends are getting at you you don't want to you don't want to date somebody who who's has no home it's not a stable situation it's nothing against him but you know and so in the midst in the midst of all this we get a very or maybe not very exciting subplot does anyone want want to describe that forgot about this boring ass subplot where Skip yes is looking to bone like the mom or like the step is she the stepmom is that girl like orphaned because I was kind of like not 100% I was trying to figure that out too so I've watched this movie maybe a hundred times I just realized I was like okay so Susie who had the party it's her stepmom and her current boyfriend at the party the stepmom's name is Beth and she has a line she's like oh Susie's been really competitive with me since her father died so I'm like where's the birth mother in this is she also dead and like why would so the stepmom has the house after the father's passed and Susie has a little sister too yeah whose name is Peggy I think the one who interrupts the sleepover later so I was like so you have two girls living with the stepmom who's dating somebody else I'm like their whole home life is fucked up like it's not it's not great. Yeah so is her mom dead also or is she divorced and gave him the custody yeah I want that's what I want to believe I I want to I think that there's like a sequel where Susie goes to live with her mom and takes the sister with her maybe like in Arizona or something. Maybe her mom was in like Joshua Tree. Yeah maybe maybe she just wanted to go out in the desert and eat peyote or something. I thought her sister's name was Spaz. Uh yeah no she just calls her spaz which you can't say anymore.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Oh fudge um but anyway what was I gonna say oh yeah so that we we get the Susie's skip subplot and like you said the the mom wants he wants to get with the stepmom but he also like kind of likes Susie and the stepmom takes a liking to him and she's just kind of like she's feeling herself like her husband's dead she's got a boyfriend she's like let me just open this up a little bit and see what I can get and so she goes for the high schooler and he bites you know so I thought it was gonna be what is it miss is it Mrs. Robinson what is that called Mrs. Robinson it was gonna be a Mrs. Robinson situation like the whole movie or something but I feel like a lot of the subplot was cut due to editing and I feel like the whole thing should have been cut in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Yeah it didn't make sense didn't really like because it it panned out so there was no like crescendo moment there was like no like gotcha moment it just kind of faded out there's supposed to be a misdirect at the end because at the end you think like when Skip goes over to deliver groceries to the house like he he does it once he runs into Beth he's like there it's not a mistake that I'm here. So I'm like okay he is biting he is going for this MILF and then he walks in when the person's in the shower and you're supposed to think that that's the mom but it's actually Susie. So I think yeah he went into the bathroom totally expecting to bone the mom he was like why choose yeah yeah no yeah no that's what I'm saying. It's not like because if you rewatch the movie you're not like oh he was secretly in love with Susie the whole time and we were but it's like no he was into the mom he just decided to he found Susie in the shower and he's like well here I am she'll do yeah yeah yeah yeah so the yeah the payoff is not great I feel like because it's a pretty short movie I think it just is like barely 90 minutes. It's 90 and change. It's 90 and change yeah they had to pat it out a little bit so yeah anyway enough about skip and Beth yeah that's and that's the last time we'll mention them. Yeah and his very disgusting hairy body ew yeah his fully 35 year old body so you weren't feeling you weren't feeling skip mom he just didn't look like he fit the part yeah you weren't you w anyways didn't look like a fellow student second of all to have him or her think that he was into her and he was wishy washy trying to get whatever he could get yeah he was desperate honestly desperate remember him on the phone I do think that Skip had a cool bedroom I will say that the interiors of all the kids' bedrooms like Julie's Susie's like all the interiors were so good nobody wallpapers anymore and it shows it's insanely wallpapered to death I loved it yeah I was like people really were not minimalist like you walk into houses now it's beige it's not decorated but back then I was like looking in the bathroom at Susie's house I'm like remember like having little terracotta frogs on the sink you know like people just had little stat like there was little yeah just like tchotchkis on the sink like people just had stuff mom's making faces she's doesn't she doesn't no she's not wait you're you you're not nostalgic about 80s tchotchkis no you want you want a nice some stuff is fun I love a chotchis depends what it is do you like how everything in the modern era is more minimalist now as opposed to maximalist minimalist is better oh oh a little bit on the half on the halfway side hot take on the pod mom's a minimalist I would like to be more but there are certain things like if you have it in the right place and the right theme it it can look okay so with all the interiors in Valley Girl were you were you loving it or do you look back on it and you're like uh that was not such a great choice in what the decor yeah the decor yeah like it fit the it fit the error for sure that wood paneling and all carpeted and stare you know but I'm Saying you're not a fan of it.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

