For the Clueless script, go here: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5342/Clueless.htm
http://www.pemberley.com/kip/emma/clueother.html
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5342/Clueless.htm
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/clueless.html
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH director Amy Heckerling takes another crack at teenage life over ten years later in this snappy comedy centering around Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and her observations of high school life in Beverly Hills. Yup, they still like to hang around malls and the like, but this film offers as much comedic entertainment as the aforementioned Heckerling's teen classic. Ok, so there's no plot here to really speak of but the film is immensely enjoyable and despite it's title, quite insightful. Terrific performances by everyone involved as well as a firm grasp on the trendy dialogue. Silverstone is particularly appealing in quite possibly her breakthrough role. Entertaining and thoroughly likeable, especially for teenagers.
Cast
Real life name -- Name of character in movie -- Corresponding character in Jane Austen's Emma.
Alicia Silverstone -- Cher Horowitz -- Emma Woodhouse
Popular high school student, 15 (almost 16), living in Beverley hills.
Stacey Dash -- Dionne -- Miss Taylor
Cher's best friend (they were both
named after early '70's singers "who now do infomercials").
[Corresponds to Miss Taylor / Mrs. Weston in the role of more experienced friend
to Emma/Cher.]
Brittany Murphy -- Tai -- Harriet Smith
An unhip (``clueless'') new student taken in hand by Cher.
Paul Rudd -- Josh -- Mr. Knightley
Cher's college-age step-brother.
Dan Hedaya -- Mel -- Mr. Woodhouse
Cher's rich but strict and doting father.
Justin Walker -- Christian -- Frank Churchill
Cher's crush that doesn't work out...
Wallace Shawn -- Mr. Hall -- Mr. Weston
Cher's high school debate teacher.
Twink Caplan -- Miss Geist -- Miss Taylor / Mrs. Weston
History teacher.
[Corresponds to Miss Taylor / Mrs. Weston in the role of the object of Cher's
successful attempt at matchmaking.]
Breckin Meyer -- Travis Birkenstock -- Robert Martin
Tai's preferred.
Donald Faison -- Murray -- [None]
Dionne's boyfriend.
Julie Brown -- Miss Stoeger -- [None]
Gym teacher.
Jeremy Sisto -- Elton -- Mr. Elton
Cher's choice for Tai.
Elisa Donovan -- Amber -- Mrs. Elton?
Cher's rival.
Parallels with Jane Austen's Emma
· The counterpart to the Mr. Weston / Miss Taylor match is a romance (which is promoted by Cher -- the Emma counterpart -- and Dionne) between the debate teacher and the school's guidance counselor. The movie ends with their wedding.
· The counterpart to Robert Martin is a skater/druggie boy with a good heart who is deemed socially unacceptable.
· The counterpart to Mr. Elton is actually named "Elton".
· The counterpart to the portrait of Harriet Smith is a photograph of Tai taken by Cher that winds up in Elton's locker.
· When Elton snubs Tai (the Harriet Smith counterpart) at a dance, Josh (the Mr. Knightley counterpart) steps in to save her from embarrassment.
· The carriage maneuvers are repeated with the teenagers' cars. Elton tries to attack the Emma-counterpart in a car after the dance.
· The counterparts of the Gypsies (who threaten Harriet Smith in Emma) are gang bullies at the local mall who threaten Tai; she is rescued by Christian (the Frank Churchill counterpart).
· Tai, the Harriet Smith counterpart, burns the contents of her box of Elton memorabilia and confides that she thinks the Mr. Knightley counterpart likes her.
· Miss Bates and the Box Hill incident become a maid from El Salvador who is rudely described by Cher, the Emma-counterpart, as speaking "Mexican" (though Cher is more emotionally affected when she fails her driving test).
· The secret of the Frank Churchill counterpart (that allows him to flirt with Emma without any chance of a serious involvment) turns out to be that he's gay (there is no real counterpart to Jane Fairfax).
Some reactions from Janeites
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 08:20:01 EST
From: Carolyn Nelson
"I finally rented Clueless this weekend and saw it for the first time. Not the typical movie experience, since I was scrutinizing every line for the parallels in Jane Austen, but fun! I think my biggest laugh-out-loud was when Cher was sitting in class realizing she ought to find a guy for herself. The sultry music rolls and Christian, sensual mouth, pompadour, and jacket slung over his shoulder, steps into the classroom bathed in a golden glow. I screamed, ``It's Frank!!!'' -- my son thought I was nuts."
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 1996 10:35:33 -0700
From: Karen P
"My favorite moment from Clueless is the scene in which Cher walks along Rodeo Drive in total misery at the mess she has created, but even in the depth of her despair catches sight of an outfit in a window and can't help wondering whether they have it in her size. It matches the moment in the book where Emma is kicking herself for having made Harriet love Mr. Elton, and then catches herself incorrigibly thinking of matching her instead with William Coxe, ``a pert young lawyer''."
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 07:41:58 -0700
From: Karen P
"In Emma, Mr. Knightley begins to sense consciously the real nature of his feelings for Emma when Frank Churchill shows up in Highbury, because he feels immediate jealousy. Emma notices that Mr. Knightley shows less than his usual generosity of spirit toward Frank, but she has no idea why. The movie Clueless displays a clear understanding of the moment when Mr. Knightley's view of Emma changes. In Clueless, the Mr. Knightley figure, Josh, watches as Cher [~Emma] comes downstairs, looking unusually beautiful, for her first date with Christian [~Frank Churchill]. The scene is accompanied by the music from the movie Gigi, from the scene in which Gaston suddenly realizes that Gigi is no longer a gawky girl but a beautiful young woman to whom he is much attracted."
Jordie Margison
#1201961
English 209E
Prof. Orange
Dec. 3, 1996
The film Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, is an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma and closely parallels the story in terms of characterization and action. Both of the main characters, Cher and Emma, are spoiled, high class snobs who, after undergoing a crisis brought on by their own pride and repression of their feelings, are transformed from callowness to mental and emotional maturity. However, the film also diverges from the original story in that it eliminates a key character and events that have an effect on Emma Woodhouse's psychological growth.
From the very beginning of both the novel and the movie, we can see the similarities between the two main characters. Emma Woodhouse is part of the rich, upscale society of a "large and populous village" in nineteenth century England, while Cher Horowitz lives in rich, upscale Beverly Hills, U.S.A. In Highbury, the Woodhouses are "first in consequence there. All looked up to them." (7) Cher and her father are also among the cultural elite; he is a litigation lawyer, a prestigious and lucrative occupation in one of the most affluent cities in the world. Cher is also one of the most popular girls at her school. The description of Emma that Austen gives is also a description of Cher. She is "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition." (5) However, we shall see that Emma and Cher are not as perfect as they may seem.
