A full quarter-century ago, a total Betty sauntered into our lives, bringing with her an entirely new vernacular, the dreamiest closet we never knew we needed and a coming of age tale that continues to resonate with each new generation that discovers it.
Also, Paul Rudd. So much Paul Rudd.
Frankly, it’s hard to fully encapsulate all that Amy Heckerling‘s Clueless gave us. There’s the ’90s teen lingo (totally buggin’, full-on Monet), the dialogue that still delights (“And my buns, they don’t feel nothin’ like steel,”), the certified platinum soundtrack (“Rollin’ With My Homies”!), the fashions that inspired hordes of Gen Xers to step away from the grunge and, most importantly, a feminist icon who showed you could be flawed and a bit vapid and still strong AF.
And it all began with a simple request. Coming off Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Look Who’s Talking, writer-director Heckerling “was asked by Fox’s TV department to pitch them an idea,” she recalled to The Telegraph in 2015. “They said, ‘we want you to do something about young people. About the cool kids in high school, because all the guys who pitch us high school ideas always pitch them about the nerds.'”