Hey guys! Hope your Thursday has treated you well. I don't have a lot to say today or any announcements, so let's just get into the review!
Stand By Me is another movie I'm not going to go into detail with the plot because the reward for this movie is the journey the characters take. The story is simple. Watching these characters grow is interesting. The movie is set in 1959 and involves four friends (played by Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell) who go on a journey through the woods to see a dead body. Wheaton has recently lost his older brother (played wonderfully in flashbacks by the incredible John Cusack). He wants to be a writer, but his parents barely acknowledged him before his brother died, and now not at all afterward. Phoenix comes from a family of delinquents. Feldman is obsessed with the military, since his dad was a WWII vet, even though he's locked in a mental hospital. O'Connell's older brother is part of a gang, led by Kiefer Sutherland.
Nothing can go wrong when you're walking down train tracks. Image by Columbia Pictures via IMDB
On their journey, they confront their own personal traumas and grow from boys to young men. Especially Wheaton's character, the story essentially focuses on him. Again, as much as I want to talk about individual scenes with you guys, this is a movie you need to see for yourselves. If you have seen it, message me so we can talk about it.
The movie is bookended by Richard Dreyfuss, playing an older version of Wheaton's character, reflecting on his childhood. Now he's an adult, a successful author, and has a son of his own. And he relates to his son through his own past experiences.
Sutherland would get more deadly with a knife in 24. Image by Columbia Pictures via IMDB
Stand By Me was given a limited release on August 8, 1986, and a wide release on August 22. It was a big hit, making over $52 million on a budget of $8 million. The movie is based on a Stephen King novella "The Body." King said, at the time, that it was the best film adaptation of his work that had been done. There was even a story change near the end that King loved. In the novella, Phoenix's character picks up the gun, but it's Wheaton's character in the movie. From a storytelling standpoint, that makes perfect sense, since this is ultimately Wheaton's story. King loved the change, he said it made much more sense than what he wrote. He was so enamored with Reiner and Stand By Me that, a few years later, he made it clear when it came time to sell the film rights to Misery, that Reiner had to produce or direct it, which he did both. But that's another movie for another time. Personally, I enjoy adaptations of King's supernatural horror work, but with a couple of exceptions (1976's Carrie and 1980's The Shining), I think the best adaptations are the ones where the story is grounded in reality. Stand By Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile are all cinema classics. You can hear Reiner talking about the Stephen King stuff, as well as talking about how the movie reflected his relationship with his own father, in an interview with EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG here.
Child actors usually aren't that impressive, but honestly, in the mid-80s you couldn't get much better than Wheaton, Phoenix, Feldman, and O'Connell in a movie starring four pre-teen boys. Honestly, I was kinda blown away by Wheaton in this. I've only seen him in Star Trek: The Next Generation and, to be blunt, he's not very good in that. And that's not his fault, he's a kid, and they weren't pulling compelling performances out of him. And to be even more honest, except for maybe Patrick Stewart, most of the acting on Star Trek TNG (especially the early seasons) isn't anything to write home about. But it's good to see Wheaton in something that old where he gives an amazing performance. The chemistry the four boys have, especially Wheaton and Phoenix, feels real. Reiner had the four boys play theater improv games together for two weeks to create a bond between themselves. And it shows. You can get a sense of this in a 1986 Entertainment Tonight interview with three of the boys. I also recommend this interview with O'Connell in 2019, it's pretty entertaining. In particular, he mentions being called "hyper-active" when he was a child, which is the same thing I was called by adults when I was a kid. I hadn't thought of that phrase in thirty years.
I don't care what the official "behind-the-scene" story is, I'm convinced that Feldman only smoke real ciggies. Image by Columbia Pictures via Gunaxin
Filming of Stand By Me took place in Oregon and parts of Northern California. The movie itself is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, which threw me off at first. Castle Rock is a town used in many Stephen King stories and adaptations, but it's generally set in Maine. Much of the filming took place in Brownsville, Oregon, and the town has adopted July 23rd as Stand By Me Day. They have held an annual celebration since 2007.
The soundtrack for the movie is filled with period-appropriate rock and roll, centered by the title track, "Stand By Me" recorded by Ben E. King. The song was a #4 hit in 1961 and, due to the success of the movie, reentered and hit #9 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.
The movie's scriptwriters, Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It remains one of the most beloved movies to come out of the 80s, with 1991's Boyz n the Hood and 1995's Now and Then paying homage to it.
