Wednesday, June 24, 2015

F This Movie! - Clueless

Patrick and Doug are kind of Baldwins.



Download this episode here. (96.3 MB)

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Also discussed this episode: Geek USA (2013), Tusk (2014), Inside Out (2015), Dope (2015), Savage Streets (1984)

17 comments:

  1. Love that you did a podcast on this! It's one of my favorites as well. And one of the funniest bits of Happy Endings was Elisha Cuthbert saying, "See you later. Hopefully not sporadically" when leaving to watch the Criterion edition of Clueless.

    It's surprising how good everyone is in this movie and how it didn't really launch any of their careers. I can totally vouch for how Paul Rudd's career languished in the years after this movie was made -- around 2000, I won a bet with a friend who swore that Ben Affleck played the role of Josh. Alicia Silverstone was fantastic in it. I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out, but it is how strange how sweet and innocent she is despite being kind of a spoiled brat and I agree that it's absolutely in Silverstone's performance. Yes, they lay out that she's a virgin early on, but her wholesomeness makes it believable.

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  2. When Clueless came out I totally dismissed it as a normal teen comedy and never bothered to see it. About a year later I watched it with my girlfriend at the time and it has become one of my favorite comedies. So much so that I find myself going back to it often. I still use the quote from when Murray enters the house party - "Awwww yeah, this shit is wack!" I also love Dan Hedaya in this flick.

    I enjoyed hearing you guys talking about this. I think this film is a great example of something that has grown to be mostly universally loved.

    Btw - I actually do get nostalgic for Empire Records (although it's not that good) but that's because I worked at Tower Records for 10 years.

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  3. Clueless is one of my favourite movie adaptions. It's pretty close, especially the whole Travis, Tai and Elton stuff (the josh character is a family friend - I am pretty sure). Though it really gets the tone right, and being able to like a shallow teenager. Which is a thing an adaption should do. But in saying this, a movie should also be able to stand on it's own without the source material. Clueless has it's own vibe and is it's own beast. I love the visual jokes such as the line of nose jobs. Plus it has the lines, 'What the hell is that?', 'a dress', 'who says?', 'Clavin Klein'. Makes me giggle every time.

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  4. Funny thing is, I was actually a big fan of Bunheads. (Sutton Foster is a fantastic Broadway performer so I gave it a shot based on her and it turned out to be a very fun, charming little thing that deserved another season.)

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  5. I listened to this at work which was a terrible idea! All I want to do now is watch it again and I can't because I'm at work. Sadness.

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  6. Great show. I love this movie. As an Austen fan this is my favourite adaptation. So many people try adapt Austen and in my opinion really don't ever get near to the true spirit of Austen. Granted, I haven't read Emma since I was 14, but Clueless gets Austen so much more than the majority. I think many people go lavish period settings, bussles and corsets and forget about everything else. The biting satire, how funny she is, the characterisations of the smallest charaters and how vibrant and ahead of her time she was. Amy Heckerling gets all of this and manages to make it all her own too. I think if Austen were able to see all the adaptations of hers over the years, this would be her favourite too.

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    Replies
    1. As usual you say it more intelligently and eloquently :).

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    2. We love Gabby, Very insightfull as always :)

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  7. Really disappointed to miss out on Doug's Random Hearts story. What a tease.

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  8. Alicia was Molly Ringwald-levels of iconic in this film. She was a virgin that couldn't drive with a heart of gold.

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  9. So Dope... ain't?

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  10. I used to have the biggest crush on Stacey Dash. It is odd how Alicia Silverstone didn't blow up. She was arguably pretty popular from 95 to 97 although none of her movies accept clueless are talked about. Also I never really associated her with the Jenifer love Hewitts, Neve Campbell or Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was always in her own little box. Even now people don't really bring her up when talkin about that era In movies. I didn't realize how many teen movie came out in 1999 alone.

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  11. Patrick,
    I will get to have a similar shared movie experience with you this weekend. Between Frozen, Mr.Peabody, and Home, my three young children have been to the movie theater. Our only attempt to go as a family, wife included, was a 10am Summer Series showing off Madagascar 3 at a small theater two Summers ago. Our youngest made it 15 minutes and our middle child made it 45. Marisa hung out with them in the car while Paisley and I finished up...so I don't really consider that a family movie going experience. Since then, they have all seen movies, but we haven't done the family trip since. We are giving out another shot this Saturday night for Inside Out. Really looking forward to it...icing on the cake is that it is going to be a great movie as well.

    Side notes... I really loved Tusk. Got to see it in the theater the same week your review came out. I was engaged the entire time and was just amazed at what I was seeing. Really enjoyable movie for me.

    I will have to give Clueless a rewatch. I probably saw it about 15 years ago and don't remember having the same reaction you do, but there is a lot I don't remember about 15 years ago so it will be worth revisiting.

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  12. Podcast got me through a shitty day at work with a smile, great fun, cheers, and i did return home to having Texas chainsaw massacre 2 on Blu-ray delivered so all's good,
    I liked to hear Tusk get mentioned, a polarised film I personally am really polarised on in my own head, the idea of the film in my head is better than actually watching the film itself, Michael Parks who I love and Kevin Smith who I used to love!

    The F##### up intro part was funny too :)

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  13. Class of '95 represent! I remember a girlfriend dragged me to this at the time and I was such a jerk about it but then ended up really enjoying it. And she dumped me not long after. Hopefully for her brother.

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  14. We are doing the family outing thing this Saturday with Inside out. I agree that it's different for every kid. My 5 year old can sit through movies, but it has to be something she's really interested in. My 3 year old is still not ready. That's why we're doing the safe alternative of taking them both to the drive-in. Then, not only do you not have to worry about your kids bothering other patrons, but drive-ins are just the coolest.

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