I've been a fan of the whole early 80's Valley Girl concept; the cute fashions, the carefree attitudes, and the mall roaming. The Nic Cage movie "Valley Girl" has been a favorite of mine for years, but the wardrobe of the Valley Girls in that movie seemed a little lacking in a sort of je ne sais quoi (I thought, anyway)... a sort of cuteness or spunkiness was missing.
Enter "The Vals," a low-budget movie about Valley Girls who wonder if there's more to life than partying with college boys, battling with Beverly Hills girls that seem to have invaded Val turf, shopping for new clothes, and riding down the street perched on the drop top of a white Mercedes. One day at the mall, they overhear a couple of drug dealers putting demands on one of their pushers, a young boy. Out of curiosity, they observe the boy as he pushes drugs on other kids, then they follow him home. His home is a house on the other side of town, an orphanage run by a kind old man who's been running the place for many years. The old man and his charges are in danger of losing their home unless they can come up with $25,000 of back rent, which is why the one boy had started selling drugs. Suddenly, the Vals "know" that they have to save the orphanage. How, though, is ridiculously farfetched and made you wonder if the Vals themselves weren't on something when they came up with their plan. Suffice it to say that everything turns out okay in the end, in typical early 80's movie style.
One of the few redeeming qualities about "The Vals" is the Valley Girls' wardrobe. The clothes were much more, well, Valley Girl than those from "Valley Girl." The Vals' clothes were fun, frilly, and funky. It's really hard to explain, but I'm more partial to that sort of cutesy Valley Girl look over the polished preppy Valley Girl look favored by the ladies of "Valley Girl."
Call me crazy, but I kind of dig the song "Girls In The Valley," which seems to be the featured track on the "The Vals" soundtrack. The end credits say "Soundtrack Available On Unicorn World Records," but that seems to be about as real as an actual unicorn (DID a soundtrack really exist in some form for "The Vals"?). The rest of the soundtrack is a take-it-or-leave-it thing, but I'd love to be able to get "Girls In The Valley" in a more portable version someday.