Just in case you couldn't tell from me gushing about this movie through the review, I really loved it. I can't find much to nitpick. It's a great adaptation of Stephen King's novella and a great coming-of-age film itself. The acting is great, the production is fantastic, the music is catchy, and the dialogue is memorable. It's funny, it's powerful, it's meaningful. I honestly can't even think of anything to nitpick. Watch this movie. You won't regret it.
That's what I thought, anyway. Go to JustWatch and see where it's streaming. And tell me what you think, if you do watch it or have seen it, I'd love to hear your opinion.
"What if you could travel to parallel worlds? The same year, the same Earth, only different dimensions.... My friends and I found the gateway. Now the problem is... finding a way back home." Image by Columbia Pictures via IMDB
Next time, I finally complete my destiny and finish the Troll Quadrilogy. We're gonna talk about the OTHER Troll 3 (aka The Crawlers aka Creepers aka Contamination .7). Four Troll movies down. Do we finally get a legit good movie? Or is this another stinker? Come back next time to find out!
Long time no blog! Again. Seems like every time I get some momentum going, something happens. I am currently struggling with lymphedema, which is a circulation issue in my legs. When I stopped blogging, I had an infection, and the pain was so great that I was having a hard time thinking. It's much better now but still will require long-term treatment. But the good news is the pain is mostly gone and, when it's around, is far more bearable now.
Actual photo of me most days. Image by Pixabay via Vic_B
So, it's time to get into the review that I know everyone has been hotly anticipating: 1997's For Richer or Poorer. To say that Tim Allen was red hot in 1997 was an understatement. His smash hit sitcom, Home Improvement, was on its seventh season. In the years prior he had dipped into feature films, starting in the hit The Santa Clause (1994) and voicing Buzz Lightyear in the mega-smash Toy Story (1995). Kirstie Alley was still riding the fame she received as a star on Cheers and was just starting a new sitcom, Veronica's Closet. She also had ventured into successful feature films, including the Look Who's Talking series (1989-1993) and Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997). Also in a supporting role is Wayne Knight, another huge star in 1997, appearing regularly on one of the biggest shows of the decade, Seinfeld, as well as an important supporting role in the record-breaking Jurassic Park in 1993. For Richer or Poorer has honestly a great core cast and they were all hugely popular at the time of this movie. This movie should have been a huge hit. So why is it only remembered, vaguely, as that Amish movie with Tim Allen on the poster?
The movie starts with the opening credits, "For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays is playing, the most stereotypical song about the rich. We see lots of images of things that rich people do. Like drinking champagne and paying for things with credit cards. There's a really funny bit showing a receipt and one of the items is a $4200 "virtual game." What kind of virtual games existed in 1997, let alone cost $4200? We fade into Wayne Knight being grilled by some IRS agents about potential tax fraud. Next, Allen and Alley are at a party, their 10th Anniversary. Allen takes this as an opportunity to pitch his new real estate development idea, a Biblically themed theme park called... The Holy Land! Complete with a wine bar called "Water into Wine," a burning bush, and a water slide for the "Jewish and Japanese guests" called "Torah! Torah! Torah!" A judge comes up through the crowd only to get her dress caught on fire from the burning bush. Allen puts it out with his glass of wine. If you think she'll come back later in the movie to play an important part, ding ding ding, winner winner chicken dinner!
After the party ends in disaster, Allen and Alley fight in their apartment. She wants a divorce. The marriage is over. The next day, Wayne Knight is trying to get out of the building with boxes of paperwork. Allen calls him into his office to show off some of his new, rich person purchases. Knight gets away and Allen goes to the bank. His accounts are locked. Confused, he calls Knight, who confesses that the IRS is looking into his company for funds misappropriation. Tim the Toolman then gets confronted by some IRS agents. It's from here that we are joined by Larry Miller's character, who is legit the only consistently funny thing in this movie. He plays an IRS agent by way of Dirty Harry, even referencing Harry later in the movie. He carries a gun and the first thing he tries to do when he sees Allen is shoot at him. This prompts Allen to flee the scene in a super awkward foot chase. Allen's business coat is buttoned the whole time while he's running and it looks weird. He steals a cab and accidentally picks up his wife, and they both flee to the country. They wreck the cab and end up in Amish territory.