Because of their wealth, both Emma and Cher are spoiled, in control socially, and tend to think too highly of themselves. This is a result of the lack of a maternal figure in their lives, as well as their fathers' over-indulgence. Cher has everything a teenage girl could want: money, her own Jeep, a huge wardrobe, et cetera. Like a lot of girls, she spends a large amount of time and money at the mall; however, she spends hundreds and thousands of dollars on her clothes, not the kind of money a typical teenager would spend. Because her father is so busy with his court cases, he has little time to spend with her to give her guidance and discipline. An example of Cher's snobbishness can be seen in the scene where she and Dionne are explaining to Tai how to become more popular. Cher states that she has already started to elevate her social status "due to fact that you hang with Dionne and I." Cher may be taking pity on Tai, but she does so with an air of arrogance because she knows she is from a higher social class.
A similar state of affairs exists in Emma. Emma's mother had also died when she was very young, and her father and governess were too lenient and indulgent during her upbringing. Jane Austen states: "The real evils indeed of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself." (5) An example of her haughtiness is shown in her bragging that she is exceptionally adept at matching couples.
This snobbery leads Cher and Emma to, in their eyes, take pity on Tai and Harriet Smith, two girls of lower social status. Emma decides that Harriet's "soft blue eyes should not be wasted on the inferior society of Highbury and its connections", and that the friends Harriet has already made were "unworthy of her" and "causing her harm". Even though she has never met the Martin family, with whom Harriet had stayed, she condemns them as "coarse and unpolished, and very unfit to be the intimates of a girl who wanted only a little more knowledge to be quite perfect." Emma's arrogance causes her to assume that Harriet's acquaintances are not good enough for her, and that they are holding Harriet back from a better social life and status, even though Harriet is in the social class she should be in. So, Emma embarks on a mission to advance Harriet to a more desirable state. She "would take notice of her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her to good society; she would form her opinions and her manners." (23) Harriet is not clever and desires only "to be guided by any one she looked up to." (26) She is therefore perfect material for Emma to mold.
In Clueless, Cher sets out to improve Tai, the new girl at school and the counterpart to Harriet in the novel. Tai is obviously of a lower class than Cher; her clothes lack style, her hair is stringy and dyed a hideous red colour, she has a thick Bronx accent and she likes to smoke drugs. Cher decides to give her a complete make-over: a new hairstyle, new make-up, a new wardrobe. She forces Tai to exercise in order to improve her physique, and wants her to read "one non-school book a week" to improve her mind. When Josh states his disbelief, Cher proudly replies, "What, that I'm devoting myself so generously to someone else?" Josh returns, "No, that you found someone more clueless than you to worship you." Cher honestly believes that she is taking "that lost soul in there and making her well-dressed and popular. Her life will be better because of me." We can see here that, like Emma, Cher is not just helping Tai out of the goodness of her heart, but to feed her own ego and pride.
As part of their assimilation to higher status, there are rules to be followed when it comes to dating and marriage; they are not allowed to see certain males, and should only date the men Cher and Emma find appropriate. Tai and Harriet are so captivated by their mentors that they do not dissent, even though they are being coerced into ignoring their own hearts. On her first day at her new school, Tai meets and instantly likes Travis in the cafeteria. However, Travis is from the long-haired, drug-smoking, lower-class skateboarder group, which Cher says, "No respectable girl actually dates." Cher will not allow Tai to consort with a boy of lower social status, even though Tai and Travis would make a good couple because of their common interests. She automatically assumes that if Tai were to date Travis, Tai's social status at school would plummet.
At the expense of Tai dating the boy she prefers, Cher makes it her mission to find a proper boyfriend for Tai. Tai is shown the various social groups of the student body, of which a small group of boys "are the only acceptable ones." One of these boys is Elton, a rich, snobbish hypochondriac and the counterpart to Elton in the novel. Cher sets into motion a plan to bring him and Tai together; she lies to Tai when she tells her that Elton is interested in her. When Cher takes a picture of Tai, Elton asks for a copy. Cher and Tai automatically assume this is proof of Elton's interest in Tai, especially after he hangs it in his locker. Later, however, it is revealed that the only reason he wanted the picture was that Cher took it, not because it is a picture of Tai. Their assumption that Elton likes Tai is understandable; it is only natural to assume that the subject of the photograph would be the object of his desire.
The situation comes to a head during the party in the Valley. Cher originally balked at going to the party because it "took an hour to get there and they're usually broken up after the first hour" She changes her mind, however, when she learns that Elton will be there. Everything seems to go as Cher plans; when Tai is hit on the head with a shoe, Elton comes to her rescue, and pays attention to her until the end of the party. Cher congratulates herself: "I have to give myself snaps for doing good things for others." However, it is during the party that Elton first shows his true intentions; while playing a game of "suck and blow", he intentionally kisses Cher. And, when the party is over, Elton insists that Cher rides home with him, despite Cher's objections. When he tries to kiss her, she pushes him away and says that she thought he liked Tai. Elton, in disbelief, reveals that he likes Cher, not Tai, and that, "Tai and I don't make sense. You (Cher) and I make sense." Because he is of the higher class, he would not even consider dating Tai. When he haughtily exclaims, "Don't you know who my father is?", Cher ironically scowls, "Ugh, you are such a snob." She sees in Elton the same qualities that she herself possesses -- those of a rich, egotistical snob. This is the first time that something does not go as Cher plans, but it only fazes her temporarily. She decides to find someone else to replace Elton as boyfriend for Tai.
In Emma, while staying with from friends from school, Harriet begins to fall in love with Robert Martin, a young farmer. Martin poses a threat to Cher's improvement of Harriet, so she must quash any hopes Harriet may have of a relationship with him. Although Harriet is thoroughly impressed with Martin, Emma denounces every one of his favourable attributes. She wants "to see [Harriet] permanently well-connected -- and to that end it will be advisable to have as few odd acquaintance as may be." (31) Emma effectively dissuades Harriet from any connection to him by arguing that she is almost assuredly a gentleman's daughter, and that she "must support [her] claim to that station by everything in [her] power, or there will be who would take pleasure in degrading [her]." (30) According to Emma, Martin will eventually become "a completely gross, vulgar farmer -- totally inattentive to appearances, and thinking of nothing but profit and loss." (33) Emma's snobbishness is most evident here, in her prejudicial denunciation of the poor farmer.
With Robert Martin out of Harriet's affections, the next stage in Emma's plan is set, to match her to a man of acceptable social status -- Mr. Elton. Her first mistake occurs when she contrives to arouse Elton' interest in Harriet by drawing a portrait of her. This is the basis for the photograph scene in Clueless. It seems like an excellent stratagem, for Elton enthusiastically praises the picture and even takes it to London to be framed. To Emma, this seems to be proof of his warming affection for Harriet. She is "dead wrong, utterly unaware that the evidence may equally be evaluated in quite another way", (Wright, 141) -- that Elton is praising the portrait only because Emma drew it, not because it is a picture of Harriet.
