8
Thursday, July 27,1995
‘Clueless’:
Hits, Misses
And Disses
Feeling clueless? Then you might enjoy
the new movie of the same name, written
and directed by Amy Heckeriing, best
known for 1982’s “Fast Times at
Ridgemont High. ” Staring MTV vixen (and
youngest Aerosmith member) Alicia
Silverstone, along with a handful of other
cuties, this film tells the tale 0f... well, very
little.
Butunlike, say, “Pulp Fiction,” in which
the lack of a di
rect plot moti
vated story
seems irrel
eva n t ,
“Gueless" suf-
BRENT SIMON
Movie Review
'Clueless'
C
fers from its incoherence and the notion
that teen slang is story enough for a major
motion picture.
Playing like a 95 minute “Saturday Night
Live” Gap Girls skit, “Gueless” meanders
all over the map only to find its way back to
a conventional ending that seems more
than a bit forced.
Silverstone pouts and charms her way
through as Cher, an extremely rich and
fashion-conscious caricature of a high
schoolgirl. Her best friend is Dionne (Stacey
Dash), and their lives are the usual teen
whirlwind of shopping, relationships and
gossip.
Visually, the film can be summed up
quite easily: think colorful. The outfits,
which show up in seizure-inducing hues of
red, yellow and blue, are meant to be comic
excess and Cher’s overstocked closet would
make even the “90210” kids look down
right poverty-stricken.
As mentioned, there is no real direction
to the story, unless you include the intro
duction of Ty, “the new girl," whom
Dionne and Cher adopt into their circle
and attempt to make over. And eventually
Cher does make a realization about love,
but with all the swapping and the indeci
sion that goes on through the movie, it’s
not exactly the most convincing of end
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Alicia Silverstone, best-known as 'that girl in the Aerosmith videos,' turns in a bubbly performance
as Cher, a well-off Beverly Hills high-schooler, in Amy Heckerling's 'Clueless.'
mgs.
The story, however, is not the main
point of this affair the script seems
mainly interested in working conversations
out of one-liners and teen vernacular, but
the bubbly dialogue and quick-witted snip
pets somehow aren’t always as funny as
they could be if they came from characters
that had real personality.
Still, there are some undeniably funny
moments that stem from a real sense of
laissez-faire production. This movie may
be “Gueless,” but you get the feeling that
Heckeriing still understands the naive petu
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lance and slacker element of the younger
generation that she portrays.
The problem is that the entire film plays
like a slightly more cerebral episode of
“House of Style.” Featuring neato teen
disses and a soundtrack that includes
Coolio, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and
Counting Crows, “Clueless” manages to
come across as more cool in theory than in
substance.
I had the odd experience of seeing
“Gueless” the same dayasmy 14-year-old
sister. Upon learning that I had seen it, my
sister bounded into the room, enthusiasm
happy to answer all your questions, and help to
determine if Depo-Provera is the right contraceptive
choice for you. For a limited time only, your first Depo-
Provera shot will be free. You only pay the cost of your
exam. Call Planned Parenthood at 942-7762 in
Chapel Hill or 286-2672 in Durham.
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that only a young high school girl can
muster gushing forth. “Omigod, wasn’t
that funnier than a mob scene? Wicked, to
be sure!”
And while I’m still working on the logis
tics of that comparison and the specifics of
her argument, that single moment may be
a better indication of this movie that any
thing that I could ever write.
“Gueless” is the latest studio stab at
teen comedy, and the first such film in a
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Artist Out of Control
Drives ‘Wonder Boys’
Michael Chabon is a young writer who
looks like a fifth-year senior on the cover
sleeve of his new novel. He’s been dubbed
a Brat Pack writer together with Bret Easton
Ellis and Jay Mclnemey; more out of the
literary critics’ need to set writers up in
imaginary little guilds than anything else.
That said, “Wonder Boys” does leave
those other young bucks rocking in his
wake. “Wonder Boys” is a beautifully writ-
ten, fully real
ized novel
about the per
petual atmo
sphere of fail-
| DAVID PATTERSON |
Rook Review
'Wonder Boys'
ure that Graham Greene claims all artists
live in.