Oooooooh! I can't wait for all the clever Amish jokes! Image by Universal Pictures via IMDB
At this point, I won't bother going into a scene-by-scene breakdown of the rest of the movie, because I guarantee that you know exactly where the plot of this film goes. The two New Yorkers, Allen and Alley, pose as distant cousins to an Amish family, so they can hideout. It's a fish out of water story, as the city folk get used to a lack of indoor plumbing and tolling the fields for the first time. The cousins they are impersonating have well-known skills that they are expected to demonstrate (Allen with horse wrangling and Alley with cross-stitching), to comedic effect. A few jokes are cracked about the Amish, but way fewer than I thought there would be. They keep saying things an Amish person wouldn't normally say, and then say they come from a "liberal order" community. After a couple of weeks of getting up at 5 am and working hard all day, they start to enjoy it because country living is pure and clean and wholesome and blah blah blah. Then they start using their New York skillz to help their new Amish friends (Allen with real estate negotiation and Alley with fashion design) and help change the community for the better. Just when Allen and Alley's marriage starts to get back together, the IRS and a police task force show up.
Conveniently, at that exact same moment, the cousins that Allen and Alley have been impersonating also arrive in the village. So the New Yorkers go to court for their crimes, and their lawyer shows up late. Turns out that Wayne Knight had stolen all the money for himself, has been on the run, and the lawyer just happened to find him in the nick of time. Oh and the courtroom scene has the same judge from earlier, the one Allen threw the wine on at the party. Allen punches Knight in the courtroom, which I'm sure LegalEagle would take points away from for "Legal Realism." The case is thrown out! Allen and Alley are innocent, not only of tax fraud (which they were) but also apparently of stealing a cab and resisting arrest. Okay.
In the last scene, we end up with Allen and Alley returning to the Amish farm to apologize to the family, who they had gotten close with. This leads into another of the few funny parts of the movie, as the Amish dude (Jay O. Sanders, but he LOOKS just like Will Ferrell) smiles and says "You English think you are so smart. You really think we didn't know?" Turns out they figured out that Allen and Alley weren't their cousins pretty quickly, but didn't say anything because it was planting season and they needed the extra help. Absolutely classic, I love it! The movie ends most predictably, with the two New Yorkers giving up their greedy, materialistic, big city way of life to settle down on a farm in the country with their Amish neighbors.
Actual photo of Tim the Toolman reading the script of For Richer or Poorer Image by Universal Pictures via IMDB
Phew. That was a ride. For Richer or Poorer wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it wasn't very good, either. It had some high points. The acting isn't bad, on a base level. Everything is well made, visually. You get some of those weird camera angles that 90s movies were known for. I laughed a few times, also. There's a part where Tim Allen says "I know how these people work, I've seen Witness'" and that cracked me up. Everything with Larry Miller and Wayne Knight was gold. The ending, where we find out that the Amish family knew they were imposters all along, but needed the help, I think is a great little twist.
But ultimately, the movie is just boring and forgettable. The plot is almost as by-the-book as you can get. I didn't care about the story, didn't care about any of the characters or their journeys. Allen and Alley have no chemistry, which is fine if they don't love each other, but that's not the path the movie goes. There were a few laughs, but most of the jokes fell flat. And Tim Allen kept trying to do this... slapstick kind of humor. Falling and getting dragged by a horse and the like. Also, he made a lot of these... weird faces throughout the movie. I don't know what he was trying to do, but it isn't funny because I'm not three years old. Some of the comedy seems like it was aimed at young children, but it was rated PG-13 and had swearing in it. So what the hell.
It's like someone told Allen to constantly make faces like he's taking a poop. Image by Universal Pictures via IMDB
Also, it's TWO HOURS LONG! Why was this so long? You could have trimmed AT LEAST 20 minutes out of this movie, if not a whole 30-40 mins. The part where Allen is running, on foot, from the IRS? Gone. The part where he shows off all his cool, materialistic possessions to Wayne Knight? Gone. The part where Alley feeds Allen lung casserole at the Amish farm? Gone. The Holy Land presentation? Trimmed. See I just saved you like 10-15 minutes, just off the top of my head. You're welcome.
