“Valley Girl” Remake Is Bad Nostalgia Bait

Theaters are closed, movies delayed, and access to press screenings are limited to streaming. There’s no better time to highlight smaller films — amazing movies without the big-studio marketing budget that makes it harder for you to find. Discover a new film festival darling or movie direct to Video on Demand. Sheltering in place doesn’t need to stop you from your weekend evening escape to the movies. Follow the flurry of upcoming reviews on Twitter, or find all my reviews for movies you can stream from right at home. Hollywood is always prime for a remake. This year’s remakes include Dolittle, The Grudge, Godzilla vs Kong, Emma, and Dune. The inescapability of the modern remake comes as a double-edged sword: on one edge is its likelihood of profitability no matter the quality of the film, on the other edge is the film’s high likelihood to be abysmal. Where the box office success is a good bet given a title’s name recognition, it’s up to a modern reworking to have something new to say for it to be worthwhile to audiences (see 2019’s success of a 12-time retold story, Little Women). Which brings is to 1983 California, and its 2020 remake of the classic film, Valley Girl.

Originally starring Deborah Foreman and Nicholas Cage, Valley Girl is back with Jessica Rothe as Julie, the star vocal fry-talking, shopping queen type, and Josh Whitehouse as Randy, the punk vagrant from the other side of the tracks. It’s a feel-good film with a feel-good message for its time, a landscape …