No. Okay. That's all I had to. No. No. No, I don't like that creepy doll that oh my god, the clown doll. The fucking clown. Sorry, the fucking clown doll that she has. That Julie sleeps with every night. What the hell's wrong? But she got something hidden in there.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Uh, I don't know, but every time I see it, I just laugh because I I feel like they must have found that in a prop shop. And they're like, here, let's give Julie something to hold as she snuggles in her bed at night thinking of Randy. Yeah. A clown. That's hilarious. I like that. Yeah, that cloud. It reminded me a little not to reference poltergeist again. It reminded me of the clown doll from poltergeist. Well, not just that, but it's got a porcelain face. So, like if you roll over and drop it on the floor, it's gonna bust its face open.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

That's like even worse.

SPEAKER_03 44:55

That was definitely a choice. Shout out clown doll, creepy clown doll from oh god, Valley Girl. Yeah, there's you know, there's trouble in paradise because Julie and Randy are like officially dating. We get another incredible montage. Love the love montage. Yes. Did you love it? Yes, it wants makes me want to have a cool boyfriend. They're going all over the city, they're going to movies, they're kissing in front of these movie marquees, they're going to the beach, they're going to the mall. Um, what song is the montage to? Do you remember mom? Yes, you do. It's like the most iconic song from it's okay if you don't remember. It's Melt With You. Yeah. I'll melt with you. Yeah. No, I mean there are a ton of songs on this. Yeah. But yeah, this one is famously I Melt With You by Modern English. And that was, they were kind of like a one-hit wonder. Um, the original soundtrack has like, I think like 30 songs on it. It's it's pretty incredible. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of hits. There's a YouTube playlist that people like put other songs on that are not in the movie. And uh, we just need to get an actual picture of the the CD and see what it says on it. I'm sure there's a uh Valley Girl cassette tape out there. I don't know if it came out originally in cassette, um, but yeah, I definitely remember the CD from Rhino Records. I had that and played the shit out of it. Yeah, so like after the love montage, you know, we realize that Julie's friends obviously are very upset at her and are giving her a hard time because Julie doesn't have time for them anymore. They want to do Valley Girl stuff. She's out here hanging out in West Hollywood with her punk boyfriend, and everybody's really mad at it. And you see the tension kind of come to a head at this sleepover that we referenced before with the little sister, and all the girls are dancing around in lingerie, and yeah, they're lip-syncing to uh Girls Like Me by Bonnie Hayes. I feel like it really captures like what it feels like to hang out with a bunch of girls, um, specifically like girls in the 80s, too. Um, they talk about having bulimia, which was highly disturbing. Uh yeah, and so what is yeah, what do they say to Julie to make her feel uncomfortable? Like, what is the big conflict here that she can't be part of the like class president or something or whatever? Or like the um class rep. Class rep.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Yeah, she wants nothing to do with it. She's like, who fucking cares?