I will give it credit in that it's far less offensive than I was afraid it would be. There are still some tasteless Amish jokes, but there aren't many. Frankly, the most offensive part of the whole thing is the religious theme park idea. I'll admit, I like crass, offensive humor. I love South Park, usually. And when he first unveiled the park concept, I laughed. But then the bit went on and on and on, giving him plenty of time to make fun of Christians, Jews, and the Japanese. And after a while, it went from being funny to not funny to cringy.
The movie opened on December 12, 1997. I wouldn't call this movie a "flop" at the box office, but it did only make back $32.7 million from its budget of $35 million. $35 million? How the hell did this movie cost $35 million to make? How much did Allen and Alley get paid for this? $35 million in 1997 money is almost $62 million in 2022 money. For comparison, The Addams Family had a budget of $30 million. Nothing But Trouble cost $40 million. Jurassic Park was $63 million. All those movies had a bigger cast of stars and tons of elaborate practical or computer effects, you can see that budget cost on the screen. But with For Richer or Poorer, I just don't see where the money went, while watching the movie.
Final Thoughts
I think the most damning thing about For Richer or Poorer is, while I was watching, I realized about 2/3 of the way in that I had seen this movie before and completely forgotten that I had ever watched it. Many many moons ago, I know I must have rented this. The fact that it took me that long to remember should tell you what a lasting impression it had on me. It isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, by a long shot, but it is ultimately forgettable in the end.
But that's just what I thought today. Ask me in a year and I'll be all "What? What movie?" But if you want to see it yourself to form your own equally valid opinions, JustWatch will tell you where it's streaming.
Actual photo of Wayne Knight on the phone with his agent... okay, I think I killed that joke... Image by Universal Pictures via IMDB
Next time, we're gonna take a step into the 80s and talk about one of the decade's most acclaimed coming-of-age stories, 1986's Stand By Me. Will this Stephen King adaptation live up to the hype? Or will it not be able to stand on its own legs? Tune in next time to find out!
Seems like I'm always putting this thing on hold whenever I get some momentum going.
I have a really bad infection. I'm working with a doctor to figure out what it is. I'm sure it'll get better, but I am in incredible pain most of the time right now. Even taking pain relief... I can't sit down at my computer for long periods of time. And when I do, I have a different project I'm working on, that I might actually get paid for.
So for the five people who actually read this blog, I'm sorry, I'll be back but I can't do it right now.
Wazzup! Did you have a good weekend? Sorry for the delay in writing a review, I worked a lot this last week, so I didn't have tons of time and energy to devote to writing. Also, they pulled the other version of Troll 3 from streaming, so I can't get to that right now. But I will eventually! So until then, we're going to talk about a documentary film I've wanted to watch for quite some time. 1970's Rolling Stones concert documentary, Gimme Shelter.
I love The Rolling Stones. I grew up listening to Oldies Radio, back when Oldies Radio was music from 1955-72ish. Back when it was about 65% Motown and 35% blues-based rock and roll. The kind of station that focused way more on some (not all) of the Top 40 rock songs from that era, the earlier recordings of The Beatles and Rolling Stones, and covers of Bob Dylan but never Dylan himself. Later on in life, even though I started exploring music much more, there was a period of time when I wouldn't buy an album if I didn't recognize less than two songs. "If it's any good, it will be on their Greatest Hits," I used to say to myself. God, I want to punch that younger version of me. There were some albums that started to wear me out of this awful habit, The Beatles' White Album being one. Queen's Innuendo and Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection are others. But Exile on Main St by the Rolling Stones was the final one that broke that habit for good. After hemming and hawing for over a year, I finally bought it. I was captivated. The music was raw, dirty, sleazy, I couldn't get enough! They used profanity on the record! I had never heard Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, Sweet Virginia, Loving Cup, Shine a Light... but then I wanted to hear nothing more. In 2019, while I was making decent money for once, I treated my brother and myself to see the Stones at the Rose Bowl. It's been a long-running joke since the 1980s that "this might be the last tour." But as the years go on, we are getting closer and closer to that "last tour" and I made the call that we needed to see them now. Great decision. An amazing live show! And since then, Charlie Watts has sadly passed away. I'm so glad we got to see him play. Safe to say, the Stones are in my all-time Top Ten musical performers, I love them.
