JUST ONE OF THE GUYS

Release Year: 1985

Starring: Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jacoby, Toni Hudson, Leigh McCloskey, and William Zabka (The Karate Kid, The Karate Kid II, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Back to School)

"Terri Griffith is about to go where no woman has gone before."

Terry Griffith (Joyce Hyser) is a High School senior and aspiring journalist living in the Arizona suburbs, ticked off because her teachers dismiss her articles because of her good looks. After failing to get her dream job as a newspaper intern, she blames sexism and schemes to go undercover as a boy at the rival high school to prove her point.

Terry's only confidants are her sex-obsessed loudmouth little brother, Buddy (Billy Jacoby) and her best friend Denise (Toni Hudson), check in on her throughout the experiment. At the new school, Terry she meets Rick (Clayton Rohner), a nerd with a heart of gold (cliché alert!) who becomes her pet project. After getting to know Rick, giving him an "eighties-cool-guy" makeover, encouraging him to talk to girls (even scoring a date with the most popular girl in school), Terry starts to fall for him (wouldn't ya know it!).

Director Lisa Gottlieb's film is one of the 80's best teen comedies. The jokes are a cut above and the script is filled with a huge range of pop-culture references: Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, Tootsie, Elvis Costello, James Brown, Yentl, Chris Evert-Lloyd, bodybuilding, Cyndi Lauper, Wimbledon, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and so much more. It also has good early performances from Sherilyn Fenn and Arye Gross, and the villain is 80’s teen bad guy extraordinaire, the great William Zabka (“Cobra Kai!”). The soundtrack is filled with a diverse group of artists: Lindsey Buckingham, Midnight Star, Berling, Shalamar, Dwight Tilley, and Paul Shaffer's band, Private Domain.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! - Isaiah 26:3