Her second mistake occurs when she misinterprets Elton's charade as being for Harriet. He hands it to Emma, "his speech was more to Emma than to Harriet, which Emma could understand. There was a deep consciousness about him, and he found it easier to meet her eye than her friend." (70) We can see by his actions and manner that he intends the charade for Emma, but she mistakes them as bashfulness. Emma concludes that the charade is further proof that Elton is interested in Harriet; she relates each of the lines as references to Harriet. Harriet, being so naive, believes what she is told only because Emma tells her it is so, as is shown in the following passage:
"Whatever you say is always right, and therefore I suppose, and believe, and hope it might be so; but otherwise I could not have imagined it. It is so much beyond anything I deserve. Mr. Elton, who might marry any body! There cannot be two opinions about him. He is very superior. Only think of those sweet verses-- `To Miss ----.' Dear me, how clever! -- Could it really be meant for me?" (74)
Emma assures Harriet it is for her, "but Harriet is stupid, and Emma, as usual, the victim of her own delusion." (Wright, 142) The combination of the portrait, the charade, and Elton's special attention to Harriet all point to the conclusion that Elton is falling in love with Harriet, when in fact he is falling in love with Emma.
Emma even ignores John Knightley when he points out that Mr. Elton "seems to have a great deal of good-will towards you." (112) She replies:
"`I thank you; but you assure you that you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more;' and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are forever falling into; and not very well pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and I ignorant." (112)
This passage is "a marvelous piece of anticipatory dramatic irony" (Wright,144) and appropriately occurs on the fateful day of the Westons' party.
It is after the party that Emma is forced to ride home alone with Elton, and it is in the carriage that he professes his love for her, not Harriet. She replies that she will be glad to relate any messages to Harriet, for though the truth is now evident, it is too much for her to handle. Elton insists, however: "Everything that I have said or done, for many weeks past, has been with the sole view of marking my adoration of yourself. You cannot, really, seriously doubt it." (131) Elton's unexpected proposal to herself instead of Harriet brings Emma's first disenchantment. Her attempt to arrange the union of Elton and Harriet, she realizes, "was foolish, it was wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together. It was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought to be serious, a trick of what ought to be simple." She is "quite concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things no more." (137) Although it appears that Emma has made a giant leap in the direction of self-knowledge and maturity, she soon lapses; she decides that the only way to ease Harriet's pain and disappointment is to find another match for her. She is "convinced that she merely blundered -- an admission of intellectual, but no moral, error." (Shannon, 152) She is more angry at Elton for thinking that he could have any chance of being with her (because he is of a lower class) than for hurting and disappointing Harriet. The lesson, therefore, has not reached deeply enough.
The arrival of Frank Churchill sparks a great deal conversation in Highbury and Emma is instantly attracted to him, just as Cher instantly falls in love with Christian on his first day at school. In Emma, before he has even met Frank Churchill, Knightley declares that he is not impressed with him. His opinion is that
"if he turn out anything like it, he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing! What! at three-and-twenty to be the king of his company -- the great man -- the practiced politician, who is to read everybody's talents conduce to the display of his own superiority; to be dispensing flatteries and that he may make all appear like fools compared with himself! My dear Emma, your own good sense could not endure such a puppy when it came to that point." (150)
The arrival of Frank Churchill causes Knightley to sense consciously for the first time the real nature of his feelings for Emma because he feels immediate jealousy.
In Clueless, Josh (Knightley's counterpart) takes an instant dislike to Christian (Frank Churchill's counterpart) when he arrives to take Cher on their first date. Josh watches jealously as Cher comes down the stairs, looking more beautiful than usual. The scene is "accompanied by the music from Gigi, from the scene in which Gaston suddenly realizes that Gigi is no longer a gawky girl but a beautiful young woman to whom he is much attracted." (Karen P) Josh hints to Cher's father that her dress is too short, and that he should go to the party to keep an eye on her. Although he may not be consciously aware, it is obvious that he has some strong feelings for Cher -- and not those of a concerned step-brother.
At the party in Clueless, Cher has a great time dancing with Christian, but her "happiness is put on hold" when she sees Tai dancing by herself. She immediately rejoices, however, when she spies Josh dancing with her. This scene corresponds to the ball at the Crown Inn in Emma, when Elton deliberately snubs Harriet, and she is "the only young lady sitting down." (326) However, Emma is extremely happy and grateful to Knightley when she sees him dancing with Harriet, thus compensating for Elton's deliberate slight.
Cher and Christian begin spending more time with each other, and she soon realizes that she is falling in love with him. Indeed, they seem to be well-suited for each other, since they have at least one major common interest -- clothes. Finally, she decides she likes him so much that she is willing to give him her virginity. She invites him to her house to watch movies, and while lying down on the bed, tries to initiate sexual intercourse. However, much to Cher's confusion, he quickly gets up and leaves. She is later told that the reason Christian would not sleep with her is that he is homosexual, thus effectively destroying any hope Cher might have had of a relationship with him.
Similarly, Emma admits to herself that she is falling in love with Frank Churchill. She "entertains no doubt of her being in love (with Frank Churchill). Her ideas only varied as to how much... She had great pleasure in hearing Frank Churchill talked of; she was very often thinking of him, and quite impatient for a letter." (264) However, Emma, although she may be vain and blind, is "neither stupid nor unanalytical. She cannot be quite satisfied with her first appraisal of the situation." (Wright, 148) After much pondering, she realizes "the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refused him. Their affection was always to subside into friendship. Everything tender and charming was to make their parting; but they were still to part. When she became sensible of this, it struck her that she could not be very much in love." (264) Emma represses her true feelings of love and by setting out to match Harriet with Frank Churchill, she saves herself from the fear of the risks and commitment of a relationship. Instead of acknowledging her fear, she uses Harriet as a pawn to play through relationships with the men Emma likes. The idea of an attachment between Harriet and Frank Churchill is aided by his rescue of Harriet from the gypsies. The counterpart to this scene in Clueless occurs when Christian saves Tai from two hooligans in the mall who hold her over a railing. However, the possibility of Christian and Tai becoming a couple is not possible since he has already been revealed to be gay, so the film does not explore the possibility any further.
Instead, the scene is blown out of proportion at school the next day; Tai embellishes her story into a life-and-death situation, and her popularity soars. Cher's popularity, on the other hand, starts to plummet; Tai is too busy to go shopping with her, Dionne is seeking sexual advice from Tai, and nobody wants to hear what Cher wants to say. Her El Salvadoran maid becomes furious at her when Cher rudely describes her as speaking "Mexican", for which Josh scolds her.
