My Review of "Clueless (1995)"

Clueless (1995) was an instant classic when it came out in 1995. It is iconic and at the time we didn't know how much of an impact it would have with popular culture. To this day we still see current pop culture being influenced by this movie. I get to dive back in to see if this movie stands the test of time.

The movie starts off with an introduction of our main character Cher. She's a beautiful naïve girl and the world is her oyster. You can probably say she's got everything going for her but that wouldn't make a great movie. That can easily be assumed for what she's has going on for her. Though she still has to navigate through high school.

It starts off with her not doing well in school. She doesn't really study or tries at school. Her grades reflect this and you'd think that we'd be angered by her character but she's just so charismatic of a person to hate. Plus the stuff that she does always feels like she has the best intentions in mind. Then again that's how narcissists talk their way out of their own guilt.

Cher's father is a lawyer so she's been taught that she should be able to argue her way out of problems. Instead of doing extra curriculars and projects to raise her score she does other things to raise her marks. She uses her powers of persuasions and lies to help her increase her marks. For the most part it works. That is up until she meets Mr. Hall.

She realizes this guy is going to be a tough cookie. What she does is sets him up with a teacher in the school. They fall madly in love and the new couple become softies for marks. This has a cascading effect though as Cher loved the fact that she could make their lives better.

She then makes it a mission for herself to try and help people find love but then discovers the need for love herself. Through this journey of hers she's going to go through a lot of semi relatable issues and some fun hijinks.

This is a comedy through and through. There are tons of laughs because of the ridiculousness of their posh high school lives. Today watching it again you'll still laugh at it but for different reasons. The movie is a product of its era and a trendsetter of the era. You'll probably laugh at all the trends that it brought about. Those of us that lived through this time will remember the context to a lot of the jokes though.

Art direction is heavily focused on fashion. Again this movie was a trendsetting movie of its time. You'll see a lot of interesting designs that are still being replicated today. That's how you know you've got great wardrobe design. 30 years later they're still copying this movie and it boggles my mind that this is still happening and consistently.

Much of the love and fun of this movie comes with the characters. It was excellently cast with such innocence throughout the cast. You really get a feeling that they really were kids in high school. In part that's part of the charm of this movie. There was a bit of authenticity with the youthful exuberance of the cast.

Of course with the passage of times are also elements of this movie that aren't totally politically correct. Some of the dialogue is now outdated. We have a age gap love that some would cringe at. The list can go on and on. Though I don't know if people that are heavily interested in political correctness should really watch movies prior to 2020.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie again. It's been close to 30 years and this movie still stands the test of time. The magic is still there and I'm not sure if it's all nostalgic. I challenge you to watch this and not be charmed by all of the characters in the movie. I have to give this movie a 9 out of 10. It's a classic and will continue to be for a very long time.