Image via Complex Original
When Clueless was released on July 19, 1995, its immediate sleeper success and critical acclaim couldn't foretell the impact the film would have on generations of teens (and adults) for years to come. Alicia Silverstone's Cher Horowitz became a hero to teen girls everywhere. Paul Rudd became the actual nice guy crush of girls and boys alike. And the whole gang became immediate #squadgoals.
Twenty years later, while very much a capsule of its time, Clueless's suprisingly biting foresight into fashion and technology (thanks much in part to Amy Heckerling's razor sharp writing) makes it feel eternally timeless.
Here, the Complex staff shares how Clueless turned us from Monets into Baldwins and Bettys.
Rollin’ With the ‘Clueless’ Homies and Listening to Maudlin Music
I've never been a Cher Horowitz (or a Dionne or a Tai, for that matter) but Clueless is possibly the most significant movie in my upbringing—and in unexpected ways, too. I was never popular, shopping gives me anxiety, I'm terrible at negotiating (grades or whatever else), but Cher and co. have always given me serious life inspo at every slumber party viewing during my childhood. Clueless has shaped my language, and not just in a "use a new word every day" way that Cher encourages Tai to do. If I call you a "Betty," that's love, but if you're a "Monet," you know I'm throwing shade. Clueless rivals Heathers (my other teen flick favorite) in iconic sayings—"Ugh, as if!" vs. "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw"—and while I'm more of a Veronica Sawyer, Clueless has had a bigger role in shaping the person I am today. Plus, that movie basically raised me in my alternative musical tastes. That David Bowie "Fashion" intro is the reason why it's my go-to getting-ready song. The Cranberries were my first favorite band (Elton circa "I can't find my Cranberries CD" was literally me in school). My teenage obsession with Radiohead was probably fueled by that Tai-meets-Travis cafeteria scene. Did my lifelong love affair with Britpop start with that photoshoot montage set to Supergrass' "Alright"? Probably! (Sorry Cher, I love that maudlin music shit you hate.) Clueless is a cinematic classic in every aspect, and if you disagree… you're, like, TOTALLY buggin'.
--Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
It Was Like, Love at First Sight, Or Whatever
"OK, so you're probably going, 'Is this like, a Noxzema commercial or what?' But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl."
—Leo Tolstoy
No film of the past couple decades opens with a sequence of events and narration that are as instantly addictive as Clueless. Lest you forget, Cher cracks an Ike Turner joke (at Dionne's expense) at the top of this film, just as Murray, played by Donald Faison, steps to Dionne with his silver grill, fake Kangol, and gold necklace with a lil Superman pendant. In class, Cher delivers a poignant, speechified metaphor about human rights and immigration to the U.S. The first five minutes of Clueless are way heavy. Cher rolls to Dionne's lawn in the coke-white Jeep, and the rest is herstory.
--Justin Charity
You Don't Understand, This is an Alaïa.
The fashion influence of Clueless is severely underrated. First—the "You don't understand, this is an Alaia!" scene was pretty much the scene in Sex and the City where Carrie gets robbed for her Manolo Blahniks before that show was inkling in someone's eye. Second, that whole scene of Cher utilizing an app to coordinate her outfit is equally timeless. People are still waiting for the day that technology comes into fruition. Oh sure, tons of apps have tried to emulate that, but none have really managed to be as swaggy as it looked in the film.
--Jian DeLeon
Cliff's Notes: Why We Haven't Had Another Clueless in 20 Years
"Isn't my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972." That's one of my favorite lines from Clueless. It comes from the brilliant introduction sequence and says so much about Amy Heckerling's intent as the screenwriter; Heckerling adapted a classic Victorian novel, written in 1815 (Jane Austen's Emma), and set it in an affluent California high school, circa 1995.
Everything is old and vintage to teens; youth doesn't need the full history, just the Cliff's Notes (the trusty keeper of all "famous quotes"). The difference from 1972 to 1995 is a mere 23 years, but Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is a 16-year-old-virgin who can't drive. She can't even get on the information highway because, duh, it's 1995. So her world is insular and small. Yes, it's funny to think that 23 years old would be ancient to anyone, but it's California, absolutely nothing is old in comparison to anywhere else in the world, and why do people care so fucking much about x amount of years, anyway? It's not like they think about their 1910 floorboards every time they open their 2012 fridge.
But here's something I've been thinking about a lot as someone who covers film: Teens are no longer teens in movies. Clueless was an instant classic when it was released because it satirized teens attempting to be older than they were, but it still gave them respect by laying vintage Austen characters over them; the mixing of ages revealed that a lot of adult impulses that kick in for the pursuit of love are just as silly as teen impulses. But now, Clueless might be even better 20 years later because nothing like it exists.
Movie Teens—post Twilight—are now tasked with either saving the remainder of society or dreading their existence. In franchises like The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent, etc. teen actors have to carry nine figure movie franchises without offering even a corner of a smile—because god forbid they enjoy their youth. Cher was a 16-year-old virgin who couldn't pass her driving test. Movie teens now are virgins with innate abilities that they have to learn how to control and entire societies depend on them to be able to past certain tests, and assemble groups of teen rebel teams to overthrow corrupt adult dictators. On the flipside, the other group of modern Movie Teens are treated with immense fragility and careful nuance in serious melodramas like The Spectacular Now, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Every feel in these movies is as painful as being stabbed by 1,000 daggers or as powerful as the shine of 1,000 suns.
