Clueless

 

 

Movie, 1995, PG-13 

Premise - The most iconic teenage film of the 1990's, Cher is a rich, spoiled teenage girl absolutely clueless to the things that make life most important. Thinking she has it all, she takes the school's new girl under her wing to make her "happier" through makeover, romance, and popularity. In the process, Cher realizes that gifting someone else her lifestyle may not be what's best for them, as it isn't even what's best for her.

Review - I struggled writing the premise to this because one thought I kept having throughout this whole movie is "I don't know what the plot is?" First it's about making two teachers fall in love, then it's about the new girl Tai, and then it's about the new guy Christian, and then it's about the romance with Josh?? I had absolutely NO way of predicting where the story was going. Each time we fell into a new chapter I kept thinking, "Oh, NOW we've hit the core of the story." There really wasn't a core of the story, except for Cher's character transformation, perhaps. Because of this, I kept thinking this would be a fantastic, character-driven television show. As a movie, I struggled to realize how it became so iconic.

I guess there would have been one way to predict where the story was going, and that is if I had read the source material, Jane Austen's Emma. I actually didn't know until just now that Clueless was based on Emma, though. Now that I do know, I feel like that explains the 1) lack of story structure as Emma was likely a really long serial novel, and 2) romance with her ex-step-brother. I suppose that would have been much more normal in Jane Austen times.

I do understand that this is a cult classic, especially for the style of the lead character played by the beautiful Alicia Silverstone. I did love her outfits. However, the film also is a time capsule for capturing a wide range of 90's fashion styles. I always associated the 90's with really boring, blue-jean, loose-fitting clothing - perhaps because that's what adults wore and as a toddler, I really only hung around unfashionable adults. But here we see Black fashion, environmentalist fashion, hippie fashion, and so much more all in the height of the 90's. Like Mean Girls, there's an iconic scene where Cher breaks down all of the different cliques you can find at lunch. If you want a glimpse into 90's teen culture, here it is. 90's lingo is also, of course, strong in this film and is part of what makes it iconic. Iconic teenage girl-isms like "Whatever" and "As if" were made famous by this film.

I like her style and I like the aesthetic. But again, it's difficult to say how much I enjoyed the film because I really didn't latch onto any plot. And the characters, as iconic as they are, may just barely cross the line from two- to three-dimensional. (71/100)

Quote - When Cher admits she's a virgin, and says “You see how picky I am about my shoes and they only go on my feet.”

What to watch for - For me it would be Cher's outfits! And Alicia Silverstone is really one of the most beautiful women of her generation.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend Mean Girls!

Directed by Amy Heckerling

Distributed by Paramount Pictures