Clueless (1995)
★★★★ — Clueless (1995)
There are films you watch and enjoy, and then there are films that make you realise you've been watching something that genuinely changed the game. Clueless falls firmly into the second category. I sat down to watch it with my daughter, and what struck me most wasn't just how funny it still is, but how clearly you can trace a direct line from this film to pretty much every teen comedy that followed it. The whole subgenre, the bright colour palette, the sharp-tongued female lead navigating high school hierarchies, the fashion as character, owes a serious debt to what this film pulled off in 1995.
Alicia Silverstone is doing something genuinely difficult here, even if it doesn't always look like it. Playing a character this self-absorbed and this likeable at the same time is a tightrope walk, and for the most part she pulls it off. That said, I won't pretend the performance isn't dialled up well past ten. There are moments where the exaggerated delivery feels like exactly the right choice, and others where you're almost waiting for her to come back down to earth a bit. It's a lot. But it works, mostly because the script is smart enough to keep reminding you that underneath all the bluster, she's actually a good person figuring herself out.
Brittany Murphy, though. Every time she's on screen, something clicks into a higher gear. There's a naturalism to her performance that makes everyone else look like they're acting around her rather than with her. She had a real gift, and watching her here you're reminded just how much she brought to everything she was in. She's the best thing on screen in almost every scene she shares, and that's saying something given the competition.
The soundtrack is exactly what you'd expect, and I mean that as a compliment. It's aggressively, gloriously 90s. The kind of playlist that functions almost like a timestamp, pinning the film to a specific cultural moment so precisely that it becomes part of the texture of the thing. Whether that lands for you probably depends on your relationship to that era, but for me it just added to the charm.
I do think the film skews towards a female audience, and there's nothing wrong with saying that. As a bloke watching it with his daughter, I still found plenty to enjoy, but I was also very aware that this wasn't primarily made with me in mind, and that's actually quite refreshing. It's a film that knows exactly who it's talking to and commits to that fully. My daughter loved it, which is ultimately the best review it could have got from the evening.
Coming of age stories can go stale fast, but Clueless has held up because it's genuinely well constructed beneath the surface gloss. The jokes still land. The emotional beats, when they come, feel earned rather than imposed. And the central character arc, self-absorbed girl slowly becoming someone worth rooting for, is handled with more intelligence than the film's bubblegum exterior might suggest.
Four stars. A classic, and I don't use that word lightly.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 1995 | Watched: 2025-05-24
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Paramount Plus · Paramount+ Amazon Channel · Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount Plus Basic with Ads
Rent: JustWatch TV · Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount Plus Essential · Paramount+ Amazon Channel · Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More romance: The Eagle (1925) · The Last Picture Show (1971) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928)