Clueless is teen-movie middle ground perfection: It's fun, it's nuanced—and although it makes fun of Cher, Dionne (Stacey Dash), and Tai (Brittany Murphy, I so very much miss you, R.I.P.)—it respects their desire to grow up. And because it's updating classic literature, there is a much larger impetus on language than angst. Clueless is perhaps best known for adding peculiar phrases to slang dictionaries—but that's another reason why there hasn't been another Clueless in the past 20 years: Comedies don't translate to bookoo bucks abroad. And it's too bad, because we should totally party with the Haitians.
And in conclusion, might I remind you, it does not say "R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty." Thank you very much.
--Brian Formo
Are Dionne and Murray Still Together?
While Clueless, the 1995 classic so great I accidentally-on-purpose went to see it in theaters two nights in a row, ultimately focuses on Cher's struggles in finding love, there's a bubbling romance that's so full of drama, lust, and wannabe grown-up vibes that is the backbone of the entire flick. It's a relationship that Cher tries to understand so she can know what to (or not to) do in her own search. It's quite possibly the only relationship that finds the two partners wylin' out for most of the movie, but ultimately sticking together because fuck the world... right?
You're damn right I'm talking about Cher's homegirl Dionne and her man Murray.
When we first meet this dynamic duo, it's intro'd by Dionne telling Cher her relationship problems. Cher tries to advise her that she just needs to dump homie, but let's be forreal: They live for conversations about phantom hair extensions and jeepin' behind each others back.
Have you ever been with a girl who's so engrained in your life that when you truly do some wild shit (like shave your head during a kick-ass party because "keepin' it real") that the first thing she does is call your moms?
That's love.
Real teenage love is losing your virginity after a harrowing ordeal on a busy Los Angeles freeway. Real teenage love is confronting your girl, wondering where she's been because she hasn't answered your pages.
Real teenage love is hoping your girl didn't jeep behind your back, and making sure your squad is behind you to make sure everything is okay.
The only crime in Clueless is that we didn't get enough of Murray and Dionne's story. What the hell were their weekends like? Arguing about which movie to see to the point of saying "fuck it, we're going out to eat," only to continue arguing over whatever exquisite eats they were dining on? To then realizing what real teenage love they had between them and ending up making out to Coolio records?
Thank you, Clueless, for showcasing what a true, dramatic, real teenage romance was.
-- khal
Clueless Provided All My Future Life Lessons
I saw Clueless when I was in the fifth grade before I was remotely close to being a teenager. In 1995, Cher Horowitz impacted everything I did from the knee socks and jelly platforms I wore daily to the "whatevers" that peppered my sentences.
Twenty years later, Cher's influence is still apparent in my clothing, taste in men (Paul Rudd: the OG crush) and vocal affectations. To say that it goes beyond a film in its importance is an understatement because in the fifth grade, I couldn't know some of the future adult life lessons that Clueless would leave me with.
- Negotiating skills
- Always take a lap before committing to a location
- The perils and joys of matchmaking
- The full understanding of both Twin Peaks experience and "balls fly at my nose."
- Never settling
- Everywhere in L.A. takes 20 minutes.
- Shopping as emotional rejuvenation
- Take a chance on people
- L.A. is a magical place
- "Surfing the crimson wave"
- The importance of banter in romantic relationships
- Social coordination is exhausting
- A grand entrance (aided by staircase) is the only way to enter a room
- In regards to Cher & Christian, learn/know your demographic
- Explore the world of bare midriffs
- Party clothes are binding
- Makeover montages are incredibly important particularly when set to "Supermodel" by Jill Sobule
- Never have something baking when a boy comes over
- "Always leave them wanting more"
- Burning things is always cathartic
- The lady squad is the number one
-- Kerensa Cadenas
Clueless Was My Teen Gateway Drug
I must've been six years old when I first saw Clueless, most likely via one of my older girl cousins, then 10 and 16 respectively. Something really stuck in my impressionable brain because I was an avid fan of what I now realize was a pretty sorry TV adaptation after. But who can blame Hollywood for trying to wring more Beverly Hills adventures out of Cher Horowitz? Writing this and realizing how young I had to have been when I first saw it explains a fucking lot fam. Like why I consider The CW to be lowkey the hardest network out. Clueless served as my gateway drug, and what a fix it was.
I'd later seek out the same witty, California-intelligent cool-teens in a vast high school universe in Veronica Mars. Or the same endearing narcissism in The O.C. Dan Hedaya's lovably gruff Mr. Horowitz is just Sandy Cohen with more posturing. Each generation has their entry points to the teen drama genre, but those of us who were blessed enough to have theirs be Clueless got an express lesson in just how intelligent this grossly underrated genre can be. It'd been awhile since I rewatched it, but Cher, Dionne, Murray, Tai and even fuccbois like Elton don't coast on nostalgia bias. It was just as engrossing as it was in '95. A true timeless classic.
--Frazier Tharpe