VALLEY GIRL (2020)
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 102 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Cast: Jessica Rothe, Josh Whitehouse, Mae Whitman
In the present day Los Angeles teen high schooler Ruby (Camila Morrone, Death Wish) returns home after breaking up with her boyfriend. At home her mom Julie (Alicia Silverstone, Clueless) attempts to console her daughter by telling her the tale of her own senior year teen romance, triggering a series of flashbacks to her youth in the eighties when she was a mall-loving Valley Girl who fell in love with a punk rocker from the wrong side of town, peppered with jukebox musical numbers riffing on a number of eighties including goodies from The Cure, Kim Wylde, Wang Chung, Flock of Seagulls, The Go-Go's and many more.
In the present day Los Angeles teen high schooler Ruby (Camila Morrone, Death Wish) returns home after breaking up with her boyfriend. At home her mom Julie (Alicia Silverstone, Clueless) attempts to console her daughter by telling her the tale of her own senior year teen romance, triggering a series of flashbacks to her youth in the eighties when she was a mall-loving Valley Girl who fell in love with a punk rocker from the wrong side of town, peppered with jukebox musical numbers riffing on a number of eighties including goodies from The Cure, Kim Wylde, Wang Chung, Flock of Seagulls, The Go-Go's and many more.
Maybe because I am getting a bit long in the tooth and considerably more jaded for it I found this musical re-imagining of Valley Girl to be a tiresome retread of a beloved 80's flick. I am not one to poo-poo every remake that comes along, but taking this flick and Glee-ifying it with some truly bad sing-alongs and watering downs the plot does it no favors in my opinion, the thin plot easily over-powered by the abundance of nostalgic 80's bright colors and pretty faces, but it's an empty and hollow flick. I will also say that the 80's asshole in the film is very capably played by a 00's asshole, YouTuber Logan Paul really brings home the douchiness of his vapid character,
That said I did not mind Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) and Josh Whitehouse (The Knight Before Christmas) in their lead roles as the star-crossed lovers, they're actually both quite charming, but the story they're entangled is so glossy and needlessly melodramatic, not to mention overly long, that it was a chore suffer through it. I don't often do a bitter old man review but this one certainly brought that out in me, this is an early-teen targeted musical that didn't do much for me, I didn't hate it but I didn't care for it either, perhaps having aged-out of the intended target audience.
Audio/Video: Valley Girl (2020) arrives on Blu-ray and Digital from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment framed in 1.85:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The mage is string with the bright overexaggerated 80's colors leaping off the screen, the colors are well-saturated, skin tones look natural and the black levels are solid. The English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio sounds fine, the musical numbers are robust and dialogue is crisp and clean sounding throughout, optional English subtitles are included.
There are no extras whatsoever for this release aside from a digital HD copy of the film. It arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork and a slipcover.
If I put the angry old man part of my brain aside for a bit I will say that the film is well-made, it look great, and is sparkly and spirited though sanitized version of the original film with a bevy of excellent 80's tunes that are only slightly tarnished by a peppy but tuneless cast.
