Clueless (1995)

There was a time in my teenage when i used to love this genre; however, that has completely changed now. I had a lot of fun watching this movie, Alicia Silverstone acting was adorable. The story and plot was beautiful and unique in some way. This genre is most of the very predictable where an unpopular girl likes a popular guy or vice versa, but this story was much different then what i expected.

The 1990s were certainly an interesting cultural moment. Hip-Hop and Grunge were some of the most dominant cultural forces in the world, Micheal Jackson had finished his race transition, and the OJ Simpson trial was raging on. I suppose that other, more important sociopolitical things were happening at the time, but all I care about is western pop culture and so should you.At the first glance, Clueless can seem like a double parody of both teen culture at the time and Jane Austen (who I hold out wrote what were effectively the original Hallmark movies). And it mostly is just that. Yet at the same time Clueless did something very interesting. While teen movies leading up the this relied on the trope of various cliques (Jocks, Nerds, Burnouts, Goths, Cheerleaders, etc...), Clueless both parodied and subverted those archetypes by humanizing them.While there were certainly scenes and jokes that played on those stereotypes (Travis asking if his kids would view Nine Inch Nails in the same way that he views the Rolling Stones, Murrays speech on the non-misogynistic use of "woman"), Clueless managed to make these stereotypes feel less like the two-dimensional cutouts of films like Can't Buy Me Love and more like the actual people they were based upon.Another thing I really like about this movie is how crystal clear and sharp it all seems: from the camerawork to the dialogue, the movie has a clean, witty, and polished feel that actually really adds to the feel

Ready for a shock? Pinnacle teen-comedy Clueless is over 20 years old. Before Silverstone was a retired-actress-turned-naturist; before Dash was just another Fox News pundit; and when Rudd was young, funny and good-looking...as opposed to now, when he's middle-aged, funny and good-looking. They were part of a cultural phenom that was so thoroughly 90s we wondered if its greatness could hold over time. Well, either my nostalgia is strengthening, or the film is actually getting better with age. Clueless is as funny as ever, lovingly laughing at its characters with a timeless sense of teenage naivete. The story of posh high-schooler Cher (a never-better Silverstone) and her gang of hilariously un-self-aware cohorts is a segmented film. Befriending and making-over a lower-class classmate. Falling for the James-Dean-esque new kid. Playing matchmaker to some lonely teachers. Learning how to drive. Dealing with your mopey, know-it-all college stepbrother. It's a collage of teenage moments; nonetheless, there's a beautiful cohesion throughout. The colorful dialogue of obnoxious colloquialisms and the beyond-perfect casting ground the film at every boa'd, saggy pants'd turn. Sure, Clueless is a "chick flick", but to write it off because of that would be to ignore how smart and subtly subversive the movie is. Based on the Jane Austen book Emma, the story parallels are not only fun and unexpectedly exact, they give the plight of these decidedly unsympathetic characters a rare gravitas. Neither praising adolescents or standing at a distance to laugh at them, it instead simply accepts them, warts and designer clothes and giant cellphones and all. That uncynical love makes this colorful and lively gut-busting comedy every bit as successful as it was in 1995.

I don't understand why this movie is such a big deal. I was only 7 when it came out, but I've tried to watch it several times and I just can't. It's so boring I've never made it through the whole thing. The plot is pointless and the scene where Cher gets mugged is completely unrealistic; or maybe that's the point? It has a low-budget feel to me which may be due to it's age, or bad acting. It almost seems like the whole thing was supposed to be a cheap parody of something else.