SPEAKER_03 47:35

I'm over it. Yeah, Julie's out here on the floor, she's drawing like new wave like lines on her face. You know, she's trying to experiment. Yeah, she's she's doing a little experimental makeup, and everybody else is just still concerned with their school drama, but she's concerned with peaking in high school. Yeah, basically, yeah. But I think the the pressure becomes too much for Julie. This is the part of the movie where I always got really annoyed because like there's a scene right after this where Julie is asking her dad, like, well, I love Randy or I really like Randy, but like, should I go with Tommy? I'm like, the choice here is clear. I don't know. How do you how do you guys feel about that? Like, what, like how like how she was being so indecisive in this? I thought, how could she really consider Tommy after having this whole whirlwind romance with Randy? It just doesn't, it doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

But I really want to like touch upon the fact that her parents are so kind and understanding in everything that she does. Like, they're probably like the most supportive parents you'll get in media ever. And it's like the dad's just like, well, you know, it's your choice. So when you know, let me know, you know, and I'll be right there with you. So it's just so nice to see that on screen. And I also love this is cutting back, but like when she had first stayed out with Randy all night long and comes home, and her parents are waiting up for her at like seven in the morning, and the mom's fully spread eagle doing yoga in the living room. And she's like, Yeah, why don't you guys punish me like my friend's parents do? And they're like, Well, it's bad karma, dear. We can't do that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 49:19

Yeah, Julie's parents are played by Colleen Camp and Frederick Forrest. Um, Colleen Camp is still alive, by the way. Um, but the guy who played the dad, Frederick Forrest, has passed. Um, he was in tons of movies. Um, they both have, but like he was like in Apocalypse Now and like tons of other stuff. Like great actor. He kind of reminds me of the actor who plays Uncle Rico. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, he's twin. Yeah, yeah, kind of. And he just has like that, you know, how do I want to say like a sunny bono kind of look? And yeah, I I also love their energy. I'm like, yeah, this is like the ultimate parental energy. They're just sort of letting, they're not like deciding for her, they're letting her like have her own journey. Um, and they're still very much in love, too. Like the dad's just like, oh, you know, she looks a lot like you, and you're so beautiful, and blah, blah, blah. And then, like, in my head, I go, you know what? More dads need to do psychedelic drugs.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Like, I think that's gonna solve a lot of problems.

SPEAKER_03 50:24

Yeah, he's he gets kind of stoned and paranoid at one point. But like, other than that, like he's just, you know, they're all pretty chill. So yeah, they they let Julie she chooses to go back with Tommy for like no reason, I think. Yeah, literally. Peer pressure, like other than the fact do you think it was because of her friend's mom? Put yourself in Julie's shoes, like in high school. Do you feel like your friend group would have made you like choose a guy or not choose a guy? Did they have that much influence on you, or you didn't care so much?

SPEAKER_01 50:59

I don't recall.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

I don't recall, not at all. Like, you didn't have a core clique group that you were, you just kind of went all around the different cliques and had different friends everywhere. That's kind of like me. Wait, you didn't have you didn't have like a friend group in high school? A small friend group. Name them, yeah. Name and rank them, name and rank them.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Chris Winkler, yeah. Uh-huh. My artsy friend. Okay, we have artsy friend, artsy friend, and then Bill Thomas, who was a grade below me, but we had a lot of people. That's a boy name, and boys aren't allowed in a girl. He's gay, so he's just my my Joey. Oh, okay. Um, and I don't know, everybody. I played on the volleyball team, so there's the few girls I remember.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Did you feel like they could have put pressure on you to make a decision?

SPEAKER_03 51:47

Marie, no, probably go out with him. No, they didn't that guy's a loser. So you you wouldn't have had the problem that Julie had because you just did what you wanted. Yeah. And look where that got you. Yeah, look at that. You heard it here first. Uh, yeah. So Julie, you know, goes back with Tommy without telling Randy. Her and Randy have this very bad fight, breakup fight, which is very upsetting, where he's like, What does he say to her? Fuck off for sure. Like, totally. Yeah, he gave her the whole Valley Girl montage. Oh, yeah, he lets her have it. It's pretty upsetting. And then he goes full spiral. Then you do see him drinking back at the club. Again, he just loves to hang out in bathrooms. This guy, he's in the bathroom, he's making out with his ex. Oh, doing more than that, I think. Yeah, I think he I think he bangs his ex like in revenge. Um, but we gotta is this movie PG? No, that's a great question. No, they think so. They cuss in it. Yeah, they don't have my phone. Well, they cut, they they definitely cuss in this movie. Like, I think if you say the F word and there are yes, boobs in it, guys. Oh, right. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Yeah, we get to see Pee-wee Herman's girlfriend's boobs.

