Movie Love in the 1980s
The Last American Virgin
Rated R
1982, MGM
The Sure Thing
Rated PG-13
1985, MGM
Valley Girl
Rated R
1983, MGM
Twenty years ago, Nicolas Cage was a gangly, boyish-looking actor with hound dog eyes and an expressive mouth. Cage remains one of Hollywood's more risky actors today, but when he was beginning his acting career he made his leading man debut in the suburban-girl-meets-city-boy romantic comedy Valley Girl.
Three new DVD releases of 1980s teen comedies Valley Girl, The Sure Thing and The Last American Virgin take us back to the shortest nostalgia trip going. Just like Douglas Sirk melodramas are entwined with the 1950s, these teen coming-of-age movies represent '80s popular culture.
The Last American Virgin is a low-budget coming-of-age comedy about three high school friends (Lawrence Monoson, Steve Antin and Joe Rubbo) desperate to have sex before graduating. The character of the horny male teen remains a movie fixture thanks to the recent American Pie comedies. While The Last American Virgin offers no new dimension to the teen genre, it's worth noting that the film is surprisingly sweet-natured for a comedy about sex-obsessed boys.
Valley Girl features a teenage love affair between two pop culture opposites. Deborah Foreman is the suburbia blonde Julie, whose best attribute is her willingness to buck peer pressure and leave her boyfriend for Randy (Cage), the punky boy from the city. Director Martha Coolidge shows an attention for detail in Valley Girl, and the best bonus DVD feature compares storyboards with the filmed scenes.
Cage is likable as Randy, but Foreman fails to match his charisma. She's a dull blonde who gives way to the self-confident and serious-minded brunette Daphne Zuniga in Rob Reiner's later comic road movie, The Sure Thing.
Zuniga is a studious coed who meets her sarcastic equal in John Cusack, a carefree classmate who accompanies her on a cross-country trip to California. Cusack could be one of the girl-obsessed, Last American Virgin guys. After all, he's heading to Los Angeles to connect with a pretty blonde (Nicollette Sheridan) known as a "sure thing." Thankfully, Steven Bloom and Jonathan Roberts' rich script pushes Cusack above the teen genre clichés.
Listening to Reiner's bonus DVD commentaries, it's clear that he considers The Sure Thing one of his best films, an opinion I also share.
The girl-crazy men turn out to be the enlightened heroes in Valley Girl and The Sure Thing, and it takes a nostalgic second look to reveal the hidden humanism in these two under-appreciated teen sex comedies.
The Last American Virgin grade: C.
The Sure Thing grade: A.
Valley Girl grade: B.
Printer-friendly version
