I went into “Valley Girl” (1983) thinking it was going to be a broader comedy about, well, San Fernando Valley girls (actually, “Clueless” comes closer to that space 12 years later). This is more of a by-the-book teen romance featuring class conflict between Hollywood punk hunk Nicolas Cage and suburban sweetheart Deborah Foreman (who, at 21, looked too old to be playing a high school junior). That doesn’t make it a bad movie, but the better part is its visual love letter to the neon, music and fashion of early 1980s Los Angeles. Looking back, it’s a pretty-in-pink time capsule.
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Let’s say you’re wondering what “Ordinary People” would be like if it took place on a farm in Montana instead of some WASP enclave in Connecticut (let’s just say, because we know you’re not). Well, your pretend prayers have been answered with “The Stone Boy” (1984). Brother dies accidentally, other brother feels survivor guilt, everybody else goes batshit crazy. Except grandpa (Wilford Brimley). He’s so even-keeled, he could look death in the face and sell it a reverse mortgage. Anyway, it’s an interesting film in that it portrays an adolescent with PTSD before we knew what those letters stood for.
“Music Box” (1989) is a courtroom drama that keeps you guessing. I mean, guessing where the drama is. It’s a federal prosecution of 40-year-old war crimes that took place in Hungary. An open and shut case. The suspense comes in waiting to see if the defendant will admit his guilt to his defense attorney daughter (Jessica Lange). Your faith in the courtroom movie formula starts feeding on itself, however, and you begin rooting for a big payoff that proves Papa innocent. The twist? He is suddenly, definitively shown to be guilty. Interestingly, it makes for a sadder, but better, story.
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