Movies to Study: Clueless

A couple days ago, through a string of conversation, one of my friends attempted to insult another friend by saying that he liked the movie 'Clueless.' In response, the other friend said, 'Clueless is like a critically acclaimed movie, like Mean Girls was.' I don't know about 'critically acclaimed,' though it does have an 83% Fresh on Rottentomatoes.com, but what I do know is that the movie is a strong lesson in writing comedy.

Cher Horiwitz, our protagonista of the film, has a very unique perspective of the world around her--she's a pleasant blend of an egocentric personality and naivete to the world around her. Listen how she first describes her Dad:

Daddy's a litigator. Those are the scariest kind of lawyer. Even Lucy, our maid, is terrified of him. And daddy's so good he gets $500 an hour to fight with people. But he fights with me for free because I'm his daughter.

The movie is, if nothing else, a strong mesh of great one-liners. "Searching for a boy in high school is as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie." I'm sure all high school girls would agree, though today I doubt any of them even know who Pauly Shore is.

My favorite part of the movie goes in three phases (like all traditional comedy). When Tai goes over to Cher's house, Cher explains how she tries to learn a new word each day, and it helps to use it in a sentence.

"Sporadic means once in a while. Try using it in a sentence," Cher says to Tai.

That's the setup.

Then, later in that scene, Josh (Paul Rudd) comes in, talks for a beat, and then as he's leaving, he says, "Be seeing you...."

To which Tai responds, "I hope not sporadically."

Hardly a strong grasp of vocabulary, and the awkwardness Tai imposes is the immediate laugh.

But to show how subtle the film is, think about later in the film. Christian comes over to Cher's house to watch movies. Cher tells us, Christian had a thing for Tony Curtis so he brought over "Some Like it Hot" and "Sporadicus."

Sporadicus? Clearly she means 'Spartacus,' but makes a mistake. Her own attempts to become intelligent work against her every once in a while--maybe Cher can't overcome her natural blond lifestyle.

Another interesting thing about the film: Christian is a gay character in the movie, but it is kept hidden as long as possible, ideally to reveal it to us at the same time it's revealed to Cher. And then, in the mall during a scene right after the reveal, Christian is wearing a pink jacket. Odd how he never wore pink before, but now that we know, it's fine.

My only real gripe with the film is in the ending, where Cher and her step-brother Josh get together. Sure, they aren't blood related, but it's still a bit weird. But hey, it's a comedy. Whatever.