Clueless

The now iconic poster

Clueless
July 19, 1995
Paramount
Comedy, Romance
DVD
B+

The same boyfriend that I saw Party Girl with also invited me to this movie.  He most enjoyed the skateboarding sequence, and I wished I had someone to discuss the Jane Austen parallels with.  Luckily, some of the savvier reviews got that this was a modernized, Beverly Hills version of Emma.  Not in every detail (there's no Jane Fairfax for instance), but with enough to have fun spotting.  E.g. Cher (the Emma character, played by Alicia Silverstone) and her best friend Dionne (sort of Mrs. Weston, played by Stacey Dash) are both named after pop-singers, so it's a nice touch that Mr. Elton becomes Elton (as in Elton John).

In retrospect, the parallels seem obvious, but you have to remember that this was just before the Jane Austen revival of the mid to late '90s.  And a teen movie was the last place I expected to find such parallels.  The Austenisms aside, the movie remains a sweet, witty, slightly naughty, very '90s romp.  It was made in partial reaction to grunge (the scene of the boys in backwards baseball caps and baggy pants remains classic, especially since now many of those boys are now middle-aged and still wearing their caps like that), and also as a post-'80s fantasy of various parts of LA.  The vocabulary was close enough to the Val-speak of my own adolescence a dozen years earlier that I could follow it pretty well, although it might seem foreign to those from other backgrounds.

Written and directed by Amy Heckerling, it is both miles from Johnny Dangerously in setting and theme, and not entirely unlike.  Both movies have protagonists who are on top of the world and about to fall, yet still going to come out on top.  They also both have wonderful supporting performances that almost steal the show from the charismatic leads.  And they're both very quotable.

I must note that all three of my 1995 movies have a colorful, happy, and gay-friendly vibe.  This is not how the '90s are necessarily remembered, and it's definitely not true of my '96ers.  But these three embrace a retro, cheerfully defiant attitude, while acknowledging the cynicism of the larger culture.  Also, as in The Brady Bunch Movie, the proliferation of cell phones in LA is used for humor that has dated immeasurably.

Paul Rudd, then 26, makes his big-screen debut as Josh, the Mr. Knightley character, if Mr. Knightley were a smart but slightly pretentious college student who listens to "complaint rock" and briefly grows "chin pubes."  (I told you this was very '90s.)  He would immediately become one of my movie crushes, and remain so these two decades.  We will definitely be seeing more of him.

This time, Dan Hedaya plays Cher's father, Mel Horowitz, cast against type as he was in Tune in Tomorrow....  Julie Brown as Ms. Stoeger, the lesbian PE teacher, is nothing like her character in Earth Girls.  Donald Faison, who's Murray, and Breckin Meyer, who's Travis Birkenstock, would both be Du Jour members in Josie and the Pussycats.  Much of the cast would go on to the Clueless TV series, which ran for three years.

Carl Gottlieb, who's the Priest here, was Dr. Magnus in Johnny Dangerously.  Bobbie Sunday Starr, Passenger in Jeep here, gave Marcia a dirty look in The Brady Bunch Movie.  Aida Linares, who's Lucy the maid here, would be Theresa in The First Wives Club.

"Kind of a Baldwin"?  As if!  Much cuter than Stephen et al.

Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Dangerously
Dec. 21, 1984
Fox
Comedy, Historical, Action
VHS
B+

Although I think this was neglected by the critics at the time, thirty years later it has survived as one of the funniest movies of the '80s.  From its Weird Al theme song to its "crime pays a little" twist ending, it's a rollicking parody of '30s gangster movies with several stand-out performances.  Michael Keaton as the adjectively named title character is dead-on Cagney, with charm of his own.  (He's one of the sweetest gangsters in movie history.)  Maureen Stapleton as his mother (playing 29 in the early scenes, with no change in wardrobe or make-up, although she was then 59) is earthy and deadpan, while Griffin Dunne as his brother is noble and horny.  (Compare and contrast this to his Who's That Girl role three years later).  Joe Piscopo and Richard Dimitri are both very quotable as Johnny's rivals Danny Vermin ("Once!") and Roman Troy Moronie ("You fargin corksucker!").  Marilu Henner is of course sexy as Johnny's girl Lil, but she can also sing and do comedy.  She dresses as a nun in one scene, as she did that same year in Cannonball Run II (which I used to own).  Her Taxi costar Danny DeVito (who'd been in the sexy-women-dressing-as-nuns movie Going Ape! with their costar Tony Danza) appears as District Attorney Burr, who's run over by a malt liquor bull after hitting on Johnny, in one of many '80s references.  There are also '30s jokes of course, and even a slam on William Howard Taft.

Not every joke works, but even the ones that don't, like Dom DeLuise as the Pope, are done with such verve that I can't help smiling.  Much of the humor is sexual but the movie is too good-natured to be sleazy, even when it's tasteless.  If nothing else, you'll have a ball spotting all the cameos, like Dick Butkus as Arthur, Alan Hale, Jr. as the Desk Sergeant, and Ray Walston as the newstand vendor.

Cynthia Szigeti, who was a passenger in The Big Bus and Diner Doll Sophie in The Gong Show Movie, is Mrs. Capone here.  T-Shirt Vendor Jeffrey Weissman was Ringo Fan in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Brainwashed Youth in Sgt. Pepper.  

Taylor Negron, who was Blond-Haired Man Auditioning in The Gong Show Movie, has another uncredited role here, as Delivery Man.  Helen Kelly seems to have had a lot of uncredited roles at that time, among them "Pod" Concert Viewer in Spinal Tap, Wife Visiting Prisoner here, and Woman at the Park in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

This movie was directed by Amy Heckerling, then best known for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which I don't own), and she would go on to direct and write Clueless (which I of course own).  Neal Israel, very briefly Hecklering's husband, as well as the director etc. of Americathon, plays Dr. Zillman in the  army-training film/Betty-Boop satire Your Testicles and You.