Does watching Clueless make anyone else feel like the closest Amy Heckerling has come to human contact involves a pair of binoculars? While re-watching this silver screen classic recently, it came to my attention that every single character in the movie is even more stereotypical than my middle school self could have ever realized.
So what more appropriate an occasion that my one-year LA anniversary to revisit such a portrayal of life in the area? None. There is no more appropriate occasion. So read, re-watch, and enjoy these terribly wonderful details from the movie.
First, Paul Rudd’s character, Josh. He’s supposed to be an indie music loving philanthropist, who consistently dons flannel shirts and talks to his girlfriend about Shakespeare. What you didn’t notice: Almost every time Josh is on screen, a Radiohead song is playing. Two times - not one, but two times - it’s “Fake Plastic Trees.”
Then, there’s Christian, the guy Cher thinks is ‘the one.’ What you didn’t notice: he’s so painfully obviously written to be gay. Like, Heckerling slaps you in the face with it. Slaps. Ignoring girls while hitting on a cute bartender at a dance party, reading Oscar Wilde, and listening to Billie Holiday (to which Cher retorts, “I love him”) are only a few ways that Christian is charicaturized to be gay.
On top of all that, there’s Elton’s OBSESSION with The Cranberries, Cher’s debate skills, or lack thereof, and Dion’s (and Murray’s and Cher’s) extreme fear of driving on the freeway. There’s literally a close up of Cher where she, in fear, screams “FREEWAY!!!”
Happy one year anniversary, LA. Makeover and automated closet, here I come!
