For many teenagers life in high school is an intolerable experience due to constant popularity contests, peer rejection, peer pressure, and the ability of teens to project others perception on self, which often is negative.  On this bridge into adulthood many teens find themselves perplexed about their identity and existence, which is often worsened due to their unawareness of the world and self.  In the confusion of identity crisis and popularity contests many loose themselves and the ability to reassure themselves in their own ability to conceptualize.  Clueless enhances this moment from the perspective of the most popular girl, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) through her extensive cerebral monologues.  These thoughts provide amusement and irony for the audience through self-reflective contemplation and understanding for how many teens might experience adolescence.

With the help of a credit card Cher can afford the best and priciest designer outfits and accessories due to her father Mel (Dan Hedaya), a widowed high paid lawyer that only knows how to raise Cher by spoiling her.  Her social life surrounds shopping and hanging out with her friends at school, which is a heavy-duty job, as she must maintain her status at all times.  Through her popularity she has befriended Dionne (Stacey Dash), and as Cher puts it, "She's my friend because we both know what it is to have people be jealous of us."  Here Heckerling offers a notion of how the social hierarchy is created in high schools and other situations where teens accumulate.

The vanity and narcissism might feel blown up out of proportion, but after having viewed an episode of Laguna Beach it feels a little more authentic.  Cher’s reality perspective is extremely skewed, which brings to mind absent-mindedness and ignorance of the surrounding world.  For example, Cher does not have a driving license, but drives anyway.  When it comes to parking she simply says with convincing belief, “Why learn to park when every place you go has a valet?”  What makes this extra amusing is Cher’s eloquence and verbal dexterity, as the hollow content actually sounds good.  It brings to mind some of the legendary statements made by the French Royal Court in the time right before the French Revolution.  Yet, the audience cannot help to feel sorry for Cher when she finds herself in superficial predicaments, as her existence has been formed by a loving and overly providing father.

Some of the struggles that Cher has to face include how to raise her C-minus grade point average to the project of helping a new student, Tai (Brittany Murphy), to fit into her social grouping.  She also falls in love with a new guy at school, and begins to discuss sex with her friends.  These and many other issues converge in the story of Cher who finds herself struggling with her own identity and existence while coming of age.  It is not unlike many teens in the world, but it is a unique story told out of Cher’s viewpoint.  Heckerling cleverly depicts the importance of nurture, as Cher drifts into the final phase of adolescence and finally crosses the bridge into adulthood in a thoughtfully amusing tale of finding oneself.

DIRECTED BY

COUNTRY

USA

Filmography links and data courtesy of