I love a few different kinds of movies, they really can be divided into basic groups. My childhood and formative years are hugely populated with "feel good" movies (call it something that kept me alive if need be). Some of them romantic-based, etc. Regardless of the fact that I still love to watch mainstream movies that make me feel good, I remain largely cyncial about humanity and life and what lies beyond (just look at my DVD collection to see that). Call it a guilty pleasure. The habit, that is. Not the movies. The movies are too good to pigeonhole. Besides, my sense of humor lies far between dark satirical comedy, and somewhat slapstick or physical, good-natured 'silly' comedy.
Clueless knows what's going on. And I think writer / director Amy Heckerling still knows. She's very smart and observant. But the market for these kinds of films has kind of dried up. People want stupid nowadays and they want it by the barrelful. But- I'm about the fantasy content of life, so let's pretend that the 1990's never ended. At least for this blog entry.
Clueless defined a generation. A generation who accepted some things and ignored many others. No, not every kind of person who lived in the '90s is here in this movie. But most are. The mentality and mindset is totally represented here. And in a way that doesn't make you totally want to throw up. This film is edgy, at least compared to almost all other teen films (even going back as far as the 1950's).
Now... enough of the pretentious, critical mugging (I've never been published as a Critique anyway) and time to get the good, old-fashioned shallow brainrot. Starting with Alicia Silverstone. She is an absolute Goddess of Teen Film, mainstream and otherwise. Blonde, thin, beautiful, looks that make you just want to kill yourself because you'll never look half as good (not me, but others I'm sure).
This 'cap (above) is wonderful because it shows the kind of blur the culture was in. A haze of music and feeling, a self-involved '90s high that felt really good. One of the last decades with a healthy sense of getting detached from the serious issues of the world. Because things weren't so bad that it was sick to distance ourselves from economic and social woes.
When you weigh Clueless against most of Alicia's career at the time, she only has this movie and the Aerosmith music videos in the way of any artistic merit. Most of her stuff were trashy, teen versions of the Sharon Stone / Glenn Close / Kim Basinger adult erotic thrillers that were raking in buku bucks at the time (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Sliver, Final Analysis, Dangerous Liaisons, and 1994's lesser-seen Linda Fiorentino masterpiece- The Final Seduction). Starting with '93's The Crush (co-starring the gorgeous Cary Elwes), and exploding in '95 with True Crime (co-starring Matt Dillon's brother, Kevin, every bit as good-looking but less beefy), The Babysitter (co-starring the ultra-hunky Dazed and Confused bully Nicky Katt), and Hideaway, which I still haven't seen yet but the trailer plays Silverstone as the mysterious dark stranger supermodel type, which I noticed Babysitter did as well.
No- this 'cap is not a dig at how Alicia was criticized for gaining weight or eating too much (this happened in '96 when it was announced she would be Batgirl in 1997's commercial disaster Batman & Robin... which I didn't think was all that bad). Check out the boytoy in the back (kinda Adrian Pasdar-licious, isn't he?). When are guys from today's crappy TV and movies going to learn how to cut their hair?
Speaking of gorgeous guys (I tried, none of the 'caps I got do him justice)... Josh Lozoff is one of my favorites. Yes I know, he plays the mean guy in the scene and everybody hates him because he's not nice to Alicia. But none of that changes the fact that he's gorgeous. Besides, if he comes home with me, that means one less mean guy on the streets to terrorize everyone else.
It's pretty useless to tell you most of the cast went on to huge careers. Donald Faison's is one of the bigger of note, because he went on to Scrubs, the best television show of this decade (and you will hear a ton about it over the course of this blog's existence). Apparently one of his best friends was star Zach Braff before he did the show. He also went on to the TV series version of Clueless, which lasted 3 years (I don't remember it).
Brittany Murphy may have moved on to become Clueless's greatest success story. With movies and shows like Freeway (with Reese Witherspoon, Brooke Shields, and others), Girl, Interrupted (with Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, and Whoopi Goldberg), and King of the Hill, among many others. She's proved she's an amazing actress, working with directors like Robert Rodriguez, and probably being nominated for nearly every major award under the sun. She really gives acting her all. One watch of Girl, Interrupted proves that.
