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Mall Movies: Fer Sure
Fer Sure a review by Professor Gary Teach, RPPS Lord of Commerce,
Valley Girl
(1983)
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Directed by
Martha Coolidge *
Written by
Wayne Crawford
Andrew Lane ***
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Plot : Different worlds collide when city boy meets suburban val girl.
Cast :
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Nicolas Cage .... Randy
Deborah Foreman .... Julie Richman
Elizabeth Daily .... Loryn
Michael Bowen .... Tommy, Julie's Boyfriend
Cameron Dye .... Fred Bailey, Randy's Pal
Heidi Holicker .... Stacey
Michelle Meyrink .... Suzi Brent
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Tina Theberge .... Samantha, Randy's Ex
Lee Purcell .... Beth Brent, Suzi's Step Mom
Richard Sanders .... Drivers' Ed Teacher
Colleen Camp .... Sarah Richman
Frederic Forrest .... Steve Richman
David Ensor (II) .... Skip the Delivery Boy
Joanne Baron .... Miss Liebeman, Prom Chaperone
Tony Plana .... Low Rider
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To THE MALL OR BARF ME OUT
Greetings fullosians and thank you for your enthusiasm for my study of Mallology. I feel we are scratching primordeal ice with my review of Valley Girl set against the backdrop of the mall. The theme was not original: boy meets girl in a clash of cultures and values, but the setting was not a war movie with the focus on unity in diversity but the unifying element of materialism in my favorite place for reflection and relaxation: the mall.
A lighthearted, teen angst flick Valley Girl melds a cute romance between two kids from different backgrounds who have trouble attaining acceptance in each other's worlds. Julie Richman (Deborah Foreman) a sweet, rich valley girl develops crush on Randy (Nicholas Cage) a stray alley cat, ie a punk. When Julie's snotty friends disapprove, Julie must choose between her heart and her popularity. The movie not only follows the life of the valley girl and her punk; but her friends too as they shop, party, hang out, and go to the mall. Though Julie and Randy don't have much in common at all, the movie captures the essence of the materialistic eighties: malls, the credit card machines, the punk hair color, in a sweet, intelligent Romeo & Juliet teen flick.
Despite suffering from spats of sophomoric silly, corny dialogue and storylines and bad acting, the flick captures the spirit of the times in period characters: vapid mall chicks, pseudo punk rebels and preppy jocks and most especially the period slang in potent, time-specific dialogue: "rad," "awesome,"
"fabu," "totally," "BARF ME OUT," "OH MY GOSH," "like it is," "AND GAG ME WITH A SPOON!"--- "like you know."
Fer Sure, the characters are vapid and shallow. They're like, from the valley, like, you know? Yet if the characters seem lifeless cardboard cut-outs, they represent a plastic mall culture stemming from the nether world of the San Fernando Valley and enaring from late Hippie culture turned opportunistically materialistic. The characters depicted differ little from the rather shallow, adolescents who proclaimed Val culture as an outgrowth of the prevailing hedonism. The pop poster of the time announced: POVERTY SUCKS. Wealth or its appearance of it, fancy hair and flashy clothes ruled.
If the plot were unpretentious, it attained its goal of updating Romeo and Juliet and resetting it against the background of the mall with the talk and style of dress carefully portrayed in period pastels. The movie took a *very* common theme and reworked afresh.
Fer Sure! Professor Teach
Professor Gary Teach's astute commentary on American culture and history bring him to the mall to analyze with a clinical eye his own favorite sanctuary. In Fer Sure he studies the romance of the haves and have-nots in the struggle of unbriddled consumerism. His journey into contemporary American culture attracted the attention of the society for having tracked the sad decline of the family owned pizzera and its disappearance from the Mall. He has won the designation: RPPS Lord of Commerce for his truly original work.
Professor Teach's Other Works
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