Emma's popularity also nose-dives after the Box Hill incident. After cruelly insulting Miss Bates, Knightley appropriately gives her a strong and stern lecture, and at last Emma's feelings are deeply struck:
Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of his representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates! How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued... As she reflected more, she seemed but to feel it more. She never had been more depressed... Emma felt the tears running down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to check them, extraordinary as they were. (376)
Obviously, Knightley's remonstration of her actions causes Emma to change her wicked ways. Her tears "mark the turning point of Emma's development, signify an emotional as well as a mental commitment to a new mode of conduct and to the necessity of Mr. Knightley's approval. She at last recognizes that her intelligence, wealth, and social pre-eminence require kindness, rather than contempt, towards Miss Bates." (Shannon, 134) She awakens to the obligations of her position and henceforth, Emma acts "with the true tenderness of heart." (Wright, 155) She calls on Miss Bates and tries, though unsuccessfully, to make amends with Jane Fairfax.
In Clueless, Cher's life is also in turmoil; she completely fails her driver's test, and "for the first time in [her] life, [she] failed something [she] couldn't talk her way out of." This is comparable to when Emma is asked to play the piano and sing, but she is shown to be not as talented as Jane Fairfax. These failures show that Cher and Emma are not as perfect as they may seem; they are humiliating and humbling experiences for both characters.
When Cher arrives home after her test, she finds Tai in the back yard with Josh, hacky-sacking and flirting with each other. Tai is there to burn her box of Elton memorabilia, just as Harriet does in the novel. But she is also there to ask for Cher's assistance in matching her with Josh. With a hint of jealousy, Cher insults Tai by saying that she and Josh "don't mesh well." This could be comparable to the Box Hill incident, as mentioned above, where Emma insults Miss Bates. When Tai insults her in return, Cher ironically realizes she has "created a monster" -- a snob.
Like Tai in Clueless, Harriet confesses to Emma her hopes that Knightley is interested in her. This confession "explodes one of Emma's last misconceptions and impels her to recognize her own love for him." (Shannon, 136) The irony of this situation is that it was Emma herself who fostered Harriet's hope for Knightley.
A few minutes were sufficient for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress. She touched -- she admitted -- she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley, than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having some hope of return? It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself! (407)
In the self-examination that follows this realization, Emma admits her folly: "With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody's feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everyone's destiny. She was proved to be universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing -- for she had done mischief. She had brought evil on Harriet, on herself, and she too much feared, on Mr. Knightley." (412) She has finally absorbed the "meaning of responsibility -- that one must endure the consequences of one's acts; for now her own happiness is involved." (Shannon, 137) It is the commencement of full awareness, but she must live for a while in the fear that Knightley does love Harriet.
While walking along Rodeo Drive in total misery at the mess she has created, Cher does some soul-searching. She admits for the first time that she had made a mistake with Elton and Christian, but what really bothers her is that Josh was mad at her. She begins to remember the good times she had with Josh, and with a sudden burst of inspiration, she finally realizes that she is in love with him. In order to prove herself worthy of Josh's love, Cher undergoes a character transformation. She becomes a school `do-gooder' and organizes a food drive for victims of a local disaster, and it is here that she becomes friends with Travis. He impresses her with his desire to improve himself, with his participation in a twelve-step program as proof. When she attends his skateboarding competition, she remarks, "I didn't know he was so motivated." This complete change of opinion about Travis reflects Emma's new view of Robert Martin; she knows believes that Harriet is far better off with him, as opposed to her original opinion that any connection with Harriet would only degrade her social status.
Both Emma and Cher, however, have yet to complete their transformation by admitting their true feelings to Knightley and Josh. Fortunately, Cher knows that Tai is out of the picture once Tai and Travis are together at last. After the lawyer yells at Cher and Josh for flirting with each other and thus bungling up some court documents, Josh tries to comfort her and in doing so, confesses his love for her. Cher admits she loves him too, they kiss and everything is okay.
In Emma, after the announcement of Frank Churchill's engagement to Jane Fairfax, Knightley comes to Highbury to comfort Emma, whom he believes is still in love with Frank Churchill. Emma is still under the presumption that Knightley loves Harriet, but after these misconceptions are cleared up, they reveal how much they love each other. Both Knightley's and Josh's discourses are made up of broken clauses which betray the intense, private emotion they are feeling.
And so the book happily ends with the triple marriage of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, Harriet Smith and Robert Martin, and Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley. The end of the movie carries on the marriage motif with the wedding of Cher's teachers, Mr. Hall and Miss Geist, whom Cher matched together just as Emma matched Mr. Weston and Miss Taylor.
The major difference between the novel Emma and the movie Clueless is the absence of a key character in the film: Jane Fairfax. To Emma, Jane Fairfax represents "a rival in everything except birth and prospects (including wealth)." (Wright, 146) Emma instinctively dislikes her:
Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be thought herself; and though the accusation had been eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination in which her conscience could not quite acquit her. (166)
Jane Fairfax is also a rival for the affections of Frank Churchill, although Emma does not know it. If Jane Fairfax had not been included in the novel, Emma probably would have ended up with Frank Churchill; or else he would never have arrived in Highbury in the first place, since he was only there to keep an eye on Jane Fairfax. In Clueless, since there is no counterpart to Jane Fairfax for Christian to be engaged to, or to be a rival to Cher for Christian's affection, the film instead presents Christian as a homosexual, a testament to the 1990s. Amy Heckerling, the script writer and director of Clueless, probably excluded the character of Jane Fairfax (as well as Mrs. Elton, Mrs. Bates and Miss Bates) for the sake of complexity and time constraints.
With the exception of the exclusion of a few characters, Clueless is a faithful adaptation and update of Jane Austen's Emma. Most of the characters and much of the story in Emma are paralleled in the film, but the major similarity between the two is the main character's transition from a self-centered snob to a more tolerant and understanding young woman in touch with her true feelings. Emma and Clueless show "the advisability of openness and sincerity, the evil of slander and of hastening to derogatory conclusions, the cruelty of inflicting mental pain, the falseness of snobbery...[and] demonstrates that we cannot escape the consequences of our acts, that love is not an emotion to be toyed with, and that marriage is not a game." (Shannon, 146) Emma and Cher pay for their delusive self-confidence by painful humiliation; as their social status declines, their moral status increases. Because they have progressed from self-deception and vanity to perception and humility, Emma and Cher are now deserving and worthy of Knightley's and Josh's love.
Emma in Los Angeles
Clueless as a remake of the book and the city
Lesley Stern
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Cher Horovitz, handsome, clever and rich, had lived nearly sixteen years in LA with very little to distress or vex her. Just like Emma Woodhouse. Emma it's true is a little older -- nearly twenty one -- at the beginning of Jane Austen's novel than Cher is at the beginning of Amy Heckerling's movie, and Emma, so we are told, lived not in LA, but 'in the world'. These minor differences aside, there is something uncanny in the way that Cher reprises the role that Emma Woodhouse vacated in 1816. We are told that Cher does indeed have an ancient and glorious lineage, though not in the novelistic tradition: both she and her best friend Dionne are named 'after great singers of the past who now do infomercials'.