And, Julie Brown- who was freaking hilarious in Earth Girls Are Easy, where you could say that Alicia Silverstone's character was either Brown's Candy or Geena Davis's Valerie. So, it's kind of like "Cher" of the '80s came back 9 years later to be "Cher" of the '90s' teacher.
Clueless knows what's going on. And I think writer / director Amy Heckerling still knows. She's very smart and observant. But the market for these kinds of films has kind of dried up. People want stupid nowadays and they want it by the barrelful. But- I'm about the fantasy content of life, so let's pretend that the 1990's never ended. At least for this blog entry.
Clueless defined a generation. A generation who accepted some things and ignored many others. No, not every kind of person who lived in the '90s is here in this movie. But most are. The mentality and mindset is totally represented here. And in a way that doesn't make you totally want to throw up. This film is edgy, at least compared to almost all other teen films (even going back as far as the 1950's).
Now... enough of the pretentious, critical mugging (I've never been published as a Critique anyway) and time to get the good, old-fashioned shallow brainrot. Starting with Alicia Silverstone. She is an absolute Goddess of Teen Film, mainstream and otherwise. Blonde, thin, beautiful, looks that make you just want to kill yourself because you'll never look half as good (not me, but others I'm sure).
This 'cap (above) is wonderful because it shows the kind of blur the culture was in. A haze of music and feeling, a self-involved '90s high that felt really good. One of the last decades with a healthy sense of getting detached from the serious issues of the world. Because things weren't so bad that it was sick to distance ourselves from economic and social woes.
When you weigh Clueless against most of Alicia's career at the time, she only has this movie and the Aerosmith music videos in the way of any artistic merit. Most of her stuff were trashy, teen versions of the Sharon Stone / Glenn Close / Kim Basinger adult erotic thrillers that were raking in buku bucks at the time (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Sliver, Final Analysis, Dangerous Liaisons, and 1994's lesser-seen Linda Fiorentino masterpiece- The Final Seduction). Starting with '93's The Crush (co-starring the gorgeous Cary Elwes), and exploding in '95 with True Crime (co-starring Matt Dillon's brother, Kevin, every bit as good-looking but less beefy), The Babysitter (co-starring the ultra-hunky Dazed and Confused bully Nicky Katt), and Hideaway, which I still haven't seen yet but the trailer plays Silverstone as the mysterious dark stranger supermodel type, which I noticed Babysitter did as well.
No- this 'cap is not a dig at how Alicia was criticized for gaining weight or eating too much (this happened in '96 when it was announced she would be Batgirl in 1997's commercial disaster Batman & Robin... which I didn't think was all that bad). Check out the boytoy in the back (kinda Adrian Pasdar-licious, isn't he?). When are guys from today's crappy TV and movies going to learn how to cut their hair?
Speaking of gorgeous guys (I tried, none of the 'caps I got do him justice)... Josh Lozoff is one of my favorites. Yes I know, he plays the mean guy in the scene and everybody hates him because he's not nice to Alicia. But none of that changes the fact that he's gorgeous. Besides, if he comes home with me, that means one less mean guy on the streets to terrorize everyone else.
It's pretty useless to tell you most of the cast went on to huge careers. Donald Faison's is one of the bigger of note, because he went on to Scrubs, the best television show of this decade (and you will hear a ton about it over the course of this blog's existence). Apparently one of his best friends was star Zach Braff before he did the show. He also went on to the TV series version of Clueless, which lasted 3 years (I don't remember it).
Brittany Murphy may have moved on to become Clueless's greatest success story. With movies and shows like Freeway (with Reese Witherspoon, Brooke Shields, and others), Girl, Interrupted (with Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, and Whoopi Goldberg), and King of the Hill, among many others. She's proved she's an amazing actress, working with directors like Robert Rodriguez, and probably being nominated for nearly every major award under the sun. She really gives acting her all. One watch of Girl, Interrupted proves that.
And, Julie Brown- who was freaking hilarious in Earth Girls Are Easy, where you could say that Alicia Silverstone's character was either Brown's Candy or Geena Davis's Valerie. So, it's kind of like "Cher" of the '80s came back 9 years later to be "Cher" of the '90s' teacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment