Clueless movie review & film summary (1995) | Roger Ebert (2024)

"So, OK, you're probably like - what is this, a Noxzemacommercial? First words of "Clueless" That's exactly what I was like.The hand-held camera was tilting crazily, showing the sun-blessed teenagers ofSouthern California, and I'm like - what is this, an MTV video? Then Cher saysthe line and breaks the ice. Not Cher who won the Oscar. Cher, the heroine ofthis movie. A little later, she explains that she and her friend Dionne"were both named after great singers of the past that now do infomercials."(She adds, "She's my friend because we both know what it is to have peoplebe jealous of us.") "Clueless" is a smart and funny movie, andthe characters are in on the joke. Cher (Alicia Silverstone), who lives in amansion and looks like Cybill Shepherd, is capable of lines like, "Whylearn to park when every place you go has a valet?" But she puts a littlesatirical spin on them. She is one of the most totally self-absorbed charactersin a movie since the heroes of "Wayne's World," and yet she isn't avictim, and we get the idea she will grow up tough and clever, like her dad(Dan Hedaya).

He'sa big-time lawyer, a litigator who is always working on big cases. In mostmovies like this, he would therefore be a blundering, insensitive oaf with amicroscopic IQ. Not here. He knows everything that's going on, cares for hisdaughter, is protective of her, and tells a kid taking her out on a date:"If anything happens to her, I got a .45 and a shovel. I don't thinkyou'll be missed." Also looking out for Cher is her stepbrother (PaulRudd) by one of her dad's earlier marriages. Family trees have many branches inthese circles.

Cherand Dionne live in Beverly Hills and go to one of those high schools where thestudents look like they've posed for the cover of Sassy. They havelongsuffering teachers such as Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Miss Geist (TwinkCaplan), who both give Cher bad grades.

Sheis not discouraged. She knows that happy teachers give higher grades, andconvinces each teacher that the other is a secret admirer. "You negotiatedyour way from a C to an A?" her dad asks.

"Honey,I couldn't be happier than if they were based on real grades." Cherdoesn't have a regular boyfriend. Then she gets a crush on a new kid namedChristian (Justin Walker) and explains the wiles she will use to capture him.At the same time, she persuades Dionne (Stacey Dash) to help her increase thepopularity of a hopeless new girl named Tai (Brittany Murphy). She explains herparty strategy: Pretend to be having a good time, pretend not to notice the guyyou're interested in, and laugh and dance a lot. Also, "sometimes you haveto show a little skin. This reminds guys of being naked, and then they think ofsex." The movie was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who made"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982). This film, about differentkinds of kids in a much different kind of school, is much better. But like theearlier film, which introduced Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn, Phoebe Cates,Forest Whitaker and Judge Reinhold, it may make some stars.

AliciaSilverstone and Stacey Dash display the knack of suggesting that theircharacters are not limited by their airhead dialogue and teen queen behavior.They talk that way, and do those things, but with a sly humor that suggeststhey're putting themselves on. ("What'd you do in school today?""Broke in my purple clogs.") And their motives are essentially pure.They want to help out poor Tai because she doesn't have a clue. After they havecompleted their makeover of her face and wardrobe and given away all theirboy-catching tricks, Tai becomes popular and not very nice. And in the way thegirls handle this development, they reveal some quiet insights.

Themovie is aimed at teenagers, but like all good comedies, it will appeal toanyone who has a sense of humor and an ear for the ironic.

Heckerlingwalks a fine line between satire and put-on, but she finds it, and her dialoguecould be anthologized. You have to like a movie with lines such as:"Searching for high grades in high school is like searching for meaning ina Pauly Shore movie." Or this excuse in P.E. class: "My plasticsurgeon doesn't want me doing any activity where balls fly at my nose."The answer to that, which cannot be printed here, may be worth at least a thirdof the price of admission, all by itself.