In dark times, movies can make us feel better; particularly romantic comedies, and particularly romantic comedies in which everyone has an impossibly goofy smile and the sun constantly shines and everything’s right with the world. As it happens, just such a movie is celebrating a milestone birthday this year: “Clueless,” written and directed by Amy Heckerling, is a movie that should come with its own tagline: Lightening Everyone’s Spirits Since 1995.
I’m a little early with the quarter-century celebration — “Clueless” initially came out in July — but this just seemed like the right moment: A lot of us these days might find ourselves rewatching and rereading. In a time when our social contacts are pretty much limited to the people living with us, hanging out with a favorite movie or book expands that circle. It feels comfortably familiar — like meeting up with an old friend and laughing over the same things you’ve always laughed at, like safety in a storm. And you just can’t rewatch “Clueless” and not feel happier. Its sparkly pop score wraps around you; its charming young cast (and oh, they look young, like a lot of us did in 1995) pulls you in and makes you part of their crowd.
Based loosely on Jane Austen’s “Emma” (a lovely film adaptation of which, coincidentally, opened in theaters before they shutdown and is now available for streaming), “Clueless” is the story of Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a sunny blonde teenager who lives in Beverly Hills with her wealthy attorney father (Dan Hedaya). Self-absorbed but charmingly so, Cher loves to matchmake (two of her teachers at Bronson Alcott High), do makeovers (her “adorably clueless” new friend Tai), and toss her hair around in the presence of her ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd). We immediately see Josh and Cher are meant to be together — and that Rudd, then and now, is a dreamboat — but it takes Cher a while to figure this out, along the way finding that she needs to make herself a better person.
But a description doesn’t convey how deliciously funny this movie is, or how Silverstone plays Cher as if she’s happily floating on helium, or how the language of “Clueless” set off a giddy bomb that still resonates today. Heckerling’s screenplay is a masterful blend of high school dramatics — “Suddenly a dark cloud settled over first period” — and screwball comedy, sprinkled with teenspeak spice. (Did we say “Whatever” and “As if” before this movie?)