SPEAKER_03 53:08

You get to see a lot of boobs, you get to see like random boobs in the bathroom. And I think that you know, Martha Coolidge definitely like did a great job like directing this, but I know that there was studio influence because again, like teen sex comedies and sex movies were all the thing, and they're like Harvey Weinstein was like, Hey, we gotta see four titties in here, at least. At least, maybe five. Oh, you're not gonna get your money, Martha. You gotta put the titties in. Sorry, that's my that's my ongoing bit on the podcast. I do occasionally morph into Harvey Weinstein, uh-uh. So it's uh it's one of my skills. Um, Randy spirals pretty quick. It's over pretty quick because he has his good friend Fred to pull him out of it. Yes, right. And is Fred hanging out with the crew in the car that rolls up and like harasses him? Like he's moved on. Yeah, he's like with these, he's like near these cholo guys. I don't know if he like rolls out of the car. I don't know. Like he's just there, he's there to support his friend Randy, who's really having a hard time. And he's like, No, you gotta like make a big romantic gesture and just go for it. So we get another montage, which is one of my favorite montages. Yes. Do you remember what happens next? What what does what does Randy do to try to win Julie back? Can you describe this montage?

SPEAKER_01 54:32

Yes, he has to it goes on the radio, yes. Blast out when we used to do that back in the day. It was called Blast Out. Well, yeah, that sounds violent. No, you know, not that kind of, but you like to call up on the radio and say, Hey, I dedicate this next song to Julie.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

Yeah, and it's like come back soon, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Come back soon. And then he disguises himself at the theater, they're all going into the movies, and he goes, He's wearing 3D glasses, he's doing the glasses, he tips them down to show Julie who he was. Sure. Dumbass boyfriends behind her goes, Oh, is this movie in 3D? And he goes, No, but your faces or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

That might be one of my favorite lines. Well, uh, the one after we're at the they're at the drive-in. Yeah, yeah, Randy is trying to disguise himself, not very well, by the way. He's pretty clockable, but he's he's in all these places where Tommy and Julie are on dates and manages to like insert himself. And so when he's at the drive-in, he he comes out, he has kind of a southern accent, which I think is a very funny choice. And when Tommy complains about something, my favorite line is he's like, Well, Peter picked a piper, I guess I did, and then he spits his gum on him. Yeah, it has a real like improv quality to it, which I love. It's just it seems very spontaneous. So I love it. So yeah, no, Julie can see that he's making an effort, even though she's still putting him off. And all of this culminates into like the the big scene at the end where what's what's the the final act of this movie?

SPEAKER_01 56:26

Prom, baby. What was weird is on the building it said junior prom. Okay, why is that weird? On the banner, right? Which has a junior prom. Is this junior high school or is this juniors in high school?

SPEAKER_03 56:40

Yeah, yeah. I think it's juniors in high school. I think there are some schools that are big enough where the juniors have their own prom and the seniors have their own prom. Yeah, I think that's that's a great detail to pick up on. Well, too, they're doing driver's training, so like they would be what, like 16, 17. 16. Here. Oh, 15. But in California, I thought like they're driving, I thought it was 18 in California. 17. Yeah, I'm not sure. Uh, listeners who grew up in California in the 80s. Uh, can you? I don't know. Do we have any California listeners? Uh we need more. We need more. Um, uh, by the way, we see all of our fan fans in Vietnam. Yeah, shout out to Hanoi. What's up, Hanoi? We love you. I love your food. It's my favorite. Yes, yes. We'll come visit. Absolutely. Um, so yeah, at the prom, Fred convinces Randy, they get all dressed up, they're gonna crash the prom. Fred says he has this great plan. There is no plan. So, this is why I said, like, there, the the plot of this is almost non-existent. This movie is mostly people just hanging out and talking. That's all it is. And and they're like, Okay, there's some great plan to like steal Julie back to prove Randy's love. But what does he end up doing at the end? Well, beating up Tommy, yeah, there, yeah, yeah, there you go. His plan is to punch her current boyfriend in the face, and that's it. Who we did not know because until this moment is probably a brown belt in like some form of martial arts.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Like, I don't know, but they hid behind the in the stage because they're gonna announce the king and queen.

