Hollywood has a habit of rebooting and remaking every classic movie they can get their hands on. With recent news of a Clueless remake, it seems like nobody is safe, not even teen movie royalty.
Hollywood is about to do it again. With fresh ideas running dry in La La Land, remakes, reboots, and sequels are all too common.
On October 25, an announcement came that shook the Internet: A Clueless remake is in the works at Paramount. The film is still in early development stages, but according to Deadline, Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver is attached to produce and Glow writer Marquita Robinson will be penning the script.
As you might expect, a lot of fans of the 1995 teen film — which starred Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, and Stacey Dash — are not happy. Some worry that a remake will kill the nostalgia that the original film represents, while others just straight-up think it’s a bad idea.
There are so many reasons why this remake shouldn’t happen, but let me try to break it down.
Clueless is a perfect time capsule of its era. It’s a window into a different point in time that future teens will watch to learn about the youth culture that came before them. It fits so perfectly in the 1990s that to take it out of that decade changes it completely, and would take away everything that made it special in the first place. Everything from the fashion to the slang and music are quintessential ‘90s. Those aspects are arguably one of the most important parts of the film itself and are a major part of its legacy and the nostalgia that comes with it.
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. To take away the aesthetic and slang that made the movie popular would completely change what the film is. But if this new rendition of Clueless did try to incorporate the ‘90s clothes and slang, it would no doubt feel like they were trying too hard, making it seem inauthentic or cheesy.
That’s one of the biggest reasons why Clueless shouldn’t be touched. It was like lightning in a bottle. The filmmakers did not expect for it to be such a phenomenon, they didn’t think the slang would influence a generation or that people would be mimicking Cher and Dionne’s style for years to come. Their aim wasn’t to make a film for a generation, thus so much of the film feels effortless. The actors were perfect in the roles, their California teen vernacular was unique and funny, and the clothes took on a role of their own.
To remake Clueless and attempt to capture what made the original so great would be dangerous. It would constantly be compared to the original, no matter how different they try to make it. In order for it to become the lasting hit that Clueless already is, they would have to be aware of the original film and attempt, at least in some way, to replicate that magic. And that immediately implies some kind of effort, meaning it will not be effortlessly cool like the original.
Teens of different generations should definitely be exposed to Clueless, but by watching the original. It had important lessons about sex, tolerance, and even feminism. Today’s teens should watch it, the same way the kids of the ’90s and 2000s, myself included, watched films like Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club growing up to get a peek into teen life in the ’80s. We would laugh at the outdated references and fashion faux-pas, but appreciated the films as an accomplishment in teen cinema.
Teen culture in the 2010s is also wildly different than that of the ’90s. Political correctness and “woke” culture are more important to the youth of America nowadays and that in itself would influence the storyline massively. Influencing a generation isn’t an easy feat, and if a new Clueless film can’t do that, why even bother?
After all that, my reasoning can be summed up in one simple statement: Not every movie needs a remake.
Hollywood needs to get some original ideas to make classic movies of tomorrow instead of trying to recreate the magic of classic movies of the past. This Clueless movie is still in the early stages and plenty could happen to derail it, so let’s just keep our fingers crossed that it never sees the light of day.