Clueless

The typical genre of teen films are drama, romance and comedy. In teen films what usually occurs is based around the issues of friendship, family, relationships, bullying, being an individual, romance, growing up, fitting in and discovering who you are. Teen films are usually set in high schools, homes of the main characters, shopping centres, parties etc.
Five teen films I have watched are:
· Easy A
·Mean Girls
·Wild Child
· She’s the Man
· Sydney White


Character Descriptions

Cher: Cher is the sixteen year old blonde protagonist in this film. All she cares for is fashion and getting her own way. She is a popular, self-absorbed girl who manipulates teachers to improve her grades.  An example of this is when she convinced two of her teachers, Mr Hall and Miss Geist, that they were secret admirers of each other. This helpful skill was learnt from her father who is a rich lawyer. Cher also likes to help people.

Dionne:  Dionne is Cher’s best friend, and like Cher she is also popular and loves fashion, but seems more intelligent than her.  She often assists Cher with her schemes but is reluctant at first, for example, giving Tai a makeover. Donnie is in a relationship with Murray. They sometimes fight but in the end sort things out because they care for each other.

Tai: Tai is a transfer student who at the start of the film cares more for personality than looks. After Cher and Dionne give her a makeover she becomes somewhat selfish and shallow as she gains popularity. She has feelings for a skater named Travis.

Josh: Josh is Cher’s former step brother who teases her throughout the movie. He also shows loving feelings towards her in some scenes such as when he defends her for the mix up of legal papers. He is an environmentalist who sometimes works with Mel hoping to pick up skills to help with his future career in environmental law.

Murray: Murray is Dionne’s boyfriend who occasionally helps her with driving. They fight quite a lot in public places, mostly at school. Despite this they have strong feelings for each other.

Elton: Elton is a rich, popular and arrogant person. Cher tries to set him up with Tai but this fails as he actually has feelings for Cher. When she rejects him, he leaves her at a random place in The Valley where she is robbed by a man with a gun.

Travis: Travis is a skater who falls in love with Tai when she first transfers to Bronson Alcott High. He seeks her affection but fails in the beginning as Cher tries to set Tai up with Elton. Travis is constantly late for class and usually has poor grades.

Mal (Cher’s Dad): Mal is Cher’s father and Josh’s step father. He is a wealthy, single man who has a job as a lawyer. He is very dedicated to his job. Mal is protective of his daughter and scrutinizes her dates.

Mr Hall: Mr Hall is one of Cher’s teachers. He is a hard grader and doesn’t change Cher’s grade when she tries to persuade him too. This results in her setting him up with Miss Geist so he is more lenient with grades.

Miss Geist: Miss Geist is one of Cher’s teachers who is awkward and a very passionate environmentalist. She gets into a relationship with Mr Hall after Cher sets them up by making them believe they are each other’s secret admirers.

Character Development

Cher: In the beginning Cher is a very self-absorbed, manipulative girl. Throughout the film she begins to realise she can’t control everyone and always get her own way. For example, when she fails her driving test simply because she cannot drive, she isn’t able to convince her instructor to change her fail to a pass. By the end of the film she takes others feelings into consideration instead of just caring about what she gains from helping them. She helps people because she wants to, such as the flood victims.

Dionne: At the beginning of the film Dionne was disrespectful to Murray and was reluctant to help people, for example, the flood victims and Tai. She mainly cared about herself. At the end of the film she is more understanding and accepting of other people and sees how caring Murray really is. She also discovers it can be fun to help people.

Tai: In the beginning Tai was a nice, friendly person who was seen as un-cool. After Cher and Dionne gave her a makeover she slowly gained popularity and started becoming a different person. For example, she snapped at Cher for thinking her and Josh wouldn’t be a good couple. She eventually apologized and turned into a more confident, well dressed version of her old self.

Josh: At the start of the film Josh teased Cher and rarely showed affection towards her. As the film went on he started being nice to her; he picked her up when she was abandoned by Elton and he stood up for her when she was blamed for messing up legal papers.

Costumes

Cher, Dionne and Tai wear similar outfits except for the beginning of the film where Tai wears jeans, t-shirts and flannelette shirts. The girls often wear skirts, long socks, dresses, long coats, jumpers, cardigans, singlets and jeans. The clothes were colourful and rarely dull. They also wear various accessories such as headbands and clips. Josh wore shirts, t-shirts, jackets, jeans and caps. The colour of his clothes were dull and usually a mixture of white, brown, green and blue. Murray wore caps, hoodies, t-shirts, jackets, shorts and sweat pants. His outfits weren’t extremely colourful.

Plot

Clueless is about a popular, fashionable teenager named Cher and her best friend Dionne. After she receives bad grades she plays the role of match maker for her harsh grading teacher’s, Mr hall and Mrs Geist. After they become lenient with grading Cher decides she loves helping people and gives the transfer student Tai a makeover. One thing leads to another and she finds herself falling for someone unexpected.

Setting

Clueless is set in Beverly Hills, California. The sub settings include Cher’s house, The Valley and Bronson Alcott High which includes class rooms, the teachers’ lounge and various places on the school grounds.

Music Featured

Most of the music featured in the film was upbeat and typical music that a teenager from the 90’s would listen to. I think this music was selected as it fits in perfectly with the scenes in the film. It was also popular at the time and gave a good atmosphere.

Issues:

·         Drugs – Tai took drugs and so did other students at Bronson Alcott High.

·         Homosexuality – Justin was homosexual.

·         Fitting in – Tai was an outcast before she had a makeover.

·         Driving – Cher was a bad driver and failed her driving test.

·         Love – Relationships such as Dionne and Murray, Tai and Travis and Cher and Josh.

These themes are similar to ones in other teen movies I have watched as lots have the themes of love, fitting in etc.

Film Review

Cher and her best friend Dionne are the most popular girls at Bronson Alcott High. All they have to worry about is what to wear. Whenever Cher receives a bad grade she just uses the power of persuasion to change it. One day this fails. She decides to do some match making with two of her teachers, Mr Hall and Miss Geist. This makes them relax on their harsh grading and soon enough Cher’s grade changes from a C to A-. Cher soon discovers she loves do-gooding and decides to transform the outcast Tai into someone who resembles her stylish and popular self. She does some more match making and soon enough her perfect world starts to fall apart in front of her eyes. The love of her ex step brother Josh is the only thing that can mend it.

This typical teen movie full of love and stereotypes is perfect to watch if you want to kill some time.