Where
did all the "Valley girls" go? In the 1970s,
a linguistic phenomenon emerged in the San Fernando Valley
of Los Angeles at schools and newly opened shopping malls,
when spoiled Gentile girls peppered their conversations
with such words as "bitchin," chased boys, and
otherwise spent their time idly while their narcissistic
parents were too busy to pay attention to them. Today,
the San Fernando Valley is increasingly populated by immigrants
from Asia, Israel, and Latin America. The "Valley
girl" phenomenon is instead found in the affluent
suburbs of Orange County along the coastline south of Disneyland,
where the word "awesome" competes with the ubiquitous
word "like" to identify the latest linguistic
nightmare. The film Orange County, intended for high school
audiences, captures much of the angst and naïveté of
the young people in a story that is intended to tickle
the funny bone with several comedic greats playing ridiculous
deadpan parts. For an adult filmviewer, however, Orange
County indicts the sick society in a manner not unlike
Ice Storm (1997) and American
Beauty (1999). The plot revolves
around Shaun Brumder (played by Colin Hanks), a straight-A
student who hangs out with his airhead surfing buddies
after school. One day, they go to the beach in surfing
wetsuits but are terrified at the high waves. One of the
group nevertheless decides to brave the "tsunami," but
he dies, and the boys and a few girls mourn his loss. One
year later, when Shaun goes to the beach to memorialize
his friend's loss, he finds a novel by Marcus Skinner,
a Stanford University English professor. Empathizing with
the characters in the novel, he decides that his future
is to become a great writer. He then writes a novel of
his own, based on such characters as his dysfunctional
Orange County divorced parents; next, he sends his literary
effort to Skinner, and he decides that he must get out
of Orange County to enroll at Stanford in order to secure
his identity and his occupational ambition. When his Vista
Del Mar High School (actually Diamond Ranch High in Pomona)
guidance counselor Charlotte Cobb (played by Lili Tomlin)
assures him that he is a "shoe-in" for Stanford,
he applies nowhere else as backup. However, instead of
sending his transcript to Stanford, she mistakenly sends
the academic record of a student with a similar name, who
in turn is admitted to Stanford while Shaun is not. Shaun
then tries various ploys to be admitted. First, he asks
Charlotte to admit her error, but she refuses. Then, through
student connections (which serve as an insight into how
high school students screw around), a member of the Board
of Trustees visits Shaun's home, only to witness a plastered
mother (played by Catherine O'Hara), an oversedated stepfather
(played by George Murdock), and Lance, his freaky brother
(played by Jack Black); thus, that ploy fails, just as
Colin's "golden boy" characterization in such
a chaotic home environment strains the credulity of filmviewers.
Next, Lance drives Colin and his girlfriend Ashley (played
by Schuyler Fisk) to Stanford (the actual location is Cal
Tech). Although they are unable to prevail upon the admissions
office clerk to arrange admission, after the door to the
building is closed, Lance breaks into the office to find
the telephone number of the Dean of Admissions. While he
has sex with the office clerk, Colin and Ashley call information
to obtain the dean's address. Dean Don Durkett (played
by Harold Ramis), about to leave with his family for Bali,
is reluctant to arrange admission until he asks Ashley
for a painkiller; but the painkiller bottle belongs to
Lance, who disguises an upper in an Excedrin bottle, so
the dean is transformed into a good mood. When he sees
Colin's excellent transcript, he decides to go to his office
to arrange his admission. However, Lance in the meantime
has accidentally started a fire; since the building is
aflame, that ploy fails. Colin then spots Professor Skinner
(played by Kevin Kline) on campus and makes another plea
for admission. Pointing out that Faulkner, Joyce, and Tolstoy
wrote passionately because they lived in places that they
hated, Skinner persuades Colin to stay in Orange County,
which has served so well as fertile ground for his literary
imagination. The film has several surprises and a happy
ending, thus negating the premise articulated by Professor
Skinner. After all, a film aimed at a teenage audience
is not expected to have a noir ending. However, Orange
County contains perhaps the largest concentration of Vietnamese
Americans, yet the lily white film says nothing about them.
Despite the ambition of Orange County to serve as a comedic
satire for highschoolers, adults will quickly perceive
serious social criticism of the affluent county. But adults
are unlikely to attend the movie in the first place. Indeed,
in an interview after the release of the film, director
Jake Kasdan appears to miss the social criticism as well,
preferring instead to brag about the joy of working with
outstanding comic actors. MH
I
want to comment on this film
