“Okay, so you’re probably going, ‘Is this like a Noxzema commercial or what?’ But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl.”
Happy Birthday, Clueless! This year, the iconic movie is turning 30. It’s that time of year again where we should don our plaid yellow skirts and tops, re-apply that bright pink lipstick, and try to get our teachers to fall in love. Or, just re-watch the movie and live vicariously through Cher—dealer’s choice!
For those who aren’t as familiar with the story, Clueless depicts the high school experience, specifically, the hoity-toity class of those living in Beverly Hills. It’s a staple coming-of-age story with all of the tropes. Love triangle? There’s at least two in this movie, next question. Stereotypical high school students? Oh yeah, the skaters, the popular kids, and the nerds are all present and accounted for, find your lunch table and take a seat. Teenage girl makeover montage? It’s only one of the most iconic montage sequences of all time. Falling in love with your previous and brief step-brother? Wait, what…
Get in your Jeeps and throw your license out the roll-down window, let’s hit some mailboxes.
There’s Always Time for a Makeover Montage
Clueless stars Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, the late Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash, and Donald Faison. In order, that would be characters Cher Horowitz, Josh, Tai, Dionne Davenport, and Murray. Cher, the queen bee of her high school, is excellent at all things shopping, matchmaking, and fashion. Her and her best friend, Dionne (both named after famous singers, duh), are at the top of the food chain in her high school. Like typical popular girls, they’re both a bit snobby and snooty, but at heart, have good intentions. As the hippest girls in school, they decide to take the out-of-style, flannel wearing, new girl Tai under their wing and show her the ins and outs of high school.
On the side, self-confident Cher is dealing with all of the regular challenges of being a teenage girl. She is playing matchmaker for her debate teacher in order to manipulate him into giving her a better grade; starving off all the immature high schools boys who surround her; and Cher continues to take care of her father, while also dealing with ‘granola breath’, college boy Josh, her very brief, blink-and-you’ll miss it, ex step-brother. Ugh, I’m like totally, buggin’.
Life in high school changes fast. The guy Cher’s seeing, Christian, well–he isn’t who Cher thought he was. On top of that, Tai’s popularity increases, and Cher’s popularity decreases. It prompts a new wave of self-reflection towards Cher. She feels . . . utterly clueless. She realizes that what she aspires to be, might not actually be who she wants to become. Goodbye Calvin Klein, and hello Pismo Beach disaster relief team. As Cher’s ideals change, she starts to discover a new problem, feelings for the civilly engaged, forward-thinking Josh.
What’s a girl to do now? Well, for Cher, a new pair of shoes couldn’t hurt. Trying to spend more time with Josh, Cher decides to help her father’s legal team with a time-consuming case. Things start to settle for Cher; her and Tai slowly reconnect and Tai also realizes that being the cool-girl, maybe isn’t all that cool. Josh and Cher begin to spend more time together, noticing all the things they admire about each other as they pull all-nighters and grab greasy takeout. Pressure builds between them, and when the moment’s just right, Josh and Cher confess their feelings, and the ensuing kiss they share culminates teenage love, lust, and sincerity. Clueless ends with every couple attending the wedding of Cher’s debate teacher, who she did, successfully, matchmake. In this movie, all’s well that end’s well in love, and shopping.
A Modern Day Jane Austen
Clueless is actually loosely based and adapted on Emma, a 1815 novel written by Jane Austen. Of course, Clueless takes place in the setting of 1990s Beverly Hills, so there were certainly some liberties taken. However, the shape of the characters, the theme of social classes, and the idea of matchmaking, all stem from Emma.
It’s a bang-on version of Emma, with 90’s cultural references mixed in with snippets from the novel that us literary geeks can pick up on. If you can imagine a woman from the regency era exclaiming, “Ugh! As if!” then you’ve got the same vision that director Amy Heckerling might have seen. Cher, just like main-character Emma from the novel, is an upper-class girl, with little to worry about. She involves herself into the lives of her friends and those around her, and amuses herself with ‘projects’, like Tai, or her out-of-date debate teacher.
Clueless is a cult-classic for a reason. The plot being so far away from the reality that most people face (you know, not in the world of Beverly Hills), actually serves to make the audience more invested. It’s fun to watch our characters deal with almost small-minded problems that can help us escape from big-world problems. Characters like Cher, Tai, and Josh are very likeable, and as their characters develop, we come to understand what life can be like in big, beautiful Beverly Hills.
“And in Conclusion, May I Please Remind You, it Does Not Say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!”
Clueless may have been made in the 90s, but it still hits home for us in today’s world. High class, low class, high school stereotypes, popular kids—some things never change. Sometimes looking back at a movie about high school when you’re older can be a little painful. You might think, “things never happened like that,” or “nobody was looking like Paul Rudd at my school!” That’s what makes Clueless a little different than the rest—it purposefully pokes fun at those unrealistic ideas and makes us laugh along with it. And, well, it never does hurt to look at Paul Rudd, does it? This year, swipe out your carrot sticks for some popcorn and get totally buggin’.
Clueless is currently streaming on Pluto TV and Paramount+.
