Back to School Month: Clueless (Dir. Amy Heckerling, 1h 37m, 1995)

In the two hundred years since the publication of Jane Austin's Emma, a novel of manners in which the high-spirited and intelligent Emma plays matchmaker to a number of couples in Georgian England, before finally meeting her match in Mr. Knightley, the novel has received adaptions as far apart as two web series, several comic adaptions and several films, including 2020's sumpeteous adaption starring Anya Taylor-Joy. Among these, of course, is 1995's Clueless, which transplants the action to 90s Beverley Hills, where Alicia Silverstone's Cher Horowitz matches her talents in pairing off her friends with negotiating the competitive social world of high school, in a film that perfectly encapsulates the 90s, from clothing to music to lingo, with a deft, and warm-hearted touch.

Essentially retelling Emma's plot with a 90s flair, Clueless follows Cher through several months of her life, from her day-to-day existence as one of the popular kids, enjoying her relationship with her workaholic divorcee father, whilst steadily playing matchmaker with first two teachers and then miscellaneous pupils at the school, including Tai, a new student that she takes under her wing, whilst following her own attempts to find love. Along the way, the film merrily riffs on American pop culture, fashion, and being a young affluent woman in 90s America

The 90s permeates Clueless to its core, from the opening riff of Kids in America (courtesy of the Muffs), and the almost violently colourful titles, quintessentially 90s,, to the quick cut, advert-esque introduction to our main characters, before Cher's narration cuts across, dubbing herself as having a "way-normal life", and from here we are given a whistle-stop introduction to Cher's life and her outlook on life, from her friends Dionne (Stacey Dash) to her relationship with her litigator father (Dan Hedaya). From the very first scene, the film is at turns a perfect recreation of the day-glo feel of the 1990s, with beautifully observed slang, references, music and so on-as a child of the 90s, it's almost jarring to think that people are nostalgic for this period-and a beautifully observed character study.

In places, it feels like a nigh-perfect crystalisation of (at least a part of) the teenage experience of the early 90s, its obsession with the mall, its escapism into retail therapy, its oddly stunted adulthood in the form of its main characters, who sit awkwardly between the cusp of adulthood and the childhood of Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy and other cultural touchstones of the early 90s teenager-hood. This is not to mention the film's own impact upon the 90s-its impact upon 90s fashion cannot be underestimated, as the film's cost-cutting by buying from thrift stores led to a practically iconic style, the ripples of which were felt across the 1990s from the post-grunge period onward, whilst much of its cast (and some of the bands on the soundtrack) were catapulted to stardom.

But perhaps Clueless' master-stroke is in its characters. From Cher and Dionne outward, these are characters treated with a great deal of respect-Heckerling's heroines are never the figure of fun, and for all the possibilities where the film could have turned to showing its fashion-obsessed, matchmaker heroine as an empty, vacuous blonde, there are moments of shrewd intelligence or deep insight in Cher, as she playfully pairs up a duo of mismatched teachers who eventually marry at the end of the film, and where the film most closely resembles Emma. Around her are a memorable cast of characters, from her step-brother, an affable Paul Rudd, who she eventually realises she is in love with, in one of the single funniest scenes of the film, whilst the girl she takes under her wing, Tai, eventually threatens to eclipse her as she becomes the most popular girl in the school.

And yet, never does the film undermine its heroine, never does it feel the need to mock any of its characters from the pothead skateboarder who eventually falls in love with Tai and , to the gay best friend whom Cher happily shares fashion advice and who proves to be a key figure in the latter half of the film. What Clueless is, in short, is a smartly made, fun, and quintessentially 1990s film, but one that manages to feel, even 25 years on, a remarkably inclusive and enjoyable film

Rating: Recommended