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Issue Date: September 18, 2005
DVD Insider
Get a clue!
A serious scholar schools us on the teen comedy "Clueless."
THE PLOT: Beverly Hills high school hottie Cher (Alicia Silverstone) wants to prove she's got style and substance. She transforms new kid Tai (Brittany Murphy) from burnout to fashionista while hoping to impress her own cute, do-gooding stepbrother (Paul Rudd).
A new edition marks the classic flick's 10th anniversary.
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INSIDER'S CREDENTIALS: Elliott Currie is the author of The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence and a professor at the University of California, Irvine.
OVERVIEW: "I remembered it being more edgy and hard-hitting, kind of like Mean Girls. But really looking at it again, it was cute."
Scene 1: "Way Normal Life" -- Cher and her friends are established as rich kids who shop and drive expensive cars.
"Cher is quite a character about showing herself off. But what this means is ... kids no longer value becoming good at something other than showing off or purchasing things. I see it in my own students, and that can be alarming."
Scene 4: Powers of Persuasion -- Cher manipulates her teachers into changing bad grades on her report card. Her father, a powerful litigator, applauds her crafty work.
"I can't tell you how many students have come to me weeping because their grade-point average is a B+. They say, 'My parents are going to kill me, because now I can't get into a professional school.' Which, of course, isn't true. This culture of competition leads kids to accept cheating as a normal way of life."
Scene 5: Adorably Clueless -- Cher breaks down the social makeup of the school for Tai.
"High school culture sorts kids into piles. In this movie, the kids triumph and [stay friends despite their differences]. My sense is the real world doesn't have that happy ending."
Rebecca Louie
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