The movie begins with a spinning overhead shot of a group of girls having fun in a car -- in a white jeep which careers all over, as does the hand-held camera, as do the colors to initiate a montage of Cher and her friends having fun - shopping, driving, kidding about by the pool. The colors are garishly bright, every frame is crowded, energetic, and music pumps out. Before too long one of the girls in the opening emerges as ' heroine' both on the image track and in a narrating voice over: ' So OK, you're probably thinking, "Is this, like a Noxema commercial, or what?!" But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl. I mean I get up, I brush my teeth, and I pick out my school clothes.' Having picked out her faux-haute-couture school clothes with the aid of a mix-and-match computer programme, to the accompaniment of David Bowie's 'Fashion Girl', Cher's day begins. We are introduced to her father, a wealthy litigation lawyer, and are given a bumpy tour of the neighbourhood as we set off for school with her, driving past the Beverly Hills mansions, pick up her friend Dionne sporting an extravagantly exotic hat, and proceed to school, exchanging greetings and trading insults en route.
This account might seem to render the links between this teen movie set in LA and a novel of manners set in a nineteenth century English village tenuous. But let us backtrack to the first paragraph of the novel: 'Emma Woodhouse had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her' (27). A few pages on we find that 'the world' is in fact Highbury, a 'large and populous village almost amounting to a town' . It is this conflation between the world and the village that gives to Emma much of its distinctive flavor -- the parochialism derived from the characters' conception of the world and misconception of their place in it provides a source for satire, and simultaneously a stage for the enactment of a certain ethnographic impulse (focusing on the day to day lives of ordinary middle class people) that heralded a new modernity in the novel. And it is precisely this conflation (between world and village), along with the dual impulse to satirise and to elaborate a kind of fictional ethnography, that provides a key to Clueless and its central conceit: Los Angeles as a village, a village peopled by teenagers who think that Beverly Hills is the centre of the world..
From certain critical perspectives, we might note, Jane Austin's satire has been dubiously regarded. As Edward Said 1 has pointed out, her preoccupation with the local served not as fodder for satire, but rather to consolidate and advance the interests of Empire, of the West - by figuring a little patch of England as universal, as center, home, norm. Other critics, arguing from a feminist perspective, have drawn attention to the particularity of Austen's modernist impulse -- that her novels brought onto centre stage a world that had not previously been deemed suitable for literary treatment. She conjured up a new world of women and although she certainly subjected this world to satire she also delineated its quotidian contours meticulously and celebrated its denizens with wry affection. These different approaches to Austen are worth noting, not only because film critics tend to reproduce these approaches in their appraisals of Clueless , 2 but also because the genius of the film derives from its deployment of what we might call the Austenian dual impulse which indicates a careful and imaginative reading of the novelEmma.
The film opens with a declaration that these are 'Kids in America' but the image gives us a very particular kind of ' America' and particular kind of kids. Cher is truly a child of Hollywood, her mother having died in 'a fluke accident during a routine liposuction', and her conception of the Beverly Center as the center of the world serves as an index of Hollywood's imperialism -- its promulgation of a universalizing insularity, its relentless celebration of consumer culture and ready-to-go false consciousness. Cher thinks that Bosnia is in the Middle East and hazards a guess that Kuwait is in the Valley. The Valley itself, as far as these kids are concerned, is literally off the map -- they get lost going to a party there. Cher can't figure out why Lucy the maid, who comes from El Salvador, is angered when Cher assumes that Mexican is her language, and is duly rebuked by Josh, the Mr Knightly figure: 'You get upset if someone thinks you live below Sunset'.
Just as Jane Austen gave the novel a newly modernist inflection through stretching generic boundaries, so Amy Heckerling renovates old rhetorical devices in the service of new insights and pleasures. By reading Emma through the lens of a contemporary genre -- the teen movie -- and by rendering this teen world through a predominantly feminine consciousness, through conjuring up a girl's world, she exercises the sort of fictionally ethnographic exploration epitomised by Austen. Like Austen she asks -- what are the preoccupation's, language, courting and/or dating rituals, fashion, mores of a wealthy and privileged group of young people? And like Austen she transforms a documentary rendering of the quotidian into an imaginative and lively delight in fictionality.
Via a quite distinctive rhetorical modality a space is created in which we can both identify the unrelenting banality and callow foolishness of these characters and also delight in their engagement in witty wordplay and visual jokes, their hyperbolic sense of style, the strings of quotations and misquotations, the way in which they generate a new female topology and language: 'cruising the crimson wave' (having your period), 'hymenally challenged' (being a virgin), 'boinkfest' (lots of sex), 'full-on Monet' ('It's like a painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess'). In short, Clueless is characterised by an utterly engaging impulse -- an impulse at once utopian and comic -- to remake or refashion the world.
It is my contention that it is through certain remaking strategies, a consciousness of intertextuality if you like, that LA materializes as a particularly interesting configuration of spatial and cultural tropes. Just as Cher and her friends take particular delight in the make-over, so the film exercises a make-over on both the city and the book, throws the place itself into relief as a patterning of repetition and difference. In thus giving prominence to the remake as an explanatory device a question inevitably arises and the question is this: is it necessary to have read Emma in order to make sense of and truly enjoy Clueless ?
Clearly Clueless appeals to different audiences who bring to the movie different knowledges and expectations, but what makes it particularly fascinating is that it actually assumes, through the heterogeneity of its references and allusions, that quotidian knowledge is informed by and woven out of a diversity of cultural practices -- not distinguishable according to 'high' and 'low' markers. In this context Los Angeles is figured not simply as an imitation of and/or deviation from Highbury, but rather as an intertextual site spun by the movies, television series, MTV, and a variety of remakes and adaptations. Whilst it certainly isn't necessary to be familiar with Emma in order to enjoy Clueless , it is the spirit and operation of remaking that serves to generate and sustain the movie's intricate network of relations -- between different texts, different media, different cultural signs and temporalities.
Clueless is not strictly speaking a remake, but neither is it a straightforward adaptation where the aim is generally to reduce difference, to find the correlative of one medium (literature) in another (film). The fidelity that is so imperative here - insofar as there is a motivation to preserve a classic text -- is primarily conservative, even nostalgic. The modernity of Clueless derives from the generic choices that Heckerling makes. Most simply it is in the choice to turn an early nineteenth century comedy of manners into a late twentieth century teen movie. Clueless is remarkably faithful as a structural repetition, and inventively divergent in terms of incidentals. In fact it is the tension between these two that generates pleasure.
Emma is both a comedy of manners and a cautionary tale. It takes a simple moral precept which is dramatized through a largely episodic structure. It centers on a motherless young woman, wealthy, endowed with 'the power of having rather too much her own way and a disposition to think a little too well of herself' . Assuming the role of a kind of female Svengali she adopts and undertakes the transformation of Harriet, new to the village. Whilst orchestrating her protege's social elevation Emma arranges a series of romances for Harriet, but as the matchmaking goes repeatedly wrong our heroine is revealed as supremely clueless when it comes to sex and romance. Eventually she realizes her own snobbishness and blindness not only to others' desires but to her own. With self-revelation (and a touch of remorse) comes reformation, romantic fulfillment and a happy ending -- that is to say, marriage.
