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| Clueless (1995) |
So, why is it? Why don't I have a similar guttural reaction to this movie than I do with other teen romance movies? I think it's probably because it clearly understands how high school students operate, or at least did back in the 90s. I hear the writer did a lot of research in Beverly Hills high schools, and it really shows. In other, less intelligent, high school movies, you always see the same basic tropes: you've got the different cliques that everyone falls into and never leaves ever, the popular girls walking around like they own the place, a romance that's ridiculously played up and far too melodramatic for how old the kids are. Those tropes are all in this movie as well, but what makes them work is that they're not the focus; they're just there. The kids interact and are generally pleasant with people outside their immediate cliques, the romances are given a big scale by the kids themselves, but the movie never makes it appear bigger than it actually is. Granted, you've still got the popular girls walking around like they own the place, but in any other movie these characters would be the one-dimensional, snobby villain characters manipulating everyone around them to make sure the protagonists never become popular and the social hierarchy can be maintained. I honestly cannot emphasise enough how much I hate how formulaic these high school dramas can be.
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| Breckin Meyer as Travis |
In this movie, the popular girls are actually given characters and depth and it means they're all the more relatable. That's something that other high-school dramas miss; since the rich girls are just there to be the rich girls, it stops you from connecting with them and it's just not fun to watch. Here, we see everything: their everyday lives, their inner monologues, and the fact that these popular girls mean well and aren't out to ruin someone's day for the sake of it, it's a lot more believable. I need to stop talking about this movie through the lens of other high-school dramas I hate and just talk about it as a movie. Anyway, something else that helps this movie out is its sense of humour. It's part of the thing that helps Cher remain so likeable throughout: the movie is completely self-aware of the kind of character she is. The movie never really tries to present itself as a hyper-realistic look at a normal high school, which is part of what makes what I was talking about in the above paragraph so bizarre. The research was done to get the lingo and behaviour of the different types of kids accurate, and to make the jokes about them land even harder. No high school in history has given a student an applause break for given an Oscar-style speech for having the most tardy days of any other kid in the class. And, while the movie is presented through the lens of this popular rich girl, it's surprisingly snarky about the kind of person she is, and those jokes at her expense, and the expense of people like her, is honestly the best part of the movie. The one visual gag of about half a dozen girls with bandages on their noses/chins due to their recent plastic surgeries is probably what encapsulates this movie for me: it's not trying to be super accurate, but just accurate enough so the sense of humour the movie's going for can work as well as it does.
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| Alicia Silverstone as Cher |
A lot of the jokes themselves are honestly really well-written. I had two laugh-out-loud moments in roughly the first minute, and I was hooked from that moment. Part of what makes this movie work is Alicia Silverstone's narration throughout, without which there would always be just that little something missing. I'm not sure what it is, but it really works. It could just be as simple as Alicia Silverstone making this role completely her own, and she absolutely does that. The last thing I saw her in was Batman & Robin, and holy f***, is this a marketed improvement. It seems weird to say, since it's a character that's been done a lot, but I really can't imagine anyone else in this role. The script obviously helps a lot, but Silverstone finds a way to add so much depth to this character while putting on the persona of the classic 'popular girl' character. The entire cast do really well in this movie, even if I wish Wallace Shawn got a little more to do. I, of course, need to mention Paul Rudd. He does such a great job at playing the 'regular guy' character, and his performances are just so completely natural that for a second you forget he's acting. He doesn't get a chance to be as comedic as I know he can be here, but he plays an excellent 'straight man'.
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| Paul Rudd as Josh |
Okay, so what isn't so great about this movie? Well, I do wish it was funnier. I know I just gushed about how funny some of this writing is, but notice I use the phrase 'some of this writing'. It's not that there are some jokes in here that fall completely flat, but there are big chunks of the movie that don't really have any comedy in them, mainly in the back half. When there need to be the more character-driven moments, they don't feel the need to put in any character-based jokes, and just a few in some of these sequences would really have gone a long way. I guess, because I like the movie's sense of humour so much, I wanted more of it, and I really didn't like the 'screaming in the car' sequence. There could have been some great lines in that sequence, but they stuck with screaming, and it was the one part of the movie where I was just not amused by any of it, even if the pay-off with the narration did make me laugh by the end, it wasn't worth it to get there. Also, I know I mentioned that the movie shies away from doing what other high school dramas do, which is why it was so disappointing when a few of those familiar elements cropped up here. The main one is the rival popular girl who gets, at most, three exchanges with Cher and all of them are bratty and unnecessary to the movie overall. I just don't get what the point of this character was, she does nothing for the story and nothing to drive the characters forward, even as the closest thing this movie has to a antagonist, so what's the point of her? The movie also didn't quite sell me on Cher & Lucas' relationship by the end. Silverstone and Rudd had such great chemistry as a brother/sister dynamic, even if they weren't technically brother and sister, that when it switches to a more romantic thing, it comes off as creepy, especially when you consider the high school/college student component to it. I understand the movie was based off a Jane Austen novel, but not everything translated well to the setting they chose.
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| Brittany Murphy as Tai |
In the end, Clueless (1995) is a fun time, and I would probably see it again, if not just for the fact that I'm surprised by how well this movie stacks up against other movies in its genre. It's not one of my favourites, but I liked it fine. I imagine I'll get to worse high school dramas in due time, and expect a scathing outburst when that happens. 7.5/10.
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