CLUELESS- LETS
BUY A CLUE:
This
film has personally been a favorite of mine for a while. As a child in our home
Clueless was just as classic as Matilda was in others. (Don’t get me wrong, we
loved Matilda too!) There are some key things to notice in this film. We have
some “valley girl” persona going on and mixed amidst this is some very
sophisticated lines that they dole out.
For
example, when Murray calls Dionne woman and she corrects him and says, “street
slang is an increasingly valid form of expression. Most of the feminine
pronouns do have mocking, but not necessarily in misogynistic undertones. “
WOW, after watching this movie so many times I never expect to hear these girls
say things like this.
Heather:
It's just like Hamlet said, "To thine own selfbe true."
Cher: Hamlet didn't say that.
Heather: I think I remember Hamlet accurately.
Cher: Well, I remember Mel Gibson accurately,
and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did.
Some of the lines, as you pointed out, caught me off guard with their sophistication. This film has a lot of merit in it's depth. I never expected it to be anything more than a simple 90s romantic comedy, and so I never would have thought it'd be an adaptation of anything notable.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked how there were surprising bits a sophistication mixed in with all the 90's nonsense. Not only does it make it so much funnier, but it's refreshing to see a film strive to be light and intelligent at the same time. It's a nice parallel to novel, too, which had both humor and some slightly more serious social commentary.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the sophisticated talk in the midst of the nonsense adds a certain level of humor along with keeping ties to the level of language present in Emma. Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have liked this movie all that much, but watching it as an adaptation of Emma and watching for comparisons made it interesting. The use of this language definitely aided in creating that interest.
ReplyDeleteIt is weird how elegant some of the language used in this film is. It seems that most of this language is learned through pop culture, e.g. the Mel Gibson reference to Hamlet. What do you think that says about high schoolers in the 90s? How is it parallel to Emma?
ReplyDeleteWhen this movie first came out, I was also surprised at the knowledge that the characters had and the way they spoke to each other. But at the same time I enjoyed it because it showed two sides of each character that they can be both intelligent and popular, breaking that line of all popular people slash jocks being stupid.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see that point, I was surprised to see the normal cliche of popular and slightly 'dumb' but also the contrast of the smartness of the popular crowd too. It was good contrast to a movie that would have otherwise just seemed like the normal cliche high school experience.
ReplyDelete