Why So Blu?

Valley Girl (2020) (Blu-ray Review)

I’m not sure it was even planned for theatrical release to begin with, but the 2020 musical redress of 1983’s Valley Girl was one of the pandemic lockdowns brand new premium on demand offerings back in May. As a big fan of the original, I didn’t know how to feel about it, but casting Jessica Rothe of Happy Death Day fame in the lead had me at least interested in it. I’m not so sure how it faired money making-wise, but I didn’t notice too much buzz about it when it came out. There was a little chatter over the weekend, but that’s about it. Nevertheless, I found myself curious and when the offer to review it came up, I took the bait. The film is arriving in pretty bare bones fashion. You get the movie with one audio, one subtitle stream and a digital copy code to redeem. That’ really it. Its priced fairly, but you’d hope there’d be more confidence. You can go back to the 80s and have yourself a jam when the film arrives October 5th.

Film

A jukebox style musical remake of the original 1983 film. In a wraparound, a mother tells her upset daughter a tale of her own youth. She was valley girl in love with a punk rocker from the city. Together they defy their parents and friends to stay together. Their upbringings, clicks and culture clash as their love and future ambitions blossom.

The worst way to lens the 2020 remix of Valley Girl is to compare it to the original. While this film clearly has the same through-line and characters, that doesn’t seem to be the goal here. Valley Girl 2020 feels more of a celebration of 1980s pop music, using one of its more popular films as a vessel to share the love and new interpretations of the songs. While it includes songs from the movie with a plot that gears to a build up of the most known song from the soundtrack (Modern English’s “I Melt With You”), the film goes beyond and brings in the likes of Madonna and The Cure to the fold.

Rachel Lee Goldenberg and Amy Talkington’s collaboration really bounces around in quite friendly fashion song to song. They never forget its a music and really let the music both drive the story, but also sometimes just play around and have some fun. Songs find personal touches in the narrative and others just feel like interesting and experimental covers. A few of them find themselves woven into interesting mashups along the way.

Now sure, you can listen to 80s music on your own and the original versions. Its still fun to see this cast giving them a different life and different meaning. Plus, this this is a pretty well cast and enjoyable group here. Jessica Rothe continues to prove she’s one of the best and most under used leading performers around. Her parents are an adorably dorky pair in Judy Greer and Rob Huebel. Mae Whitman puts in her regular strong chops in a nice side role. And there are recognizable, fun faces galore from that of Alicia Silverstone, Randall Park, EG Daily and Thomas Lennon. Logan Paul is even tolerable and fits his part here.

No, the original Valley Girl wasn’t going to ever be topped here. And I really don’t consider this as much a remake of the film as much as it is a tribute to the original classic and the pop music of the era when it came out. It features a consistent bop from song to song while having some pretty bubbly and charming performances from its cast. Honestly, I came in slightly apprehensive and continually found that I just couldn’t stop liking this movie.

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-25

Clarity/Detail:  Valley Girl really has a nice flashy sheen in its transfer to Blu-ray. This is a pretty crisp, sharp image that really pops with its vivid nature. Patterns and textures really are apparent in most all times. It even has a nice little touch to the “boring at home” stuff seen in Jessica Rothe’s house. Overall, aside from bumping up to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, I can find much to reasonably complain about with this image.

Depth:  Has a nice foreground and background relationship, with an above average three dimensional appeal to it. Some of the interiors have a nice spacious feel to them. Movements are smooth and natural. No distoration issues abound.

Black Levels: Blacks are plenty deep and pretty good for a digitally sourced image. No strong issues with information being lost in the shadows or dark surfaces. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction:  This movie radiates with 1980s glowing neons an bursts with flashy fabrics and the like. These really pop on the well saturated and vibrant palette with really no issues of bleed.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and have a consistent, well lit, vibrancy to them that maintains throughout the film. Facial features are very clear and discernible in texture detail showing freckles, stubble, make-up and more.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English Descriptive Audio

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: Valley Girl has a really terrific 5.1 track that features a crisp and balanced, harmonious mix. Songs really fill up the room and natural sounds have good depth and layering to their effects. All you could hope for in this bare bones release for a straight to VOD movie is an engaging track and this one really more than fits the bill.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Most of the bumping comes from the music, but there are some crashing and natural sounding elements (Doors shutting, engines running) that pick up some nice deep tones from the subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation: There’s a lot of attention focused on the action in the front of the screen, but the songs really light up and utilize the entire room space, creating a good concert space for the music in front and behind.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp. Sure there’s a little shift from dialogue into song, but its ever so slight and natural as you could hope for.

Extras

Valley Girl comes with a redeemable digital code.

Summary

Welp, I had a pretty damn good time bopping around to Valley Girl‘s 2020 make-over and enjoying the fun they were having with the music. Warner Bros puts together a terrific audio/video presentation for the film. Unfortunately, the only bonus you’re getting from this disc is a digital copy code to redeem.  Its starting at a very low price, but I think at the very least, Valley Girl makes for a more than solid rental to check it out.

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