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Clueless is back in cinemas for its 30th Anniversary, and a film I only saw for the first time last year, and that’s when it was on TV, but I’ll come to that later.
Since I’m about as knowledgeable on literary classics as she is, I wasn’t initially aware it was based on Jane Austen’s Emma, as lead Cher (Alicia Silverstone – Y2K), is prioritising the happiness and relationships of others over her own.
Even after all this time, it still has a much sharper script than most modern comedies, initially tells us in her narration how she and best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) were “named after famous singers, who now do infomercials”.
Dan Hedaya (Blood Simple, Joe Vs The Volcano) was also at the top of his game as her angry lawyer father, Mel, such as when she’s about to date a prospective suitor, “Hey you, anything happens to my daughter, I got a .45 and a shovel, I doubt anybody would miss you.”
It also features some of the stars to come in bigger things, such as Donald Faison, as Dionne’s boyfriend, Murray, who went on to make a name for himself as Turk in Scrubs, Jeremy Sisto, who went on to Six Feet Under, and definitely the biggest of the lot (albeit with the least talent), Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man films.
Sadly, fate was not kind for Brittany Murphy, as Cher’s new friend and classmate, Tai, the character for whom becomes her project in fitting in and finding her ideal love, but for the actress, she passed away in 2009, aged just 32. The cause of death was argued over time, but points to pneumonia and anemia, the same also happening to her widowed husband, just a few months later. However, Murphy’s family argued the details over and over in the years to come, and it looks like they’ll never settle on an exact cause for either of them, so for her, it’s a tragic end to a promising career.
I’ve not seen the 3-season series which followed (hence, why no movie sequels), even starring many of this film’s original cast – albeit without Ms Silverstone and Ms Murphy – who went on to bigger things, but on a lighter note, the film has more than its fair share of classic lines, such as Cher getting out of a tardy slip because “I was surfing the crimson wave”; and to avoid tennis practice in Games lessons, Amber (Elisa Donovan) explains, “My plastic surgeon says I shouldn’t have to exercise, where balls might fly against my nose”.
Plus, while a handful of “shit”s were blanked/removed from the daytime version of the film (really? in 2025?!), as Cher tries to get her teacher, Mr. Wendell Hall (Wallace Shawn – The Double) and fellow singleton Miss Toby Geist (Twink Caplan, who I always think is Linda Hamilton! Come on, they’re separated at birth!), there was one word I was surprised slipped through – although it’s in the middle of a scene so it’s unavoidable, as she gives Mr Hall some coffee, “Well, I am such a retard. When l was packing Daddy’s lunch this morning, l gave him my lemon Snapple and l took his sucky ltalian roast. Do you want it?”
That said, these days, they’d just film an alternative version for daytime use, replacing the word with something else. So many films didn’t bother in the ’80s and ’90s, so bad dubbing was all the rage, as Robocop and Die Hard showed.
Additionally, given that we’re in 2025, as the BBFC re-rated this for the cinema, they had to state that the film contains “suicide references”, even though it’s only Travis (Breckin Meyer) pretending to jump out of a tiny window (which was impossible to carry out) after failing a test, Mr Hall tells sarcastically comments, “And could the suicide attempts PLEASE be postponed until the next period?”
However, it’s interesting to note that even 30 years on after Cher tried to get Wendell and Toby together (I’ll leave the outcome for you to see), BOTH are still unmarried, now! Come on, make it happen!
Finally, as a couple of asides: How come teenagers are allowed tattoos?
And when Cher muses, “I thought they declared peace in the Middle East?”, I… er… 😀
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
Clueless is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray Limited Collector’s Edition.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 98 minutes
Release date: June 27th 2025 (re-release)
Studio: 1.85:1
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Amy Heckerling
Producers: Robert Lawrence, Scott Rudin
Screenplay: Amy Heckerling
Music: David Kitay
Cast:
Cher: Alicia Silverstone
Dionne: Stacey Dash
Tai: Brittany Murphy
Josh: Paul Rudd
Murray: Donald Faison
Travis: Breckin Meyer
Amber: Elisa Donovan
Elton: Jeremy Sisto
Mel Horowitz: Dan Hedaya
Mr. Wendell Hall: Wallace Shawn
Miss Toby Geist: Twink Caplan
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.