Gag me with a spoon! VALLEY GIRLS, a breezy and delightful teen romcom, serves as a fascinating time-capsule of early 1980s youth culture in the San Fernando Valley area of California. New-wave music fills the soundtrack, post-punk fashion dominates the style, and the characters all banter in a specific sociolect called “valleyspeak.”

Down-market Randy (Nicolas Cage) and well-heeled Julie (Deborah Foreman) find themselves drawn to each other despite the vast gulf in their respective social status. Scandalized, their friends work to torpedo the blossoming romance. Will social pressure tear our young lovers apart? Or will they triumph over class divisions and find true love?

Directed with wit and taste, Martha Coolidge elevates what was originally meant to be an exploitation film into something heartfelt and enduring. A true classic.