I love the 1983 film Valley Girl and have for a while now. It’s one of those comfort films that I own the DVD for because it comes on and off streaming so much. Here’s the trailer:

I showed this movie to the poet in my life before he left on his hunting trip and made a startling discovery when I used our fire stick’s voice search: they made a musical version this year! What?

Ok, so it obviously looks a little cringey and lacks some of the authenticity of the original, but I couldn’t help my self. After work, I made a cup of tea, grabbed my knitting and hit “rent”.

It was an enjoyable 90 minute film, but a lot of things were different. For starters, the musical is rated PG-13. This means that the sex themes are toned down (a lot) and the focus is more on where everyone is going after high school. Next up, her Julie’s parents are 100% different and I have to admit that it made me a little upset. They were supposed to be the you need to discover yourself branch of Julie’s life, the ones where you weren’t really sure how they ended up in the valley in the first place.

Overall, I can’t help liking it. Do I like the musical better than the original? No, but it’s hard to compete with a film like that! Would I watch it again? Probably, all of the songs are recognizable, so it’s easy to sing along and you can’t help enjoying your trip through Julie’s memory. It almost has a Princess Bride feel by having Julie tell the story to her teenage daughter.