Mr Knightley is the old family friend who is also her brother-in-law and also the only person who dares criticize Emma. Eventually she realizes that he is the one she loves. But before this, she falls for Frank Churchill, who like Harriet, is an outsider. In her flirtation she fails to discern Frank's secret -- that he is in love with Jane Fairfax (though indeed this knowledge is largely withheld from the reader as well). This capacity for misreading the signs of attraction, sometimes willfully, sometimes ignorantly, leads Emma into lots of trouble. Dismissing the object of Harriet's affection, Mr Martin the farmer, she becomes convinced that Mr Elton (whom she deems more socially suitable) is enamoured of Harriet, failing to see what is obvious to the reader and some other characters -- that it is Emma he is in love with.
Cher is also motherless, and her father is a high powered, wealthy and far-from polite litigation lawyer. Mr Knightley becomes Josh, a student of environmental law and the son of one of her father's previous wives -- therefore a sort of step brother. The two outsiders are Tai (the Harriet figure) who arrives from the East with a broad Bronx accent and Christian (the Frank Churchill figure) who arrives from Chicago and is gay. Mr Elton, the snobbish vicar becomes the snobbish Jaguar-driving college boy Elton, and Mr Martin the farmer becomes the dope smoking, skate-boarding loady, Travis, who takes the bus to school. Jane Fairfax disappears from the film and there is a new figure -- Dionne, a rich black girl who is Cher's best friend.
Emma, who is wealthy enough not to have to work, spends most of her time socializing, refining her accomplishments painting, playing the piano, reading, composing and deciphering riddles, cultivating the art of conversation, doing occasional good deeds, thinking about sex and romance, talking obliquely but at great length about sex and romance, doing sex and romance via matchmaking and flirting.
Cher, who is wealthy (and smart) enough not have to try too hard at school, spends most of her time hanging out with her girlfriends, learning to drive, shopping, flaneusing in Rodeo Drive, dieting, exercising to Steel Buns, watching Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead on television, refining her dress sense, cultivating the art of the argot, eventually doing some good deeds, thinking about sex and romance, talking ostentatiously and at great length about sex and romance, doing sex and romance via matchmaking and flirting. In both book and movie the plot progresses episodically, configuring and reconfiguring character clusters via a series of social events. The topology of Highbury or LA environs are mapped out in the same movement by which social relations are charted -- through detailed descriptions of travel and modes of communication.
In the movie updating the modernization is manifested in a process of Los Angelisation, and teenification. Los Angeles and the teenage phenomenon are connected through the motif of modernity, of updating, of contemporaneity. Configured by the generic imperatives of a teen movie LA comes itself to signify the ' modern', the contemporary, the new, the stylish, the fashionable. Simultaneously, however, the consciousness of modernity is satirized, and it is satirized precisely by invoking the spurious sense of originality that provides a basis for updating, witness Cher's notion of the classic -- ' Isn't my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972' The kind of image of LA that is summonsed up here is framed by the postmodern, but Clueless gives us a very different postmodern LA than that evoked by a film like Blade Runner where the family romance, photography and memory are in the service of a metaphysical thematic dedicated to loss and nostalgia.
The concept of teenager is of course itself very modern and did not exist in Austen's time, and moreover the teen movie is a genre often concerned with what is hip and of the moment. By setting the film in Beverly Hills and by concentrating on a group who are obsessed with style, with fashion, with being up to date, who talk in an arcane and localized argot, Heckerling undertakes a potentially hazardous project, runs the risk of creating a film that is precariously of the moment. But Clueless actually performs a complex manoeuvre whereby the cliché of LA as postmodern city supreme, city without memory, all surface pastiche, a giant shopping mall, is simultaneously invoked and undercut.
The teen movie might be very modern (coming into prominence in the eighties) but it has a pre-history, both in the movies and in other forms such as the novel. Clueless not only remakes and comments on Emma but remakes the teen movies that precede it and also the twentieth century apparatus of modernity that provides the preconditions of the genre; the film is alert to and permeated by the myriad influences which shape the very experience and notion of contemporaneity.
Clueless belongs to a fine lineage, it belongs not only to a group of films that feature girls coming of age, but more specifically to a group of such films set in LA, all of which involve the conceit of a bimbo or ditz with a credit card who turns out to be a sassy, smart-talking, inventive young woman who takes control of her destiny through the conquering of space and time. The conquering of time entails a utopian rather than nostalgic and dystopic vision, and the conquering of space (and this is where LA becomes a crucial location) involves taking control of the freeways and of that cinematically revered masculine object -- the motor car.
Cher and Dionne do not love their cars in the way that Paul Newman in Hud say, loved his pink cadillac; they love driving and the control that driving promises. The big joke here is that in fact they can't drive, they are learning, and none too successfully, but to great comic effect. Interestingly, in the transforming of Emma into Clueless, the conversion of carriages into cars and the replacement of endless walking by continuous driving both indicates a very neat series of substitutions and also suggests that the process of updating does more than simply find contemporary signifiers for old fashioned modes of communication. The process actually effects certain transformations so that we get a sense of what it's like to be young and female today. Where Clueless differs from the boys-and-cars-and-sex genre of movies is that it links the car not primarily with sex but with fashion. There is no simple inversion here - for these girls the car is not a substitute for a man, but rather a means of autonomy and a link in the great chain of fashion. For many women I've talked to about this movie one of the most exhilarating and hilarious moments is Cher driving in platforms - it is an emblematic and enduring moment in the feminisation of the movie image of Los Angeles.
Much of the humour of Clueless is played out on and around fashion. But the humour is not at the expense of style. Certainly the moral precept of Emma is narratively played out -- matchmaking as the central plotting device is also a mechanism for the moral improvement of the heroine. Cher learns that the Beverly Center is not the center of the world, and that there are people less fortunate than herself, but she does not give up on style. And although she is made fun of there is a degree to which she is in on the joke.
On one level Cher's adoption and make-over of Tai faithfully follows Emma's adoption and make-over of Harriet, but in terms of Hollywood the model is more complicated. The Svengali story is of course not exclusive to Hollywood but it has prospered here: Gigi, My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman. Almost by definition the Svengali figure is male -- and this is because the narrative is concerned with feminisation, with educating a woman to take up her proper womanly place. Cher Horovitz is the first woman I can think of who occupies this position. Cher gets her come-uppance much more severely than Professor Henry Higgins or the slimy Gaston or the horrible Richard Gere (who all emerge triumphant in their projects), but it's not at the expense of women, nor at the expense of fashion. Clueless is every bit as stylish as the other films. The emphasis on fashion certainly comes from Hollywood, but the feminist twist comes from Jane Austen.
