THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
I think the best thing about high school is that they help people find the best versions of themselves, and Clueless is one of those odd examples that defend the case.
PLOT
Based on Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma, the film takes place in 1990s Beverly Hills and follows Cher Horowitz, a popular school girl who lives with her widowed and wealthy father Mel (Dan Hedaya). As she attends Bronson Alcott High School, her closest friend is Dionne Davenport, who has an on and off relationship with Murray Duvall. At home, Cher has a playful banter with her ex-stepbrother Josh who helps Mel out when not attending college. When she gets a bad grade in one of her classes, she ends up playing matchmaker between both teachers Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Ms. Geist (Twink Caplan), orchestrating their romance which relaxes their grading standards, benefitting her chances to renegotiate her grades. When seeing their newfound happiness, she realizes the joy of good deeds. She continues this act by adopting a new girl named Tai Frasier into her circle. She and Dionne give her a makeover, which boosts her confidence. She does try to set her up with a popular boy named Elton (Jeremy Sisto), but neither are really attracted to each other, which leads to an un-lengthy relationship between them. Cher sticks herself out there when pursuing another boy named Christian (Justin Walker), but it backfires when she discovers that he is gay. She remains friends with him however when they share a similar taste in art and fashion. Surprisingly, her life takes an unexpected turn when Tai's newfound popularity strains their relationship. The personal frustration distracts her so badly that she fails a driving test. Their relationship becomes further strained when Tai confesses to have a crush on Josh, which she quickly disapproves. Feeling clueless about herself, she gains the epiphany that she has been in love with Josh this whole time. Still feeling vulnerable, she reaches out to her father for advice as she feels shallow and selfish. He cheers her up by reminding her that she still has a big heart like her mother. This cheers up so much that she patches things with Tai, approving of her new boyfriend, a clumsy slacker named Travis (Breckinridge Meyer) who she first crushed on. She continues her act of good deeds by getting involved with Ms Geist's donation drive of a beach disaster, which gets Josh's attention. This would lead to them spending more time together, resulting in them to confess their intimate feelings for one another and reciprocating with a kiss. The film ends with Cher and her friends attending the wedding of Mr. Hall and Ms. Geist, catching the wedding bouquet during the event.
THOUGHTS
I never rushed myself to watch that much high school movies that were released before my tenure because I wanted to avoid making expectations that wouldn't be made for my experience. So long after I graduated, I started to wonder how different teens had it before I was born. Because I never read Emma, I had no idea what I was in for. Afterwards, I find myself surprised on how much I enjoyed it. 13 years after making a classic out of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Director Amy Heckerling keeps the ball rolling by showing another era that felt carefree in a good way. I was laughing more than I would expect when seeing these teenage characters go through such shenanigans because it feels all too real, whether or not you've been in their shoes. When you're not laughing, you start catching on to how life is going to be full of challenges, especially in teen years, and there will be times where you'll feel lost in the world around you. But as long as you know you can still conquer whichever challenges and remember how big the world is, you can find yourself again. In the high heels of Cher, whose played to perfection by Alicia Silverstone, she is indeed the most complicated protagonist this genre could ask for. She easily lives up to the name of this movie because she is very unaware of how absurd she can be. Of course we can all agree that she was ahead of the times when dressing in style, but we come around liking her as we see how big of a heart she has. She loves her father dearly and every time she chose to help others, whatever the reason, she actually enjoyed it. She is someone who was in a shell she didn't know she can get out of and when she does, she saw how helping others is more satisfying than yourself. Things took an unexpected turn when she adopted Tai because she brought out the worst on accident. Seeing that temporal backfire shows that you can only help them and not change them. Her romance with Josh is definitely the most unexpected, but it seems that these two came around due to how opposites attract. Paul Rudd proved the character to be that by coming off more compassionate than her. With her mind in the right place as her heart, it would be nice knowing that she had a future with him in her adult life. Cher may steal every scene with every outfit she wears, but she and Josh are not the only characters to leave a good impression. Stacey Dash was a delight whenever she was onscreen for playing Dionne as blunt as possible. She connects so well with Cher not just off of fashion, but for understanding each other's struggles. She chooses to be on and off with someone hilariously obnoxious like Murray, whose well played by Donald Faison, because she seems to look past that half the time. Nobody said love is perfect and their relationship is no exception. Last but not least, it is challenging to not love Tai when Brittany Murphy played her oh so sweet. Although she got briefly carried away once she started fitting in, we still love her as she prefers to be herself more than anything else, which is something I admire. This movie was a delight, but even I can admit that there were more questionable moments than expected. Like first off, it does look cool when Cher relies on a computer to pick her outfit for the day, but what is the difference between 'Auto Dress' and 'Dress Me'? If you're gonna show off something so advanced, you might as well explain how it works. It's even cool on how she can talk her way out of an assignment, but it's pretty ridiculous that her classmate Amber wasn't even trying and Mr Hall went along with it. I've said before that I despise continuity errors and this one has the worst one possible: Cher writes on the letter 'But thy eternal summer leuse has all too short a date, but thy eternal fade', but Dionne reads 'shall not fade'. They had to have had multiple takes and somehow, they pick the one where Dionne reads it wrong. If you want me top that off, how about how no liquid is shown when Travis accidentally spills some on Cher's shoes? How do you not have liquid for a scene like this? It's not like you can run out of that shit, it's everywhere. That was just weirder than Cher being able to use a public telephone without even calling collect or paying for time. She got her purse stolen by a mugger beforehand, so you can't say she had coins on her. Tai almost falling at the mall does successfully advance the plot, but my god it is weird that two guys were near the scene and did nothing. And where did all the traffic go during Cher’s driving test? There was like a big line behind her at first, but then only one car passes by her when she turns to pull over. They should’ve hired extras to drive by for the scene. I want to respect Mel's job as a lawyer, but how does he not know that people can get tickets without a license. New laws get made every year and his job does make him busy, but even he should know such a basic law related to driving. It's a nice detail when the updated report card shows Cher's new grades written over her old ones, but why was the geometry teacher comment 'nice shapes'? Somebody please let me know if it just means her drawing geometric shapes or he's commenting on something inappropriate. If there is anything that doesn't make sense when it comes to Cher, it's using polaroids when picking out clothes. You already showed off the computer picking out outfits, so I don't see anything to gain in doing that. I honestly thought it does get cute when Tai meets Travis in lunch, but I am in shock there wasn't a line as they could've held up the cafeteria. They're in a high school for crying out loud. If I'm gonna say why I don't like Elton at all, it's gonna be the fact that he's casual creep. Before he even forces himself onto Cher, he creeps me out big time when asking her for a picture of Tai for himself. He is throwing mixed signals on who he wants if he's keeping a photo of one girl just to get to another. If he liked Cher the whole time, he could've asked for the group pic she was in. Other than that, I can still enjoy it for what it is. Lastly, I know tension is needed for Josh and Cher to confess their love, but Mel’s employee is playing with fire for calling Cher an idiot because Mel could’ve heard if he was there or she could’ve told her dad if not Josh. In short, Clueless is a standout of high school comedies for being naturally funny and showing a heart we'd never expect to see. If you dig high school comedies, quit wasting time and see this soon as possible.
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