The 90s was a glorious time of babydoll dresses, Doc Martens and music’s last truly original gasp for greatness. It also gives us some of the greatest trashy movies of all time, in my stalwart opinion. Among these, Clueless has always stood out to me as one of the best. It’s practically porn for the 90s fashionista, has a soundtrack that makes you remember how much fun life is supposed to be and has a killer cast (Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Breckin Meyer, Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison…all before they were super famous).
But aside from being a fun, feel good kinda flick, Clueless is one of those unassuming movies that you can accidentally learn everything you need to know about life from. Seriously. Here are a few choice lessons to carry with you:
Being picky is a good thing
Cher was saving her virginity for Luke Perry, and while that didn’t exactly work out, setting the bar high for potential suitors did. In the process of not settling for high school “barneys”, she had time to help her friends, her family and her community. She worked on herself, instead of wasting time with someone who didn’t matter. And in the end, she found a sweet love anyway.
“Searching for a boy in high school is as useless as searching for meaning in a Paulie Shore movie.”
One of the paramount concerns for any single adult woman (or an attached one, for that matter) is making the conscious effort to shake off the confidence shaking remains of adolescent romantic rebuttals. I’m sure that somewhere out there, women exist who had rewarding relationships in high school (can you hear the thunderous sound of my monumental eye-roll from there?) but for the most part, teenage boys were more trouble than anything and probably left a slew of insecurities in their wake. Don’t try to analyze boy behavior. They were as confused and hormonal as we were. The only thing to do is take a solid look at yourself in your current, more evolved incarnation and realize that those pre-men had no clue.
At parties, take a lap before committing to a location
When Cher takes her protégé to her first party, they walk in and Cher advises that they take a whirl around the whole party before deciding where to hold court for the evening. Small part in the movie, but big advice for life – don’t just settle on the first good-looking thing to come along, whether that be a man, a job or a living locale. Take a trip around, see what your options are and then (maybe) hang onto something for a longer period of time.
Know what you know and don’t apologize for it
…because chances are, you can apply that knowledge to many other things. Take the scene where ditzy high schooler Cher challenges a pretentious college girl on her quotation of Hamlet. The snooty gal might have “recalled Hamlet accurately” but Cher “recalled Mel Gibson accurately”, which resulted in her being able out-quote the snobby intellectual girl. Whoever you are, just be that…and be it the best way possible.
Paul Rudd always was, and continues to be, the most adorable thing ever
I don’t think I really need to expound upon this thought. He just is.
