Taglines: Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here?
Clueless movie storyline. Alicia Silverstone plays Cherilyn “Cher” Horowitz, a well-intentioned but somewhat superficial girl who is attractive, popular and extremely wealthy. A few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, she has risen to the top of the high school social scene. She lives in a Beverly Hills mansion with her father Mel, a ferocious $500-an-hour litigator; her mother died from a freak accident during a routine liposuction procedure when Cher was a baby.
Cher’s best friend is Dionne Davenport (Stacey Dash), who is also rich, pretty, and hip, and understands what it’s like to be envied. Though Dionne has a long-term relationship with popular student Murray, Cher claims that this is a pointless endeavor on Dionne’s part. Among the few people to find fault with Cher is Josh (Paul Rudd), her socially-conscious ex-stepbrother, who visits her during a break from college. Josh and Cher spar continually but without animosity; she mocks his scruffy idealism, while he teases her for being selfish, vain, and superficial, and says that her only direction in life is “toward the mall”. Cher plays matchmaker for two lonely, nerdy, hard-grading teachers, Mr. Hall and Miss Geist.
She achieves her superficial purpose, to make them relax their grading standards so she can renegotiate a bad report card; but when she sees their newfound happiness, she realizes she enjoys doing good deeds. Cher decides to give back to the community by “adopting” a “tragically unhip” new girl at school, Tai Frasier. Cher and Dionne give Tai a makeover and initiate her into the mysteries of popularity. Cher also tries to extinguish the attraction between Tai and Travis Birkenstock, an amiable skateboarding slacker, and to steer her toward Elton, a popular rich snob.
Her second matchmaking scheme backfires when Elton rejects Tai and attempts to seduce Cher. When a handsome new student named Christian arrives at their school, Cher takes a shine to him and attempts to secure him as her boyfriend. Eventually, Murray spells it out to her and Dionne that Christian is not interested in her because he is gay.
Despite the failure of this endeavor, Cher remains on good terms with Christian, primarily due to her admiration of his taste in art and fashion. Matters take a turn for the worse when Cher’s “project” works too well, and Tai’s popularity surpasses her own. The situation reaches crisis stage after Cher fails her driver’s test and can’t “renegotiate” the result.
When she returns home, crushed, Tai confides that she’s taken a fancy to Josh and wants Cher to help her “get” him. Cher says she doesn’t think Josh is right for Tai, and they quarrel, ending with Tai calling Cher a “virgin who can’t drive”. Feeling “totally clueless”, Cher reflects on her priorities and her repeated failures to understand or appreciate the people in her life.
After much soul searching, Cher realizes she is romantically interested in Josh. She begins making awkward but sincere efforts to live a more purposeful life, including captaining the school’s Pismo Beach disaster relief effort. Cher and Josh eventually admit their feelings for one another, culminating in a tender kiss.
Clueless is a 1995 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy, and was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Lawrence. It is loosely based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, updating the setting to modern Beverly Hills. Elements of the plot were also originally drawn from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, but were later omitted due to lack of continuity.
The film grossed $56 million in the United States, received generally positive reviews from critics, and has developed a cult following. The film was followed by a spin-off television sitcom and series of books.
Clueless (1995)
Directed by: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Elisa Donovan, Breckin Meyer, Dan Hedaya, Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan
Screenplay by: Amy Heckerling
Production Design by: Steven J. Jordan
Cinematography by: Bill Pope
Film Editing by: Debra Chiate
Costume Design by: Mona May
Set Decoration by: Amy Wells
Art Direction by: William Hiney
Music by: David Kitay
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sex related dialogue and some teen use of alcohol and drugs.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: July 19, 1995
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