Though now hailed as a banner decade for the genre, the 1990s started out as a desolate time for teen movies. After the jet-black high school satire Heathers pulled the rug out from under John Hughes and his oversharing Brat Pack, in 1989, American adolescents were left with few offerings, most of them wistful odes to another age – either stylistically, as with the overblown, pirate-radio-themed Christian Slater vehicle Pump Up the Volume; or quite literally, in the case of Richard Linklater’s nostalgia-fuelled 70s pastiche, Dazed and Confused.

So when, in 1995, Paramount gave director Amy Heckerling (then best known for her work on the Look Who’s Talking franchise) the go-ahead to shoot a $20m high-school adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, few would have expected the film to break even, let alone become a cultural touchstone for decades to come.

This week, rapper Iggy Azalea and singer Charli XCX became the latest hipster luminaries to pay public tribute to Clueless – in their case by meticulously recreating some of the film’s iconic scenes in the video for their new single, Fancy. Parading through the halls of Los Angeles’s Occidental College (the very same halls inhabited by Heckerling’s young cast), the duo step effortlessly into the shoes of Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy as they don their tartan best.

As tributes go, it’s straightforward, sincere and remarkably faithful to its source material. This isn’t an ironic embrace of 90s clichés – it’s a wholehearted love letter to a titan of pop culture.

The video’s seven-figure YouTube play count isn’t the only indication that Clueless is in the midst of a full-blown renaissance. Last year, the boutique Los Angeles fashion label Wildfox dedicated its entire Spring collection to a recreation of Cher, Dionne and Tai’s unmistakable wardrobes, while Vulture tracked down the bulk of the film’s cast (plus Rollin’ With My Homies hitmaker Coolio) for an oral history of the iconic ‘party in the Valley’ scene. Revival screenings have popped up everywhere from the Castro Theatre to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, while quote-along events at repertory theatres like London’s Prince Charles Cinema attract hundreds of giddy fans.



I won’t pretend the timing hasn’t played in my favour. This week, I’m at the SXSW festival for the world premiere of my new film, Beyond Clueless: a feature-length odyssey through the teen genre.

The name is intended as an allusion to the beautiful confusion of adolescence on screen, but it’s also a nod to the transformative effect Heckerling’s film had on the landscape of teen cinema, not least because its financial success set in motion a complete reversal of the genre’s fortunes. (The next 10 years would be awash with teen movie big-hitters like Cruel Intentions, 10 Things I Hate About You and Mean Girls.)

The true impact of the film, though, had little to do with its box-office result. At a time when the teen genre seemed determined to keep digging into the archives – eating itself up until nothing remained – Clueless was purely, unequivocally of its time. Heckerling’s script brimmed with bracing new slang, her soundtrack was loaded with cuts that bore close relation to contemporary tastes, and her cast had youth and vitality on their side.

The film spoke to teenagers directly and, refreshingly, it did so across gender lines. Few teen movies before or since can boast a love interest as engaging as Paul Rudd’s Radiohead-listening, tree-planting, geopolitics-following Josh.

Clueless seared itself into the hearts, minds and elaborate vocabularies of a generation. Today, they’re all grown up and ready to repay the favour.