Clueless (1995)

Watch clips from the movie on Play.

While the movie only grossed about $11 million in its opening week, it is still considered groundbreaking in the teen movie scene.

Clueless follows the misguided philanthropy of Cher, a wealthy Beverly Hills high school student played by Alicia Silverstone. While on the surface Cher seems to be a superficial air-head, she shows charisma and intelligence as she negotiates her way through adolescence with comical finesse.

Clueless is witness to and a chronicle of the onset of the bubblegum pop culture in the mid nineties. Before it girls were still largely following the grunge look (baggy jeans and t-shirts) and role models were angry babes like Alanis Morrisette. But Cher paved the way for girls to be cute and aloof and still be way super cool. In short, Alanis made way for The Spice Girls.

Writer Amy Heckerling epitomises the teenage generation of the time at the very edge of the teen tech evolution. Before Clueless cell phones were not yet considered a necessity and were largely inaccessible to the middle class. The year 1995 signified the dawning of the tech age, a new found freedom for teenagers everywhere when they started using PCs and mobile phones to communicate.

Every teenage girl around the world wanted Cher's life – the cell phone, the high tech closet, the clothes, the friends. Clueless set aspirations to a massive new high.

But the best part is the dialogue. Totally on par with the colloquial language of the time, no previous film had depicted teen slang and apathy with such magnificent accuracy.

      Heather: It's just like Hamlet said: "To thine own self be true."
      Cher: Hamlet didn't say that.
      Heather: I think I remember Hamlet accurately.
      Cher: Well, I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did.

Heckerling also created new jargon, which carried over into the real world, words like "cake boy", "jeepin" and "monet" became popular.

      Cher: I was surfing the crimson wave. I had to haul ass to the ladies'.

Clueless helped launch the careers of Brittany Murphy (Uptown Girls 2003, (Just Married 2003), Alicia Silverstone (Batman and Robin 1997), Breckin Meyer (Road Trip 2000, Rat Race 2001) and Donald Faison ("Scrubs"), all of whom were teenagers at the time of filming – probably lending to the authenticity of the film.

Thirteen years on and there's an array of celebs like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson who are building entire careers on being cute and ditsy. There's a multi-billion dollar industry feeding off superficiality like celeb gossip magazines, reality shows such as "The Hills" and the fashion industry. Amy Heckerling is like totally the Shakespeare of our generation.


More quotes from the movie:

Cher: I feel like such a heifer. I had two bowls of Special K, three pieces of turkey bacon, a handful of popcorn, five peanut butter M&M's and like three pieces of licorice.

Cher: Dionne and her boyfriend Murray are in this dramatic relationship. I think they've seen that Ike and Tina Turner movie too many times.

Dionne: Phat! Did you write that?
Cher: Duh. It's like a famous quote.
Dionne: From where?
Cher: Cliff's Notes.

Murray: Woman, lend me fi' dollas.
Dionne: Murray, I have asked you repeatedly not to call me "woman".
Murray: Excuse me, "Ms. Dionne."
Dionne: Thank you.
Murray: Okay, but, street slang is an increasingly valid form of expression. Most of the feminine pronouns do have mocking, but not necessarily in misogynistic undertones.

Tai: Cher, you're a virgin?
Cher: You say that like it's a bad thing.
Dionne: Besides, the PC term is "hymenally challenged".

Cher: Ugh. Skateboarders. That's like so five years ago.

Cher: Sometimes you have to show a little skin. This reminds boys of being naked, and then they think of sex.