There are few movies like Clueless out there. Across a wide and varied swath of audience, the Amy Heckerling directed 1995 comedy is utterly beloved. To mark the film’s 25th anniversary, Paramount Pictures has released a Blu-Ray version of the film that features some fresh exterior artwork in the form of a stellar Steelbook that fans, both new and veteran, will adore.
It’s hard to remember a time when Clueless didn’t exist. But as 1994 turned into 1995, word circulated that the director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Johnny Dangerously was updating Jane Austen’s Emma for the new-to-cell-phone using high school crowd. She couldn’t have scored a better “Emma,” here named Cher, in Alicia Silverstone. Fresh from serving as Aerosmith’s muse for a handful of music videos, the teenage star portrayed a 15-year-old Beverly Hills High School student who has an impeccable knack for hooking up her friends. She’s a modern-day matchmaker, like a certain Austen protagonist.
Silverstone was a revelation. Her Cher has become one of the most beloved characters of the 90s from the silver screen for many reasons. She lit up the screen every single second she was gracing it throughout Heckerling’s triumph. The actress managed to thread a pretty incredible needle if you think about it. Her Cher was a spoiled kid, but she wasn’t spoiled as a person. She had a great heart, and it was that heart that rooted her desire to play matchmaker for her friends—to spread the love, literally. Silverstone also had a naivete to her characterization that was perfect for someone playing a 15-year-old. That is around the age where you are starting to feel like an adult, but you still firmly have one foot anchored in childhood. The way that Silverstone inhabited Cher, she was motivated by goodness, and even gave her stepbrother a chance (Paul Rudd). That is even though he was a bit on the pompous side.
Cher and her persona permeated every frame of Clueless, even the ones she wasn’t in. That made it incredibly important, more so than usual, that casting was key to success. In hindsight, was there ever a question as to Silverstone’s merit for portraying Cher? No, it wasn’t. After all, the actress was simply known as that Aerosmith girl and a few folks had seen her in the ingenue role of The Crush. After Clueless, life would never be the same for Silverstone. Although she was recently seen in the remake of Valley Girl, the actress hasn’t exactly been the most in-demand thespian working in Hollywood. One could argue that that was due to the fact that she was almost too good as Cher in Clueless and casting agents failed to see what else she could do. Lucky for us, because it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role that made her a household name.
Heckerling also penned the script and as such, was innately connected to the material, which comes through on every single millisecond of her flick. At the time, Austen hadn’t fully enjoyed her full cinematic resurgence. Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility would not arrive until later that year (1995), Gwyneth Paltrow’s Emma wouldn’t arrive on screens for another year (1996) and the Colin Firth starring (i.e. the best one!) Pride and Prejudice had debuted across the pond that year. So, giving the writer-director the green light to pen and film a film based on an author that had not yet proved box office-friendly was a risk. But, after the work she did on Fast Times and other films, Paramount had to know they were in good hands and what she delivered is nothing short of a classic.
That’s why it is so important for home video aficionados to race to add the Steelbook Clueless on Blu-Ray. This is a fantastic transfer, i.e. it looks great and sounds great. It is firmly one of those movies that one has to own because you know viewing it more than once is a given! It’s a feel-good film that possesses a powerful message that the key to personal happiness, oftentimes, lies within us. Sometimes we are so busy trying to ensure that our family and friends are on the happier end of the spectrum, that we may forget ourselves in the mix. As Heckerling paints her picture, with strokes that stemmed from the great Austen, being the source of our own happiness has always been a theme that permeated her books (and of course, her movies). That is especially important for girls who can have an incredible character model in the form of Cher. I know, the girl from Clueless? Yes, the girl from Clueless! She is independent, smart, funny and most of all-she gets that love is important, but it is not what defines us.
The ensemble that supports Silverstone is sublime, including the ageless Rudd, the late Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison, Stacey Dash, Jeremy Sisto, Wallace Shawn, and Breckin Meyer. That group of talented thespians are the focus of the bonus features Class of ’95. The almost twenty-minute look at the casting of the film is an utterly fascinating look at how Heckerling found her cast and how they brought promise to perfection.
Creative Writing is an almost 10-minute look at how Clueless went from concept, to pitch to iconic flick. It also does a great job of showing how Heckerling took Austen’s Emma and made it a modern tale and in the process introduced countless souls to the genius that is the English author.
One of the things that truly pop in the Blu-Ray of Clueless are the clothes that Cher and her pals sport. Fashion 101 is a great featurette that shines a spotlight on the costume design by Mona May and the effort that went into crafting the look for all these Southern California folks from the uber fashionable Cher to the brooding look of Rudd’s Josh.
It’s not quite A Clockwork Orange, where a dictionary was created for all the new words created for the story, but Clueless came with its own verbiage. Language Arts is a captivating extra that informs the audience as to all the “slang” used in the film and most importantly, how it came to exist.
There are countless souls who believe that they are the biggest Clueless fan in the universe. That can easily be proven true or not with the featurette Clue or False Trivia Game. The pop up “trivia” challenge separates the queen bees from the also-rans when it comes to the entire landscape of Heckerling’s film.
For those who are curious about the game seen in the film, tune into Suck ‘N Blow: A Tutorial as Silverstone and Sisto providing insight into how to play the intriguing game. After that, be sure to dive into Driver’s Ed. Believe it or not, that scene in the film was as harrowing to film as it was for Cher and everyone else in the car during that fateful drive!
Putting things in perspective, particularly for an anniversary Blu-Ray release, is the uber-important We’re History. The cast and crew look back at the experience of making the film and more importantly, the response from society as a whole.
Film Grade: A
Bonus Features: A-