by Amy Heckerling, 1995.
Starring: Twink Caplan, Stacey Dash, Dan Hedaya, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Wallace Shawn, Alicia Silverstone, and Justin Walker.
Rating: 8/10, 6.5/10.
For some reason, I can’t think of any way to start my review of Clueless, the brilliant-but-very-very-light comedy about high school students in Southern California. Really, though, I don’t know what the point of writing a review of it is—by now everyone who wants to see it has probably seen it, and I’m not going to convince any of the doofuses who don’t want to see it.
I have the feeling that it’s an ingenious satire, though I really don’t know what it’s satirising. Depending on your viewpoint, you might think it’s either celebrating or ruthlessly mocking the lifestyles of the main characters, but that’s not it at all. It’s more sort of saying—these vapid-seeming high school princesses, this dorky school-obsessed nerd boy, this bitter lawyer, these disillusioned and lonely teachers, there’s worth in all of them, if you can look past your first impressions.
But here I go yapping along about sappy messages, when really what Clueless is is absolutely hysterical. The first line is "OK, so you’re probably like, what is this, a Noxzema commercial?" We learn that our heroine, Cher (Silverstone) and her best friend Dionne (Dash) were both named after "great singers of the past who now do infomercials." Cher’s mother died from complications following a routine liposuction. Etc. And there are some very subtle things, too—like how when we’re first introduced to the hyper-masculine popular boy population of the high school, what do we hear on the soundtrack but a cover of David Bowie’s glam-rock anthem, "All The Young Dudes," which includes the line "Now Jimmy’s looking sweet cos he dresses like a queen." Etc.
I dunno. See the movie if you’re not a colossal dorkface, and if you are, well then you probably wouldn’t let yourself enjoy it, anyway.