Defining Favourites: Clueless (1995)

Amy Heckerling takes the chick flick up several levels with this re-imagining of Jane Austen.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another — akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Amy Heckerling
Screenplay by Amy Heckerling, from the novel Emma by Jane Austen
Produced by Scott Rudin, Robert Lawrence
Starring Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Dan Hedaya, Wallace Shawn, Justin Walker
Premiere Date: July 7, 1995
Running Time: 96 minutes

You know how these people talk. That’ll be the quickest entry point into the world that Amy Heckerling creates in Clueless, which transcends even the simple label of “chick flick” to become one of the best teen comedies ever made. It’s also not a difficult formula to nail down either, though the fact that Clueless takes its inspiration from Jane Austen’s Emma would be the perfect stepping stone into more clever territory. It all starts with the way that Heckerling nails how these people talk, and how they see the world. Yet, there’s still such warmth and love underneath the superficiality of people like Cher Horowitz that makes for a more endearing work. For the greatness of a film like Clueless comes forth in how people like Cher might think they have everything in the world, but also deconstructing exactly what they stand for in life.

From the moment Cher Horowitz first narrates, we’re sensing an idea of what kind of person she is. She’s not much different from the typical valley girl in Beverly Hills, who is very popular among her classmates at Bronson Alcott High School. Yet, even people around her can see through her, given what she represents, as other students look up to her. Being a stylish and popular girl at her school, she also emphasizes that she has high standards for her own life, and believes that her ideal boyfriend should match up. If someone like Cher Horowitz were to exist in any other context, she would be nothing but a stereotype – which Alicia Silverstone embodies, first in her fashion sense but also her blissful ignorance towards everything else around her. And if the iconic delivery of “As if!” wouldn’t be enough, it all extends into Cher’s mispronunciation of “Haitians” in a debate class, supposedly arguing in favour of bringing oppressed people to the United States.