It is true as Jocelyn Harris writes, ' In an age when the visual is said to have superceded the verbal, the movie Clueless provides extraordinary pleasures to people who still read books,' 3 but it is also true that Clueless is a movie about movies, about the place where movies and dreams are manufactured, and about what it is like to be young and female in today's multi-media world.
Lesley Stern is a senior lecturer in the School of Theatre and Film Studies, UNSW. She is the author of The Scorsese Connection (British Film Institute and Indiana University Press, 1995). This is an edited version of a paper presented at the "Los Angeles and the Cinema" Conference, UCLA, 2-3 May, 1997. The Cutting Edge, a short story by Lesley Stern is also online.
References
1. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Random House, 1993).
2. See, for instance, Amanda Lipman's review of Clueless, Sight and Sound, vol. 5, No. 10, October 1995, p. 46.
3. Jocelyn Harris, a Review of three Austen adaptations, Eighteenth Century Fiction, vol. 8, No. 3, April 1996, p. 430.
In Australian Humanities Review, see also Kerryn Goldsworthy's Austen and Authenticity
TO LIVE AND BUY IN L.A.
Consuming is a matter of style for the teens in Clueless
In moments of stress, Alicia Silverstone has the adorable and quite marketable habit of squinting--as if trying to read a TelePrompTer or possibly hatch a thought. This makes the 18-year-old actress the ideal vessel for Clueless, an enjoyable movie that says a lot about the needs of Americans, and not just teens, in the mid-'90s. The tale has Cher (Silverstone), a popular high-schooler in Beverly Hills, toiling as a matchmaker, as her father's confidant, as a makeover adviser to a clumsy friend (Brittany Murphy) and as her stepbrother's nemesis. All this echoes the plot of a certain Jane Austen novel. But the touchstone of Clueless is less Emma than Hammacher Schlemmer. The movie is about conspicuous consumption: wanting, having and wearing, in style. And in L.A.
Clueless has another ancestor in Heathers, the most influential unseen film of the past 10 years. Heathers made the mistake of treating the peer success of blond teenage girls satirically. Amy Heckerling, the writer-director of Clueless, is cannier than that. An able architect of loosey-goosey comedy (she directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the Look Who's Talking films), Heckerling wants the viewer to like these girls even as she pokes fun at them. The toughest intellectual challenge for Cher and her friends may be deciphering the Thomas Guide map of Los Angeles streets, but they have an ease and a good nature that ultimately, if at times strenuously, endear.
Paying to see Clueless is not really mandatory. You can learn most of the jokes by surfing the TV and newspaper reviews and get a hint of Silverstone's blithe luster by watching MTV's relentless promotions. Taking this Cliffs Notes route, moreover, saves you from sitting through several slow stretches of plot sludge. During these scenes, Clueless has the feel of some mild sitcom purring in a far corner of the living room. You don't watch it so much as notice it, from time to time, in a genial miasma.
As if that matters. No one lately has said a good movie must also be a good film. This one is best taken as a thing of bits and pieces, attitude and gestures. It's like a restaurant where you go for the food and go back for the atmosphere. Or for the waitress. Silverstone is a giddy delight, a beguiling performer and an icon for her generation. Catch Clueless quickly, though: in the MTV era, a generation lasts about a nanosecond.
As appealing as Alicia Silverstone is (and she possesses that ethereal "star quality" which is sadly lacking in many of today's up-and-coming performers), her presence can't quite elevate this breezy comedy to the level of a modern classic. A contemporary reworking of Jane Austen's Emma that is part pop satire and part teen comedy, Clueless shows its unevenness early, overcomes some flaws through vivacity and likability, then runs out of steam during the second half. Better than, but still similar in tone to The Brady Bunch Movie, this film contains its share of delightful scenes, but it's debatable whether there are enough to justify a feature-length running time. Charm this thin starts to wear off before the running length has expired.
Silverstone (The Crush) leads the cast as ultra-Valley girl Cher -- a 16-year old with a very rich daddy (Dan Hedaya, best known as Carla's ex on Cheers) who uses a computer to assist with her wardrobe selection and would rather argue with her teachers for better grades than do assignments to earn them. Cher loves to talk, as is amply demonstrated by a series of endless voice-overs that occur throughout the film. Her best friend, Dionne (Stacey Dash), is equally as superficial, so it's not hard to understand why the two get along so well. Clueless looks at a number of Cher's "escapades": her attempts to turn a sweet-but-uncool schoolmate (Brittany Murphy) into the epitome of popularity, her matchmaking between two teachers (Twink Kaplan and respected character actor Wallace Shawn), and her search for true love. Essentially, nothing much happens -- the film is an excuse to plunge into the life of a caricature that Silverstone makes more appealing than one might reasonably expect.
Much of the humor is sophomoric, although there are more than a few moments of inventive comedy (such as an unexpected ride on the freeway). Writer/director Amy Heckerling creates a tone so light that it borders on vapid. Despite the apparent mindlessness of certain key characters, some of the dialogue is clever, and there are a few memorable lines. Ren and Stimpy are described as "way existential". In the spirit of political correctness, female virgins are called "hymenally challenged". And Cher likens her hopeless quest for a high school boyfriend to "searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie."
Overall, though, that's all Clueless amounts to: a group of modestly amusing, satirical vignettes tied together by one-liners. The picture doesn't offer any big laughs, and character identification is spotty -- Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a top-level teen picture, worked in large part because the protagonists seemed real. In that case, Cameron Crowe's script aimed for fun and feeling. Here, the latter is occasionally sacrificed for the former, and the result leaves a mixed impression. In part because the film is so inoffensive (no sex, nudity, or violence), it lacks a discernable edge. Clueless is the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy: certainly not unpleasant, but not especially satisfying despite the sweet taste.
© 1995 James Berardinelli
I had just returned to the United States after a four-year stay overseas when I first saw Clueless, and this light, brilliant comedy came across to me as funny and rather alien. Later on, I came to revere it as some kind of masterpiece; I remembered it as being this charming laughfest and, because I had reentered the American public school system, was familiar with the Valley Girl dialect that had been prominently featured in the film and had remained in the teenage culture. Today, much of my school’s ninth grade student population is comprised of either dumb-blonde or smart-and-snooty valley girls. I have also recently rewatched the Amy Heckerling movie to find, to my dismay, that it is not a masterpiece but that it comes mighty close, and that, as a reflection of today’s popular teen culture, it still works marvelously.
This 1995 summer flick is, as far as I’m concerned, a ‘90s classic. Loosely based on Jane Austen’s 19th-century classic, Emma, Clueless updates the still-vital work of the writer without ever being pretentious about it. Austen’s witty observations of human mating rituals lend themselves nicely to the film’s high school milieu. Gloriously brought to life by Alicia Silverstone, clueless matchmaker Emma Woodhouse has become Cher Horowitz, a sophomore at the top rungs of her Beverly Hills high school social ladder. With the help of her posh friend Dionne (Stacey Dash), she tries to hook-up everyone from her teachers (Wallace Shawn and Twink Caplan) to Tai (Brittany Murphy), the ugly duckling newcomer she has taken under her wing. Writer-director Heckerling throws in a bunch of hilarious, quotable one-liners, blending aristocratic talk with adolescent slang. Their use of upper-class vocabulary doesn’t make them sound more intelligent, but these characters are smarter than they let on. “Searching for a boy in high school is like searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie,” Cher sighs. And there’s a certain thrill in watching her innocently putting the egotistical deep-thinker to shame with her knowledge of Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, even if you are a deep-thinker.
