By: Joseph Perry
Joseph Perry cohosts the Uphill Both Ways podcast — part of the When It Was Cool family of podcasts — with Mike Imboden (ubwpodcast.com/). Joseph also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). You can also find previous reviews and articles of his at The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com) and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com).
Film Review: Gregory’s Girl (1980)
Official synopsis: Gregory is an awkward Scottish teen who has fallen for Dorothy, the first female player on his school’s soccer team. When he finally musters the courage to ask her on a date, nothing turns out as expected.
Writer/director Bill Forsyth’s Scottish coming-of-age comedy Gregory’s Girl (U.K., 1980) holds a special place in my heart for two reasons. It’s the first foreign film that I drove to another city to see when I was a young lad, and also it features my 1980s major celebrity crush, Clare Grogan.
Unlike many American high school comedies of the era, Gregory’s Girl foregoes crude sexual humor in favor of a more charming approach to what it’s like being a teenager falling for someone for the first time. Gordon John Sinclair gives a wonderful performance as gangly, awkward Gregory, who’s quirky in an endearing way. Dee Hepburn is super as Dorothy, a girl who insists on trying out for the previously all-boys soccer team and who quickly becomes the apple of Gregory’s eye — though he has a lot of competition.
And then there is Clare Grogan, who couldn’t be any more adorable in this film if she tried. With her short haircut and black beret — along with her delightful accent — she epitomized my type of eighties girl, and I was thrilled to learn after seeing the film for the first time that she was also the lead singer of new wave band Altered Images (who, side note, I was fortunate enough to see in concert once from the front row).
The cast is brilliant throughout, and Forsyth combines heartwarming humor with some off-the-wall, unexpected gags. Gregory’s Girl is a fun time capsule of early 1980s teen life — get a load of the band posters on drummer Gregory’s bedroom wall — full of whimsical charm and that magical feeling of first crushes. I can’t recommend this enchanting classic of a film highly enough.
View the film trailer - here
Gregory’s Girl streams on Film Movement Plus (www.filmmovementplus.com) from September 11, 2026.
Joseph Perry cohosts the Uphill Both Ways podcast — part of the When It Was Cool family of podcasts — with Mike Imboden (ubwpodcast.com/). Joseph also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). You can also find previous reviews and articles of his at The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com) and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com).
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