'Clueless' Just Graduated

Today, Clueless turns eighteen.  Cher Horowitz would be graduating.  Ah...

I first saw Clueless when it came out on VHS.  My cousin Natasha (who lived across the street) invited me over to watch it with her, and I couldn't have been more thrilled.  Natasha was all freckles and strawberry blonde hair.  A beautiful oasis that this young gay boy could look up to. 

I didn't really get all the humor in Clueless on my first viewing.  I was eleven or twelve when I first saw it, so I sort-of knew what all the high school jokes meant.  I mean Cher, Dionne, Tai and Elton were fifteen.  Much more mature and sophisticated than I was at my ignorant stage of life.  They had cell phones.  They could drive.  They could go to a house party and steal a plastic snowmen Christmas decorations!  Hello new favorite flick!  I also just liked looking at the girls in the fun, pretty clothes.

I knew that Clueless was a modern take on Jane Austen's Emma, but why read a literary classic when you can have Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd act it out with fun jargon!  

One of the best things about Amy Heckerling's ode to California teens is the performance by Brittany Murphy.  Murphy's Tai is awkward and relatable.  After Silverstone's Cher takes her under her wing, she becomes a popular Betty like the rest of the group.  It was a breakout role for Murphy, and she provided one of the movie's most memorable, and quoted, lines.

 

Clueless is just a great movie.  It introduced me to actors that I will always love.  

"Would you look at that body language?  Legs crossed towards each other.  That's an unequivocal sex invite."

I can't even quote everything because it's gold.  Obviously.  Here are my favorites though.

This might be my first introduction to a gay character.

 

It just goes on and on.  One of the great things about Clueless is that Entertainment Weekly did a photo shoot for their annual reunions issue.  

Congratulations on graduating Clueless.  Hopefully, somewhere Natasha is watching it too.