It is a truth universally acknowledged that a teen movie made after 1995 owes a debt to Clueless. Since its release 20 years ago, Amy Heckerling's classic has had surprising longevity: it revitalized teen fashion in the wake of grunge, resuscitated a genre (while also spawning a new subgenre), spawned a platinum soundtrack, launched a new generation of acting careers, like way altered the teenage lexicon, and inspired a rap video as late as 2014. We at Team Experience reference it at least once a year. And though Clueless landed at #3 on our recent Back To School Team Top 10, the two films that topped it were both direct beneficiaries of Clueless's wit and satire. Clueless redefined the teen film genre, divorcing it from the darkness of the 80s, while maintaining the social satire and serious observation that gave the totally quotable dialog resonance for an optimistic, clueless new generation of 90s teens.
When Amy Heckerling was refining her Austen-inspired idea at Paramount, the genre she had helped create a decade previous with Fast Times At Ridgemont High was faltering. [More...]
John Hughes had moved to family comedies, the Brat Pack had disbanded, and other than some outliers like Linklater's Dazed and Confused, the teen film looked like a faded fad. Heckerling moved forward by looking back.
Remembering her own love of Emma as a student, Amy Heckerling effectively transplanted Jane Austen's satirical love story from the vain, silly parlors of 19th century English society to the equally vain, silly halls of 20th century American high school. Austen's headstrong heroine Emma became Heckerling's smart-but-superficial Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a rich "Valley Girl" (actually from Beverly Hills) who benevolently rules as the most popular girl at her high school. Surrounding Cher are a host of archetypical characters, including stoners, outsiders, lovelorn teachers, overly protective parents, and cliquish competition, played by another cast of soon-to-be stars of various wattage: Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, and Paul Rudd. The story is all Cher's though, as she tries to rehabilitate a new girl (Murphy) and in the process learns that her own identity is less secure than she'd thought.
The genius of Heckerling's direction and screenplay is in Clueless's deceptively light tone. While Fast Times At Ridgemont High had tackled dark subjects like abortion, on the surface Clueless looks pretty light. However, as we previously saw, Amy Heckerling takes comedy very seriously. Through Cher's interactions with her fellow student, especially protege-turned-popular girl Tai, Heckerling exposes the uncomfortable truth of teenagers: teens are terribly self-conscious and not even a little self-aware. Cher may dress via computer program, keep her head when a man mugs her, and blow off parking tickets, but a well-placed insult from a former friend and being knocked a few rungs down the social ladder shake Cher to her core. Heckerling doesn't judge Cher for her skewed priorities, instead Heckerling gently pokes fun while keeping as earnest as Cher is about finding herself. It's this balance of sincerity, satire, and silliness that subsequent films would try (and mostly fail) to copy.
The story of Clueless is one of reinvention, not only within the film, but also in its influence as well. Not only did Amy Heckerling revitalize the teen film genre, she also started a subgenre of teen film literary adaptations, which would result in some wonderful movies (10 Things I Hate About You) and some terrible ones (Get Over It). Much to the chagrin of English teachers everywhere, Clueless inspired a generation of kids to drop "like" into their sentences at, like, every pause. On the anniversary of a film, it's easy to overstate its importance. However, considering the hundreds of films, thousands of books, and hundreds of thousands of words Amy Heckerling's little teen comedy has inspired, it's easy to tell: we are still totally butt crazy in love with Clueless.
Wrapping up this month on Women's Pictures...
9/24 Vamps (2012) (Amazon Instant Video) - Amy Heckerling's literal suckfest, which weirdly gives us hope for the future.