SPEAKER_00 58:25

Which oddly enough is Tommy and Julie. I would think it would be someone else, but I guess maybe that's what the girls were kind of concerned with at the you know, at the sleepover, being like, oh, well, you can't be voted in if you're not in, you know, class government or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Yeah, I think they could have maybe done a better job at sort of like, I mean, we see that these girls are all like pretty and popular, I guess, but like I don't think we fully understand as viewers of the movie how popular Julie is. I think they could have done like a better job establishing that because she just seems like a pretty cute girl, but she's not like she, oh no, she's the prom queen, she's class rep. So like if she's dating Randy, the stakes are so much higher. She's basically like throwing her life away. Right. Yeah. And I think if there were more scenes of her in the school by herself, or like maybe even like a moment where Randy puts his like pictures of himself in her book, which I found is really cute. It's so cute, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:29

Um, like if she was reading that book maybe at a table with Tommy while they were like doing vote for prom king and queen or something, then I would be like, oh, that's how she got elected. Like, I don't know, like she was there and people voted for her. Like that at least would kind of tie those two moments together.

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Yeah, I think it could have been better storyboarded. I do know that they shot this movie in 18 days, which is not a lot. Wow, that's actually incredible. Yeah, they threw, I mean, it has like a student film quality to it. And I mean, it was a major Hollywood picture, and I mean it was so successful because the budget was so low, and this was one of those movies that people kept re-watching, like even in the movie theater, because this is what I found out doing research is that like you were talking about like the fashion styles and like how it really represented the day accurately or the era accurately. Yeah. And I think a really important thing about this movie is all of the music was a perfect representation of like K-Rock, like that the LA rock station at that time. All the bands you're seeing, like the Plimsoules, and then later at the prom, Josie Cotton, those were like all real bands that were playing on the they were LA, they were all like local LA bands. So I think that's one of the coolest things about you're kind of seeing a snapshot into like the punk and new wave era at the time. What were you gonna say, Mel? Or mom?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Uh like Mel was mentioning, wow, they got a punk band for their prom.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

But also playing Johnny Are You Queer at the dance, which is uh the best. Again, could we make this movie now? Probably not. Right. Uh, but it's so, I don't know, I like feel like if you understand the context of the time, it's it's a very innocent song. I also love, I want to say, like this throwback 1950s stuff that they were doing in the 1980s. I want to say like late 70s, early 80s. They were kind of like looking back at the 50s in some way, through like certain like certain music projects. I'm thinking of movies like Greece, too. I know that's from the 70s, but it's like it's how like it takes like 20 years for the generation after to be like, oh, remember this? Yeah, you know. So yeah, you you do see a lot of bands in LA who are kind of like, okay, it's like a teeny bopper kind of 50s bubblegum pop kind of sound, which I love. I think that's really cute. Um, so it's to the dulcet tunes of Johnny Are You Queer, where we see that Randy punches out Tommy. Yes. Uh, what other chaos ensues? You guys fill it in. He's dragging them off. Like Fred drags them off. Yeah, Fred dragging Fred is there to help. Thank God, you know. So like they're both going at him.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

What uh Randy and Julie proceed down the stairs, yep, to leave.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

And they're like, Oh, your prom king, and queen. They had announced it, but like the chaos was ensuing. So, like when they walk down, it's Randy and Julie. Oh, here's your prom king and queen, kind of. They walk down and then out comes Tommy and they they continue brawling, and then there's the food. So they Julie throws like a gross green sky thing at him and it knocks him back.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:48

