Gay Best Friend: Christian (Justin Walker) in "Clueless" (1995)

A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

You had me at "nice stems."Clueless is a perfect movie. The more time passes, the more the film is solidified as a bona fide classic.  Writer/director Amy Heckerling turns Jane Austen’s Emma into an addictive and heartfelt tale of high school relationships and finding one’s impact on the world around them. Alicia Silverstone’s Cher is a pitch perfect heroine whose big heart is only outmatched by the size of her closet. Heckerling’s loving wit doesn’t just apply to our leading lady. The entire high school is filled with big personalities (and bigger wallets). One of my favorite characters has always been Christian (Justin Walker), an old soul who becomes the first (and likely not last) gay man that Cher falls for. 

While mostly a supporting player, Christian isn’t solely defined by his sexuality. He gets to be a fully rounded connoisseur who seamlessly moves from a romantic interest to a gay best friend...

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Clueless @ 25: The Best Costumes!

by Cláudio Alves

As previously mentioned in my "Emmas of Yore" miniseries, Clueless is one of the best cinematic adaptations of a Jane Austen novel. By modernizing the core narrative of Emma and stripping it of historical detail, Amy Heckerling was able to create a teen movie classic whose biting satire exists hand-in-hand with a sense of overwhelming affection for every character on-screen. Humor and romance are well-balanced, with the comedic element always taking precedence over the love story – as it should be when tackling one of Austen's prickliest and funniest novels.

That being said, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Clueless' release, we're not going to focus so much on its genius screenplay or how it updates Regency-era social commentary to the Beverly Hills of the 1990s. Fashion is our concern this time around or, more accurately, we're exploring the costume design of Clueless. Since 1995, Mona May's colorful stylings have become as iconic as the screenplay's witty dialogues and, in a fair world, they might have even won the designer some well-deserved Oscar gold… 

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The Emmas of Yore: "Clueless"

To celebrate the release of Emma, let's revisit the novel's previous iterations in film history. First up, the case of Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995)

by Cláudio Alves

From 1940 to 1995, no motion picture was made with a screenplay based on any Jane Austen novel. There were some negligible low-budget miniseries along the way, but nothing major. Then came the 90s and everything changed. In 1995 alone, the world got to enjoy the pleasures of Roger Michell's Persuasion and the lavish TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. Most importantly, Clueless happened, effectively showing that Jane Austen was cool and igniting the Hollywood trend of filming great tomes of classic literature reimagined as modern teen movies…

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"American Girl": Tom Petty at the Movies.

By Salim Garami

What's good? 

In memory of the musical legend Tom Petty, I couldn't help thinking about how the movies essentially introduced me to my love for his music (much as movies happen to introduce me to a lot of music I come to hold close to my heart) and I wanted to have something to say about it.

So I looked to two wildly different films that utilize the quintessential Heartbreakers classic "American Girl", the jangly pumping tune about a young girl looking out in hopes of a world outside her balcony. It was his second big hit, riding on the success of previous single "Breakdown", and it's instantly recognizable in the Diddley-esque high chords strumming and the sort of bass drum kick-snare pattern that makes one pop up and ready to move. It's no less infectious than any pop song of the day in its simplicity. So it only makes sense that so many films and tv series would be eager to use it in their soundtracks.

Take It Easy, Baby, and Find Out Which Films I Choose After the Break...

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Women's Pictures - Amy Heckerling's Vamps

How does it feel to be a relic in the new millenium? No shade intended towards Amy Heckerling. Her most recent film was obsessed with just that question. In Vamps, Heckerling attempted to take a bite (sorry) out of youth culture using 2012's movie monster of the moment, the vampire. But in her latest foray into social satire, the genre-defining writer/director who gave a voice to two generations of teens seemed drained (sorry) of the empathy that had made her previous work enjoyable. To put it bluntly: Vamps sucks.*

*If you dislike puns, don't B negative. They only get worse from here.

For a film about youth, Vamps has a surprising number of well-preserved throwbacks. Alicia Silverstone stars as Goody, a 300 year old vampire. She's joined by a colorful-though-pale cast including Sigourney Weaver, Wallace Shawn, Malcolm MacDowell, Richard Lewis, Marilu Henner and Krysten Ritter, who plays Goody's sister vampire, Stacy. Goody's hundreds of years of un-life as a 20-something have given her pesrpective on the fashions and follies of humanity, though she thinks the latest generation's slang and smartphones are a pain in the neck (sorry). Stacy, who was turned in the 1980s, acts as Goody's ambassador to modern youth culture, at least until Stacy falls for a human (Dan Stevens) in her night film class at NYU. Stacy's relationship, and the return of a past beau, suddenly makes Goody's world a bloody (sorry) mess. More...

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