ABSTRACT

The film Clueless offers a comically heightened view of contemporary teenage life that reflects obliquely on the existing world, emphasising optimism and effacing social problems. The film presents an ironic view of its place and time by revealing the limited scope of Cher's insight. Clueless displays the oblique awareness of social and cultural developments of its time. Clueless coincided with a peak in the number of deaths in the United States from AIDS, an issue often evoked in academic and critical writing about the film. While eschewing a dystopian view of youth, Clueless incorporates a dual perspective that centres on Cher's popularity while revealing the insularity of her social world. Clueless can be identified as a revisionist text in its overt references to teen culture. The comedic exaggeration of teenage life in Clueless also reflects wider developments in Hollywood cinema.