Yeah, I don't know. Well, maybe it was guacamole. Yeah. Oh, maybe it was pistachio fluff. Uh yeah, we did have a lot of that in the 80s for sure. Yeah. They they get in a classic 80s altercation, which is a food fight. Yes, not enough food fights, but then again, we can't really afford that right now in these dire times. We don't save all our food. We we're gonna run out of resources really quick here, guys. So, you know, you can't be wasting food. Um, back then, you know, Regan era, affluent capitalism, reganomics, baby. Throw that food. That's right. It's if anything, this movie really cautions on the dangers of capitalism. I said I wasn't gonna talk about class consciousness, but here we are. Anyway, so they speak, they uh they steal the limo that Tommy had rented to take them to the Valley Sheraton, and the ending is the driver, he's like, Valley Sheraton, and Randy's just like, yeah, yeah, we're we're going.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Uh we're going. And what and she takes off the bangle bracelet that Tommy gave her and throw it out the window. It's over, it's over.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

I love it. And the end honestly, a part two. Yeah, I know. I wish there was a part two.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

Uh solid ending because it's like we almost don't need to know what happens after that. We can kind of let our imaginations take us in different places.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:20

But it was nice that at the end, when you're saying Julie's best friend, Stacy, like was sitting at her table. I don't know where her date was. She was eating that food and thinking, I'm waiting to eat later at this fancy restaurant and a scarf and bar for or maybe, maybe she was just like, I don't know if she had a date or not. But at the end, Friend Fred comes up to wipe off the food she got thrown at her by accident, and she's like, Oh, she's found someone.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:51

So, do we ship Fred and Stacy? Like, do we hope they end up together too? I think that's what it showed. Yeah. I think that that would be good because you know, she's got she's got to let loose. Okay. She also needs to learn the lesson of you know, the LA punk scene to just like let things go and be real and don't worry about what's class you're in.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:15

What class you're in, what your friends are telling you, what the magazines are telling you. You just do what feels right.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

Yeah, and I like how I feel like in a lot of early 80s depictions of punks in cinema, it tends to be kind of negative. And you don't get that. Like, I mean, there's altercations and there's some like tension, but like I think that they show that like the punks were mostly just like more individuals and as opposed to like, you know, people who just wanted to be the same. And I was thinking too, I was like going back to like the valley girl speak. I don't think people realize what an influence it is on influencer speak these days. Like this the valley girls are the reason why we say like, which I do say a lot, and I've Notice more on this pod because I also have that inflection. I say when he was like, and she was like, like this, you know, and it's just that's the California affect. And I feel like because see, I just said it again. I think that with like the rise of the Kardashians, too, like that California lifestyle that made it like popular again, all of the reality TV from like the early 2000s and up that kind of raised this generation that I belong in, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

And so I think a lot of those things that you're mentioning, I've picked up on too, just naturally. And it's yeah, it's a part of youth culture, I think. But definitely that moment in the 80s is what shaped youth culture like forever, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:48

Gag me with a spoon. Gag me with a spoon. Tripendicular. God, they would like put that draw at the end.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

Yeah, the California long A. Well, it's like vocal fry, and it people criticize it a lot. It's like people have made fun of the way that women speak. Let's just, let's just say it plainly. People make fun of women and the way they express themselves all the time. And I remember like, you know, being a young intellectual woman and being like, well, I don't speak like that. But now I'm like, no, we should have our own language. Do you know what I'm saying? Because I think people like, you know, I think of movies like Legally Blonde, too, people will underestimate you because of like if you like fashion or you speak a certain way, but you can still have a big brain and look like a bimbo. Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, that's my goal. To be like a really smart bimbo, yeah. Powerful. Uh, we always rate our movies at the end from like A to F. Mom, what do you give Valley Girl? What is your rating? I give it an A. Whoa, straight A? Yeah, for awesome. A for awesome. Awesome. Valony, how about you? I also give it an A. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:07

