Clueless Saves the Day

I've had a pretty crappy day. Things were not going my way at work and when I got home this afternoon I had to deal with a washing machine repair man. Boo. Once he left and promised that the washing machine will work this time AND won't spew water all over our new hardwoods again, I settled into the couch to relax and watch some TV.

Luckily things got much better once I found Clueless on HBO. I mean, is there a better movie in the history of teen movies?? I don't think so.

Oh, Clueless. I didn't see it in theaters (I was 10 when it came out) and instead stumbled upon the movie when it was playing on HBO back when I was in 7th grade. (Thank you HBO for picking up what would become one of my favorite movies.) I would scan the little magazine (remember that thing? Oh the days before digital TV!) to find out when it would be playing and attempted to watch it every. single. time. it was on. I somehow did this without my parents knowing that I was watching a PG-13 movie without their approval. I finally got up the nerve and begged my mom to buy the movie for me once it was off HBO. I distinctly remember the Christmas I received the VHS and my mortification when I watched it with my mother at the tender age of 12. Yes, it led to awkward conversations, but i guess I brought it upon myself and can't complain too much. After that day, I kept the tape in my bedroom and only watched it with my girlfriends. Funny how the "embarrassing parts" pale in comparison to some of the stuff on TV and in movies today. But that is neither here nor there. Let's talk about my full on obsession with this movie. You already got a taste, right?

In 8th grade, my two BFFs (one is still my BFF!) and I printed the script and spent an entire sleepover watching and pausing the movie so that we could memorize every line. Do you remember what printers were like in 1998? It took us HOURS to print the hundreds of pages of script. We would replay parts of the movie until we had the next part of the script and could move forward. Why we actually needed the script, I don't remember. It's not like we couldn't have memorized the lines without it (holy triple negative). At the time we thought it was super important to have the script and obviously that it made us cool. We spent the next year quoting the movie non-stop. I guess at some point it became uncool to say "as if" and we reeled in the crazy, but now that Clueless is back as a cult classic, I fondly recall the crash course we took that night.

Needless to say I can still recite the movie to this day. And although many things went over my head back when I watched it in 1998 and there may be slightly different reasons that I love the movie now as compared to then, I still think Clueless is one of the best movies ever. And it will always brighten even the worst of days. Thanks again HBO!