CLUELESS
A film review by Janet Miller
Copyright 1995 Janet Miller
I took my teenage daughter to a film last night that I really had misgivings about. I had heard that CLUELESS was an okay film but not anything great. Still, Elizabeth wanted to go and mother-daughter bonding and all that.
So, imagine my surprise when I enjoyed the movie as much as she did. Yes, we aren't talking CITIZEN KANE here and there were no explosions that I can remember, but I found CLUELESS a warm and very funny movie.
The heroine, Cher is young, very pretty, and basically a good kid with perhaps a somewhat warped sense of what is important in life, but then again how many teens have their entire act together when they are in high school.
She was usually nice to other people, lectured on not using drugs in school, and was still a virgin since she was saving herself for someone special. After all, you can see how particular she was about shoes and they only go on your feet.
What else I noticed, is that the people in the film were mostly good people. So often in films like this, the parents are dumb and Cher's dad is busy, but he still keeps track of her grades and praises her when she does well. We also see him catch on to a budding romance before either of the two party's do.
A lot has been made of the language of the film as a combination of phony valley talk and "large" words. The language may not reflect real kid speak, but it was cute and wasn't offensive. And anything that encourages kids to improve their vocabulary can't be all bad. Most kids in upper level English classes are being taught vocabulary words that will show up on the SATs so I didn't find Cher's usage strange at all. My daughter has been known to talk like that and she's just starting high school.
Anyway, I thought the movie was fun, my daughter and I had a good time and I would recommend it for teens and parents with a sense of humor.
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