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

Yeah, I guess you know what? Not to succumb to peer pressure, but I will I will also give it an A because I was gonna I was gonna like tack on an A minus. Sure. That's fine. Because of the skip subplot, yes. Um, I I'm gonna pull it down a little bit because I think and it it has the possibility to be like a legendary movie, like in the same echelon as like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or any of these 80s movies that we think about. But again, it's just kind of like a sleeper because it just needed like a little, it needed like five more days of shooting or something. Yeah, yes, maybe like an extra 50k. Yeah, I think that, yeah. But I think the things that have like kept it, I I think the thing that's kept it in people's attention for so long and why people love and always go back to this movie is just like the general vibes, the fashion, the music, the romance, yeah, the romance, the romance is very sincere in this, I have to say. You can't you can't watch this movie and not believe in like I was like, oh right, teen love. Remember what that feels like? No. Does anyone remember what teen love feels like? Uh solid times. Well, you know what? Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:27

Mom's well, I was gonna say mom's teen love led to uh one of our co-hosts being on the podcast. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

Um, the soundtrack is definitely an A. Oh, A plus for the soundtrack. Loved that air of music because it jumped from now. You remember I went from regular rock music into the new wave, and then like this this type of beach rock.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:51

It's not like true surf rock, it's like you know, but it's like a little more it's adjacent, you know. You would you would describe a lot of this music as surf rock, uh with a with a kick to it, like a little dash, a little dash, just a little dash. I I would call it like new wave. I think of all the bands that are on the soundtrack because like this was a lot of like first time listens to certain bands for me that I've grown to like love. So this is the first time I heard the band Sparks that I I actually love. And they have a great document sidebar, great documentary on Sparks. Yeah, psychedelic furs, men at work. We have Josie Cotton, of course, Plimsol's, who else here? Modern English, modern English, yeah. And in the there's also there's not just the one soundtrack, but there's also an additional soundtrack called Valley Girl More Music. Uh and it was everything that they couldn't like fit in the movie. So that has songs like Mickey by Tony Basil, yeah, yes, uh, Thompson Twins, Culture Club, The Jam. I mean, this is like you know what? That could have fit in if you got where to skip. Yeah, yeah. Let let's skip more songs. Skip a skip. How about Skip Skip?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:12

This plot had nothing to do with what was going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Yeah, we're not skip fans here on VHS Sisters. Um, yeah, I also want to say real quick before we finish, they did do a remake of this in 2020 that got completely buried by the pandemic, which is a musical version. I watched five minutes and I had to turn it off immediately. Ooh, boo. So bad. Let's I just want to say this is my statement to Hollywood. Stop doing remakes. Stop it. We've had enough. Can somebody make an original idea again? Because I'm over it. We we're good on Marvel movies, too. Just want to say that. We don't need to, we don't need to do this anymore. Comic book movies, done. That's it. Yes, we at VHS Sisters and and my mother say no more superheroes. We're done over it. The time is over, it's like totally over. Yeah, so that has been our podcast. What a lovely time! Thank you so much to our mama, yes, mom, and happy Mother's Day to you. Yay, yes, this is our Mother's Day special. I forgot to mention that, but um, yeah, any clo uh any closing words for our fans? What would you like to tell our fans? We have so many of us money. Well, what would you like to tell our fans? Say it, say it to the camera directly to me. What you would like to say to the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

Support your local podcasters, women podcasters, support my daughters, supporting. Support my daughters, my daughters.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:53

How do you feel having such talented children? Does that make you feel good?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:57

Talented women in this generation. Sucks. Nobody supports enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

I think we can say mom is pro-women podcasts and anti-men podcasts. Yeah. Fuck that shit. Fuck it. Okay, everybody. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:18

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of VHS Sisters.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:22

We hope you've had a fun and cozy time. Please consider liking, leaving a review, and following us on your podcast platform of choice.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:31

If you'd like to chat with us, please email us at VHS Sisters Podcast at gmail dot com.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:39

Love you. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:51

That's it.