Clueless


3/4

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Dan Hedaya, and Brittany Murphy

Rated PG-13 for Sex-Related Dialogue and Some Teen Use of Alcohol and Drugs

“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” playfully skewered the “surfer dude” stereotype; “Clueless” does the same thing to the Valley Girl.  Yet, as funny as “Bill and Ted” was, “Clueless” is a more impressive feature because of how ambitious and how on-target it is (and it succeeds at just about every aim).

Cher Horowitz (Silverstone) is a Valley Girl to the extreme, and she is the most popular girl in school.  Like her lawyer father (Hedaya), she can talk her way out of just about anything…except a better grade in her debate class.  Then she realizes that her teacher, Mr. Hall (a hilarious Wallace Shawn) is lonely, so she manufactures a relationship with him and a fellow teacher, Miss Geist (Twink Caplan).  Now that Cher has gotten a taste for doing something for other people, she decides to do more good deeds…for better or worse.

In addition to satirizing the Valley Girl stereotype (which is admittedly hard to do, since Valley Girls are walking self-parodies), it makes pointed comments about being a teenager in the 90s, and the social culture of high school…all with affectionate glee.  Yet, as superficial as the movie is, it has a heart and a surprising amount of depth.  This is one of those movies that wants to have its cake and eat it too, and devours both.

Much of the reason why “Clueless” works is because of Alicia Silverstone.  The blond actress absolutely nails the part.  She’s superficial to the extreme, but behind all that glitz and glam, there’s a real person underneath, and Silverstone understands that.  She also gets the accent dead on, and she attacks some of the film’s sharpest lines with relish.  She has great chemistry with Stacey Dash, who plays her best friend Dionne, and also with Paul Rudd, her ex-step brother.

What really makes this film work is its intelligence.  Writer/director Amy Heckerling never settles for broad humor.  She understands all facets of high school and filters them through her own sense of humor.  It is definitely a satire, but like the best ones, there is a definite ring of truth that we all know.

This is a great comedy, although most of the humor falls more into “wit” rather than belly laughs (although there are a few of those).  Fashion lovers will also love this movie because almost all the characters wear wide varieties of glamorous costumes.

Although it loses a little steam towards the end (what satire doesn’t), the character quotient more than picks up the slack.  Definitely recommended.

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