Clueless

Riffing on Jane Austen’s Emma, this satiric portrait of California rich kids has oodles of charm and wit, and a winning central performance from Alicia Silverstone. Cher, 15, is a designer mall rat with a world view several sizes narrower than her vanity mirror, but a heart as big as her dad’s bank account. During a typically unexacting term at Beverly Hills High, Cher adopts newcomer Tai (Brittany Murphy) and teaches her how to be a ’Betty’ (a she-babe), falls for a ’Baldwin’ (a he-babe), and learns that “tis a far, far better thing, when you do stuff for other people.”

There’s something downright perverse about the romantic fade-out Heckerling engineers between Cher and her stepbrother, but Silverstone makes Cher’s insularity appealingly innocent (even in the midst of crisis, she can’t resist checking out the latest fashion lines), and an attempted seduction scene is sweetly hopeless.

Staff Pick: Brittany, Marla & Perry

Brains, youth and a fearless fashion sense can take you pretty far in this heartless world of ours. Clueles possesses all these priceless attributes plus a weightless sense of humor and a matchless heroine.

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel

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