Clueless: The Whatever Edition- DVD Review

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Amy Heckerling’s (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) young and modern reissue of Jane Austen’s Emma hit theatres, making knee-highs a fashion must, launching Alicia Silverstone’s film career and revolutionizing school yard slang. To commemorate the anniversary of this sassy and timeless examination of the high school experience in Beverly Hills, as seen through the eyes of a saccharin sweet, posh princess Cher (Silverstone), Paramount has released the "Whatever Edition," a DVD collection so full of extras, there’s almost no need to watch the movie (but you should, because it’s like, a "pop culture, iconoclastic film," according to Brittany Murphy).

Buyer beware, there is no director or cast commentary on this DVD, but believe us when we tell you there’s really no need for it. The hours of unending features, each one hovering around the 20 minute mark, effortlessly and thoroughly breakdown all the important elements of the flick, from the filming of the famous "freeway scene" in Driver’s Ed to the particulars (and difficulties) of our favorite party game, Suck and Blow. With Heckerling and the cast offering their insights along every step of the way, a play by play would seem tedious.

In fact it seems that Heckerling, the mastermind behind every aspect of Clueless, is everywhere on the DVD, so it’s hard to imagine she’d have anything left to say if given the chance for a commentary. Each feature either finds producers and cast members singing her praises, (and rightfully so), or Amy herself taking us through the life of the movie, from its inception to finally seeing the finished product on the big screen. In the same way that Clueless the film is super easy going - not to mention light and flaky - so too are the features on the Whatever DVD; making this special edition a pitch-perfect homage to the movie’s legacy.

Wry and witty, each feature offers a new snippet of need-to-know info about Heckerling and her movie, from how she cut out clippings from papers to get acquainted with slang (and how she invented some of her own) in Language Arts to her mostly unnoticed cameo. The Creative Writing feature probes the literary origins of the movie as well as its history from TV pilot to major blockbuster.

Until Clueless, Silverstone was known as the hot chick from the Aerosmith videos (she starred in "Cryin'," "Amazing" and "Crazy"), a selling point for some of the male cast members, and although she graces the small screen in documentary footage from the principal photography of the film, she unfortunately doesn’t offer much hindsight 20/20 musings on the movie that made her a star. Luckily, Whatever makes a point of tracking down every cast member of the ensemble for a little Q&A, so you quickly forget that you’re not getting enough one-on-one q.t. with Cher. Together they reminisce about how fun it was to make the film, how great Amy is (again) and how they were blown away by the film’s success. The Class Of ’95 featurette, "about like casting and stuff," takes on each character one by one and offers interesting tidbits about the actors that played them. (Did you know that Wallace Shawn, who played Mr. Hall, went to India to teach English on a Fulbright Scholarship? Neither did we!)

Ultimately, Clueless: The Whatever Edition offers a great "then and now" look at the girls whose fashion sense we envied (sometimes) and the Baldwins who made the boys in our class look like losers (some of whom have held on to their Baldwin charms over the years, and some not so much). No matter which section of the midriff is considered attractive, Heckerling’s uncanny ability to mesh with the teenaged psyche will guarantee Clueless a spot at sleepovers for many years to come.