When you ask most guys to name their favourite film of the 90s, you’ll get the usual answers like Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction or The Matrix.
Sometimes you’ll get more niche choices like The Big Lebowski or American History X, but no one ever seems to say Clueless.
As the film celebrates its 20th anniversary, we want to work out why more men don’t admit to liking a film which many will privately admit is an all-time classic.
Sure, it’s seen as a chick-flick, but that’s downplaying the nuance and intelligence of the modern masterpiece. Barely a year has passed since 1995 when we haven’t seen multiple movies so clearly influenced by Amy Heckerling’s magnum opus.
When looking back at Clueless, the first thing you notice is the quality of the cast. Paul Rudd! Brittany Murphy! Turk from Scrubs!
Strangely it’s only the two leads, Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash, who didn’t push on from their parts in the film, but that’s even more reason to like them.
Clueless is clearly the best thing either of them has done, so embrace it.
Moreover, it’s surprisingly deep. Cher’s oral presentation on violence in the media has a real #makeuthink quality about it, in amongst all the apparent shallowness.
Satirising high and low culture simultaneously? You don’t get that with Independence Day. Or if you do, you don’t notice it because of all the explosions.
Some will say it lacks the intelligence of Schindler’s List, the humour of Clerks or the star power of Last Action Hero, but we prefer to look at it another way.
Clueless is more intelligent than Last Action Hero, more star-studded than Clerks, and much, much funnier than Schindler’s List. Go on, try to deny it.
If you’re one of those blokes who dismissed Clueless first time around, give it another chance. You won’t regret it.
