1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Clueless

#932- Clueless (1995)
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy
Directed by: Amy Heckerling


Plot Summary: Cher Horowitz is your typical spoiled rich girl living in a mansion in Beverly Hills. Cher and her best friend Dionne Davenport are among the popular crowd at their high school and attempt to make the school a better place according to their standards. From playing match maker, to negotiating with teachers to change grades, all of Cher's "helpfulness" is actually a display of her selfishness. Cher begins to see clearer, however, when she decides to "help" a new student Tai Frasier become popular. Unfortunately for Cher, Tai's popularity becomes so vast that she is completely overshadowed by the monster she has created. While Cher is also trying to match up as many people as possible, she is left completely clueless by the fact that she is falling in love with Josh Lucas, a college student and her ex-stepbrother.


Going back to what I was saying about high school movies, I really wanted to go forward with the genre in the '90s and see Clueless, which is considered one of the best representations of '90s high school culture. Now, I'm in no way saying that it is a 100% accurate depiction, but in the same way that movies like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink characterized high school in the '80s and Mean Girls characterized high school in the 21st century, Clueless gives the best aesthetic and thematic viewpoint of '90s teenagers (particularly the "Valley girl" crowd). However, I knew going into this that I definitely needed to check my brain at the door or else I was going to be too critical with what was going on. As much as I tried, the task proved to be VERY difficult, as many of the characters (particularly the female characters) still got on my nerves not because of their stereotypes, but rather because of their lack of development and relevance to the plot. So what's salvageable about a film like Clueless if I disliked majority of the characters?

Alicia Silverstone stars as the ditsy protagonist Cher Horowitz. If the title was any indicator, Cher is completely clueless but believes she is some sort of inspirational guru in the high school world. When the real world catches up to her, she understands how dumb she really is. If that sounds brief for her development, it's because it happens to her in various situations throughout the entire film (lather, rinse, repeat...if you will). Cher isn't a "bad" character and to Alicia Silverstone's credit, she did make me believe that she was genuinely stupid (and made me forget that this is the same actress that played Batgirl). Clueless feels like a character centered type of comedy, with her supporting cast filling in the more interesting subplots, with her playing the one to react off them and in that regard, she is a fine enough character.

If you think Cher is annoying, then her best friend Dionne Davenport, played Stacey Dash, will drive you INSANE. Take your pick between her odd fashion choices, her irritating jealousy streak, her nasally voice, or the fact that she seems more clueless than Cher (if that even seemed possible). I'm just thankful that she had less screen time than I thought she would. The female character given the most amount of depth is the new student Tai Frasier, played Brittany Murphy. Tai starts off very down to earth, but is taken under the wings of Cher and Dionne and is made the most popular girl in school. With her new popularity, her attitude becomes more snobby and the audience hopes she can snap out of it because we liked the more ideal "girl next door" kind of character that Tai started off as.

The most fun I had with any of the characters was with the male characters (whom I could latch onto easier for the obvious reasons). The first is Dionne's boyfriend Murray Duvall, played by Donald Faison. The way Murray reacts to things reminds me of one of my best friends and I'll admit I have a minor bias towards Faison since I love him so much as Turk on Scrubs. Breckin Meyer plays Travis Birkenstock, a slacker skater who catches the attention of Tai when she is introduced. He's a lot of fun and his interactions with Tai are pretty "cute," so I had a fun time following his character. Last, but certainly not least, we have Cher's main love interest and former stepbrother (yes, it's as weird as it sounds), Josh Lucas, played by Paul Rudd. I'm not sure if anyone realized the future star that Paul Rudd would be but his appearance in Clueless is fantastic. He uses his trademark sarcasm to give Josh a captivating sense of humor. His talks of psychology and theology are the types of college student stereotypes that are appreciated during any decade and Josh is easily my favorite character in the film.

Not only is Clueless a comedic spin on '90s culture, but would you also believe that it's adapted from Jane Austen's Emma? Yeah, go figure that a film celebrating some of the dumbest film characters in history is loosely based on one of the most celebrated works of one of the most popular British novelists of all time. The combination of the two styles gives the film a very unique vibe, and once things are put into perspective, you realize where the fun in the film is. This isn't a film that takes itself too seriously and gets all of its humor from how self-aware they are about the stupidity taking place on the screen. So with that, the film is harmless and dare I say "smart" on the comedic factor.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Since I had only seen this movie for the first time a week ago, I can honestly say my appreciation for Clueless is not based on '90s nostalgia. For a funny time capsule of the '90s, I recommend checking out this film at least once on a DVD rental.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review 

Clueless and movie images are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures