Clueless
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Clueless is a film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. Filmed over a span of a few weeks in early 1995, the movie was released in the United States on July 19, 1995. The film was a huge box office success, and is widely regarded as one of the best teen films ever made. It is often considered as the light-hearted version of Mean Girls and Heathers. The film was marketed with the tagline "Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here?" or "Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Whatever."
This film is number 90 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
Cast
- Alicia Silverstone - Cher Horowitz
- Paul Rudd - Josh Lucas
- Brittany Murphy - Tai Fraiser
- Stacey Dash - Dionne Marie Davenport
- Donald Faison - Murray Lawrence Duvall
- Dan Hedaya - Mel Horowitz
- Breckin Meyer - Travis Birkenstock
- Justin Walker - Christian Stovitz
- Wallace Shawn - Mr. Wendell Hall
- Jeremy Sisto - Elton Tiscia
- Twink Caplan - Miss Toby Geist
- Elisa Donovan - Amber Mariens
- Julie Brown - Coach Millie Stoeger
- Sean Holland - Lawrence
Story
Loosely based on the novel Emma by Jane Austen, the film tells the story of an airheaded yet good-natured 16-year-old named Cher Horowitz, played in what was a breakthrough role by actress Alicia Silverstone. Although happy in her complacent, self-centered world of shopping and fashion in Beverly Hills, California, Cher longs to prove herself as an intellectual and do-gooder when her granola-eating, altruistic ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) visits during a break from college. Cher, along with her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash), decides that the ultimate way she can give back to the community would be to give a total makeover to a "tragically unhip" new girl at school, Tai Fraiser (Brittany Murphy).Things begin to backfire, though, when Cher's "project" works a bit too well and Tai's popularity soon begins to surpass Cher's, especially after Tai experiences a near-death tragedy at the mall that helps to skyrocket her fame at school; other classmates, including Dionne, as well as Cher's longtime rival classmate Amber (Elisa Donovan), soon gravitate toward Tai, leaving Cher out in the dust.
At the same time, Cher has a series of romantic mishaps with boys at school; one of them, Elton, admits he was pretending to like Tai only as a decoy in order to try and sleep with Cher; and another, Christian, turns out to be gay (Cher repeatedly not understanding the latter's subtle hints that he prefers the same sex, until Dionne's boyfriend makes it clear).
Things come to a head when Cher and Tai have a fight that makes Cher realize that her popularity has waned, her priorities are completely askew and her romantic life is a shambles. After much soul-searching (which, of course, includes a one-woman shopping spree around various Beverly Hills boutiques), Cher finally realizes that all of her desire to do good and help others is inspired by Josh, and furthermore, she has fallen in love with him. A heart-touching scene near the end of the film finds Cher and Josh stumbling over how to admit their mutual feelings for each other, finally culminating in a sufficiently explanatory mutual kiss on the steps of her father's mansion.
The film has a happy Hollywood ending for Cher: her two nerdy teachers at school fall in love and marry; her friendships with Tai and Dionne are reaffirmed; and she has finally found love and meaning (other than shopping) in her teenage life.
Background
The film co-starred comedian Julie Brown, Donald Faison as Dionne's boyfriend Murray, Elisa Donovan as Cher's rival Amber, Paul Rudd as Cher's "ex-stepbrother", Wallace Shawn as Cher's debate teacher Mr. Hall, and Twink Caplan as Cher's mousy history teacher Ms. Geist. Caplan also helped produce the film.The film was groundbreaking for a variety of reasons. Much of the teen-slang used in the film was researched by Heckerling during the four years in which she wrote the script. The success of the film caused much of this slang to carry over into real-life usage and it is still a major part of American slang at present date. The film can be attributed as causing the widespread use of the terms "whatever" (as a derogatory dismissal) and accompanying "W" hand symbol and "postal" (as in "going postal"). Also, the fashions in the film became the new fashions of real-life as plaid, pastels, babydoll dresses and knee-high tights were the new thing. Technology-wise, new and smaller cell phones and pagers were never used so much in film as it was with Clueless, as 1995 was a year when only the rich had such devices.
Additionally it is one of the few times when the majority of the cast of teenage characters was portrayed by actual teenagers, with the exception of Dash who was 29 years old at the time of filming.
The movie had a 40-day filming schedule. Producers sat in on classes at Beverly Hills High School to get a feel for the student culture. Many scenes were filmed in Costa Mesa and Beverly Hills with most neighborhood scenes filmed in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Trivia
- The band playing during the party scene is the Boston-based Ska band, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
- When Christian first appears at the class, Cher has new hopes for high school boys. But as the shot pans from her gaze to him in the doorway, just over his left shoulder on the wall in the classroom is a cut out headline from the newspaper which reads "On the Road to Nowhere."
- Cher's last name is given as Horowitz, but shown on her report card as Hamilton. This may be an in-joke, as film director Amy Heckerling's previously directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), which featured a character called Stacy Hamilton.
- The films that Christian watches on video with Cher - Some Like It Hot (1959) and Spartacus (1960) - provide clues to his sexual orientation. The first movie deals with cross-dressing men. The second includes the famous scene where a Roman master (Laurence Olivier) tries to seduce his male servant (Tony Curtis).
- Alicia Silverstone did not know how to correctly pronounce "Haitians" in the classroom scene. Amy Heckerling told the crew not to correct her because she liked it so much and wanted it to be in the film.
Spinoff
The following year, the producers decided to create a spinoff television series (which generally isn't highly regarded as the movie), which followed the continuing adventures of Cher and her friends. Several cast members from the film went on to star in the TV program, with the notable exception of Alicia Silverstone (who went on to sign a movie deal with Columbia-TriStar worth $10 million). Silverstone was replaced in the series with actress Rachel Blanchard.Books
A collection of books were also published after the release of the movie by Simon Spotlight Entertainment publishing company from 1995-1999. These books were published as paperbacks and aimed at young adult readers.DVD
A special "Whatever!" edition DVD was released on August 30, 2005. The DVD features featurettes and cast interviews, which were all used to celebrate the film's ten year anniversary. The features on the DVD included:
- The Class of '95-A look at the cast
- Creative Writing-Amy Heckerling talks about the script
- Fashion 101-How filmmakers invented the trendsetting style of Clueless
- Language Arts-Director and cast give facts on the groundbreaking slang, and how Clueless invented the Valspeak slang
- Driver's Ed
- We're History-Stories from cast and crew of Clueless
- 2 Theatrical Trailers
See also
- Valspeak, the dialect of valley girls that Clueless helped make popular.
External links
- [Comparing Emma and Clueless - Bored of Studies]
- [Emma/Clueless Offering - Bored of Studies]
- http://cluelessdvd.com/ Clueless: Whatever Edition! DVD information
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