Clueless is filmed in sunny colors reminiscent of Noxzema commercials, and the entire cast, especially Silverstone and the never-mentioned Paul Rudd, lend the movie their good performances and alluring faces. It’s Pillow Talk, only more clever. The social classes of high school are perfectly and humorously illustrated: the violent gangs, the stuck-up philosophers, and the potheads are all represented in the margins, while the spotlight shines on the pretty popular people. High school fashion (the film’s funny costumes are by Mona May) has remained relatively unchanged since the movie was released- boys are still flaunting their boxers with their casual hip-hop attire, and girls are still wearing their outrageously revealing, come-hither skirts. Clueless is a high school satire, but its tone is not condescending or bitter, and that’s why it feels fresh in an age where all the popcorn movies have turned sour and cynical. American teenagers spent $150 billion dollars collectively last year, and the media portrays us as machines being fed money by guilty, inattentive parents. Cher and her friends delight in being habitual consumers, but Heckerling finds the heart beyond the materialism, and the innocence beyond all the teenage sex and drugs.
Cher is a professed virgin and, bizarrely enough, she finds her match in her Nietzsche-reading, Radiohead-listening ex-stepbrother Josh (Rudd) in a sequence self-mockingly put to a cover of “All By Myself,” the Eric Carmen power ballad. The scene of their first kiss is filled with an innocent hesitance that is far sexier than anything in the dirty teen movies of today, or any of the Britney Spears videos. It’s naïveté without stupidity, and sexiness without menace. Of course, both Cher and Josh are young and it’s easy to imagine them falling out of love, but movies like these exist only within the boundaries of their durations; everything after the ending is “happily ever after.” Clueless is supreme fluff, even when its jokes are lame; it satirizes its target audience, who can laugh at themselves without feeling self-hatred. Like teenagers, the characters realize the humor in adolescence, and choose to revel in it.
* * *
Today, it has become so easy to lampoon youth, maybe too easy. Teenagers may have tortured souls, but most of us can take a joke; all of us know what adults say about us, and we can laugh because it’s all usually true and funny. Fans of ‘Nsync know that everyone who’s not in their camp is mocking their tastes. Valley girls and jocks know they’re the butt of jokes, and most of them just seem to be parodying themselves. Josie and the Pussycats doesn’t get the joke. Spun off from the Archie Comics girl band, the movie takes it upon itself to teach kids a thing or two about how big corporations are marketing just about everything to them, a fact we all know quite well. Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, who wrote and directed it, have a stiff style and a self-righteous script, a would-be gem with all the spunk and sense of humor sucked out.
The movie opens like an episode of MTV’s boy-band-spoofing series “2Ge+her.” The hot group DuJour perform a forgettable pop tune (laden with anal sex inferences) to a crowd of screaming, crying fans before glamorously disappearing into their private plane, much like the Backstreet Boys did in their cheesy “I Want It That Way.” When they are killed in a crash, Alan Cumming must go looking for a new band to turn into the next big thing. Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, and Tara Reid play Josie, Val, and Mel, the wide-eyed Pussycats, your everyday homegrown rock band. They play at bowling alleys, are the laughing stock of the popular girls, and are looking for a record deal. Cumming plucks them out of the murky streets of New York, and swiftly packages them and throws them onto a towering Times Square billboard before they have even recorded a note. Little do they know that the record company is using them to brainwash the children of America with subliminal messages controlling just about everything listeners purchase.
Josie and the Pussycats is not a waste; there is definitely truth in its half-hearted satire, and pop culture is stared at with a judgmental eye. Josie is shoved into the spotlight because she is the lead vocalist and guitarist, and her fellow band members feel betrayed, a jab at attention-stealing divas like Beyoncé Knowles of Destiny’s Child. Freethinking music lovers are kidnapped by the record companies and disappear off the face of the planet. I visited Times Square just about a week ago and the luminous buildings and rampant commercialism gave me the feeling of falling; the film treats it like the source of all the world’s evils and it is reimagined as dark and apocalyptic. MTV, a major participant in the film’s making, is depicted as one of the government’s accomplices in the mission to conquer young people’s minds. Carson Daly- MTV’s most popular VJ, Tara Reid’s real-life fiancée, and today’s Dick Clark- punctures his cool, boy-next-door persona when he attempts to do away with Mel.
The film points the finger at the flood of advertising teenagers are exposed to everyday and, in the film’s most effective joke, it bombards the screen with Target, Revlon, MacDonald’s, Starbucks, Evian, MTV, and Sega product placements. The liberal use of logos gives the film a sense of saturation, and Matthew Libatique brings his unique eye to the teen movie, using fluorescent instead of natural lighting for the scenes set in corporate New York. The occasional rock musical numbers feature some pretty catchy girl-power pop-punk reminiscent of the Go-Go’s and are edited and filmed with a hectic jerkiness that makes the girls look cool. The vocal and instrumental performances establish something important that is often forgotten about teen pop music- no matter how overly stylized and bland the teeny-boppers come across, there is usually some obscured talent behind all the glitter. The film resembles a McG video, where the colors all bleed into one another; it’s pretty unattractive, but it gives the film some of the rebel verve the script, the direction, and the cast lack.
By being a film targeted at teenagers, Josie and the Pussycats hopes to wise up its audience. Unfortunately, it seems determined to repel the viewers, dehumanizing all its adolescent characters and playing childless blame games. There is some honestly interesting material in the first hour, and then everything gets dull and didactic. The film refuses to realize that even kids have the ability to think for themselves. All the responsibility for pubescent stupidity has been shifted from the children to the marketers and the moguls. The movie is not the wake-up call it intends to be; it panders to both the teenagers who listen to Ani DiFranco and Phish, and those who listen to Limp Bizkit and Britney Spears. It’s the most insulting movie I’ve seen in a while because it doesn’t respect its audience- the “conformists” or the “non-conformists.” The moguls themselves are revealed as wounded souls who were bullied when they were young; Elfont and Kaplan go for every teen cliché in the book. There’s not even a shred of emotion to be found in this mess; the chemistry between the three leading ladies is, sadly, non-existent, despite the obvious efforts, and there’s a dumb romantic subplot that has even less spark than I’m accustomed to expecting from a teen movie. Josie and the Pussycats hopes to be an unconventional flick with a message; what’s disappointing is not that it’s a teen pop movie, but that it ends up being as manufactured as every other teen pop product out there today, and it’s not even catchy.
