Rent Clueless (1995)

Pass Grade (spoiler) - Clueless review by Steve

Influential High School comedy which spoofs the dumbed down rich kids of the Los Angeles suburbs. There is some satisfaction to be had from how faithful the narrative stays to Jane Austen's Emma. And there are similar weaknesses, like how far can we go to forgive its entitled, foolish protagonist?

Viewers with a switched on moral radar may find some of this repellant, but it mostly gets by on the charm of Alicia Silverstone's performance as Cher, the beautiful, hubristic airhead who can't help meddling in the affairs of others; until she experiences humility, and other life lessons. She also finds true love...

Though the romantic resolution is unsatisfactory; she's going to date her stepbrother? Yew... as if. And Cher is too manipulative to make her last minute change of heart credible. Among the support cast, Brittany Murphy stands out as the perky slacker the queen bee tries to makeover into a clone of herself.

There are the usual genre signifiers, with the teenage fashions (the elite dress like Sunset hookers on limitless credit), the jukebox soundtrack, the school class system; the delineation of tribal subcultures maps the territory for its many imitators. Much of this is astute, but Cher is too hard to like for a romcom.