Review of Just One of the Guys (1985) by Kristin P — 10 Oct 2007

This film is my litmus test for new people: anyone admitting to a longtime obsession with this underrated piece of 80s teenery is someone I know I'll love. It's hard to explain the allure of this film: it's poorly acted, poorly written, awkwardly filmed and packed with every cliche in the 1986 yearbook.

But something about it still draws me back to watch again and again. Joyce Hyser plays Terry, a smart and driven young woman who decides to go undercover and register as a boy at another high school in order to win an important journalism contest because she believes boys get all the breaks.

And just like most of the 80s teen films, this one teaches us that she's wron--she learns that male high school teachers really aren't sexist, and that if she loses it's because she's not working hard enough.

And despite her brief stint as a boy, discovering all its attendant freedoms, she realizes she'd rather wear a lacy white Gunny Sax dress and date her schlubby best guy friend (and let HIM be the boss for once, thank god!).

Still, all its attempts at hetero-recuperation don't quite stic--like most of the films/TV shows of this American trend in the 80s (see My Two Dads, Kate & Alley, Cagney & Laceyâ?¦), it winds up being queerer than it wants to let on.

The stupid ending canâ??t undo the delicious pleasures we've been allowed to take in watching Hyser slick back her hair, stuff a sock in her jeans and saunter around like the hottest butch in the dyke bar.

Hyser's performance isn't any better than any of the other teen actors here, but something genuine makes its way past the script and into her performance during her cross-gender moments. And despite its trying-too-hard, preachy attempts at pre-grrl power rhetoric, the film delivers on that level as well: Terry is clever, sexy, feminine and masculine, triumphant and real, the kind of character any teenager who hadnâ??t had her soul sucked out by John Hughes, Winger and The Limited/Express would latch on to and love.