Grady Tripp is an aging novelist and
professor whose status as a ‘wonder boy’ is
a distant pot-addled memory and whose
magnum opus, also titled “Wonder Boys, ”
is proving to be as long-winded as a semes
ter of dull lectures and as unmanageable as
his life. Tripp has been working on “Won
der Boys” for the past seven years and has
not yet reached even its projected midway
point, even though it is about the size of A-
P of the World Book Encyclopedia.
His life is falling apart in ways that we’ll
Arts & Entertainment
Calendar
THURSDAY, JULY 27
GRAVITY'S PULL (Crape Myrtle Festival
Benefit) at Cats Cradle. 967-9053.
IODINE AND BOURBON at Local 506.942-
5506.
MUMBLEFISH WITH VICKY PRATT
KEATING at Crescent City Music Hall & Cafe.
932-3820.
FRIDAY, JULY 28
JUNIOR BROWN WITH LARRY
HUTCHERSON at Cats Cradle. 967-9053.
ED HALL WUH DANIEL CARTIER at
Crescent City Music Hall & Cafe. 932-3820.
TINSEL WITH MOL TRIFFED AND GIGANTIC
at Local 506.942-5506.
SATURDAY, JULY 29
AWARENESS ART ENSEMBLE at Cats
Cradle. 967-9053.
EVIL WEINER WITH SPECIAL GUEST at
Local 506.942-5506.
ACCIDENTALS at Crescent City Music Hall &
Cafe. 932-3820.
3
SUNDAY, JULY 30
KID SISTER at Cats Cradle. 967-9053.
THEY CALL IT GLUE WITH JAM BO EYE
AND MARBLE at Local 506.942-5506.
MONDAY, JULY 31
IN THE JOINT at Crescent City Music Hall &
Cafe. 932-3820.
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leave for the novel to describe. Everyone
he knows is creating fictions of their lives,
fictions he is eagerly an accomplice in. His
best friend, publisher/raconteur Terry
Crabtree, raises all kinds ofhell in his effort
to “write his name on water.” His most
talented student, whose fictions are as sharp
and condensed as Tripp’s are bloated, is a
pathological liar obsessed with Hollywood
suicides.
And Tripp’s former experience with the
writer’s life, the suicide of the obscure
honor writer livingupstaiis in his mother’s
boarding house, is told lovingly with the
punchline, “He set a kind of example that,
asawriter, I’ve been living up to ever since.
I only hope that I haven’t invented him.”
Even his drugof choice, marijuana in Carlos
Santana-sized volumes, is used as an aid to
help him make narrative sense of his life.
Spy or some such other glossy mag
drew up a list in the heyday of the
megafictionists of 10 ways to tell if you’re
reading a postmodern novel. One of the 10
glib clues was if the novel contains a novel
within a novel. This one contains several,
but the device is neither trite nor over
clever. It’s a tender and rolling tribute to a
life and an art out of control.
Movie Night at Local 506.942-5506.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1
LOVE NUT AND WISH FOR FISH at Local
506.942-5506.
LAPANDOWDIES at Crescent City Music Hall
&Cafe. 932-3820.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2
VERSUS WITH ASHLEY STOVE at Cats
Cradle. 967-9053.
SPECIAL EVENTS
EARTH, WIND AND FIRE at Walnut Creek
Ampitheatre, Friday, July 28. For more
information call 919-731-6400.
ALLMAN BROTHERS WITH DAG AND
CHRIS ANDERSON at Walnut Creek
Ampitheatre, Saturday, July 29. For more
information call 919-731-6400.
STEVE MILLER BAND WITH DOOBIE
BROTHERS at Walnut Creek Ampitheatre,
Wednesday, August 2. For more information
call 919-731-6400.
KING ARTHUR RULES at the Forest Theatre,
beginning August 3. Call 932-9793.
CALIGULA at the Forest Theatre, beginning
August 10. Call 932-9793.
DREADFUL at the Forest Theatre, beginning
August 17. Call 932-9793.
To make an announcement contact Dean Hair
or Daniel Kois at 962-0245.