Pretty, Vacant

Film: Clueless
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on laptop.

Before I talk at length about Clueless, let’s have a moment of silence for the career of Alicia Silverstone. She was just starting to take off, with Clueless as her official Launchpad and then tragedy struck: Batman & Robin. She’s barely been seen since. There are tragedies like the death of actress Brittany Murphy and then there are tragedies like the death of Alicia Silverstone’s career. Please, a moment if you will.

Anyway. I freely admit that I left Clueless unwatched until now because I frankly didn’t want to watch it. I was familiar enough with the story that I knew I’d have some problems with it. Sure, it’s based on a classic piece of literature, and sure it has a lot going for it and some excellent comedy moments, but it’s also populated by an entire cast of vapid people—the characters, not specifically the actors. I hate vapid, so I’m not sure I’m ever prepared to hunker down for 100 straight minutes of it.

Gnarly!

Film: Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

I wonder when watching a film like Fast Times at Ridgemont High if an actor like Sean Penn looks back at it, does he do so with fondness? I imagine he probably does. For what is otherwise a funny but ultimately throw-away teen comedy from the early 1980s, Fast Times has a huge number of people in it who went on to do a hell of a lot more, like Penn. This has to be one of the reasons it was selected for The List. In addition to Sean Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Judge Reinhold (an icon in and of the ‘80s), we get appearances from Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, and Nicolas Cage before he changed his name from Coppola. It’s also the debut screenplay from Cameron Crowe. For what most people think of as a teen sex comedy, it’s got a pretty good pedigree.

The other, were I to venture a guess, is that it’s one of the rare teen films that blends the sort of raucous sex-and-drugs comedy that most of its key demographic are looking for with some actual drama. If it’s been awhile since you’ve seen this, you may forget that there’s more than just Sean Penn getting stoned with Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards and Phoebe Cates taking off the top of her swimsuit here.