My love affair with them aside, the whole purpose of this film was a complete, foolish disaster. I'm going to give you a very condensed, cliff notes version of what happened. So essentially, the Stones were inspired to do a free concert in San Francisco. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and others did free concerts in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco all the time. It was going to be the Woodstock of the West Coast. The Stones got both those bands, as well as some other bay area artists, to sign up for it. Well in a press conference, Mick Jagger drops the bombshell that they're going to do a free concert in downtown San Francisco on December 6, 1969. I believe this is the first time that SF heard about it because the city basically responded with "The hell you are." The rationale being that, while the park can contain Jefferson Airplane fans, it wouldn't be able to handle the massive crowd that the Stones would draw. Can you imagine 100,000-300,000 fans descending onto downtown San Francisco? It would have been a total disaster! More so than it ended up being. So they moved the venue to Sears Point Raceway in Napa, which is where I used to attend NASCAR races in the 90s with my Dad. I can't tell what the exact official reason was, but Sears Point backed out not long before the concert. It was because of money or fear of the raceway being damaged or something or other. Probably all that. Anyway, Altamont Speedway in Livermore stepped up and offered their track. So about three days before the concert, crews had to disassemble the stage and lighting rigs they had already set up, drive them 80 miles to Altamont, and set it up there. And here's where we get into our first issue. Not counting things like gigs in bars and small places like that, every professional concert I've been to has a stage around 8-10 feet off the ground. They always have a guardrail keeping the fans on one side. And between the guardrail and stage is a small empty space for security. This is to ensure that no one can get onto the stage. At Altamont, there was no such guardrail or space. And the stage was four feet off the ground. That's because it was designed to be used at Sears Point, on a hill. But at Altamont, it was in a valley. Fans were right there, right where the performers were.
The second horrendously bad idea was that they didn't hire security for the event. Jagger hated cops. So they decided to hire the Hells Angels instead. What the hell. The Grateful Dead had used them as security before, and it went alright. But not this time. They weren't paid in money, but $500 in beer ($4000 in beer in today's money, that's a lot of booze in both decades). Remember how I said that, in a proper concert, police will be in that space between the fans and stage? And sometimes, if you look carefully, you can see them hiding just off the stage, just in case. Not at Altamont. The Angels were sitting and standing all over the stage, constantly walking in front of the performers. That's when they weren't getting into fights with fans, beating them with pool cues that they brought as weapons. It was a mess.
Normally I make little jokes in these captions, but I'm not making fun of any Hells Angels Image by Maysles Films via IMDB
Now, there are some good moments to this film. It essentially falls into three segments. The first is the Stones tour before Altamont. And there is some great footage of them doing parts of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "You Gotta Move," "Brown Sugar," "Love in Vain," "Honkey Tonk Women," and "Street Fighting Man." We also get to see Ike and Tina Turner perform "I've Been Loving You Too Long" at Madison Square Garden. Jagger looks iconic on stage, wearing an Uncle Sam hat for some of the footage.
Mick Jagger Wants You! I don't know, I couldn't think of anything better. Leave me your best funny captions for this photo in the comments. Image by Maysles Films via IMDB
We also get to see the band at the famous Muscle Shoals recording studio, listening to the final mix of "Wild Horses" for the first time. It's a mesmerizing scene, watching them just zone out to one of their greatest songs. The part that I find hilarious about this whole thing is that the Stones are dressed exactly like you'd expect them to be. Silk shirts, leather pants, Jagger has a scarf so long it drags on the ground. They look like rock stars. How they're staying in a Holiday Inn. And, maybe Holiday Inn was considered high-class in 1969, but I also have to think... how could they not afford something better? The filmmakers, Albert and David Maysles, actually filmed the Stones concert at Madison Square Garden, which is where much of the pre-Altamont concert footage comes from. They asked if they could join in with the rest of the tour, and the Stones agreed.
The biggest complaint I have about the documentary is the overall lack of information. I knew a little bit about Altamont going into the film, but when it was over, I had a ton of questions that came up while watching, that were not addressed or explained clearly. The documentary is highly raw, meaning they don't have talking heads segments or infoboxes. So I had to go and do research and read about the show to get a better picture of what happened. I guess that if the worst part of a movie is that inspires me to read more about the subject, it's pretty good. But still, I feel like these things could have been easily addressed in the runtime of the movie.
There was some footage in the documentary shot before the concert, this is kind of the second part of the film. There is some footage included of the Stones' attorney, Melvin Belli, on speakerphone with the management of Altamont raceway, discussing how to make the concert happen. There's a significant amount of footage shown of fans arriving as well, it's early in the day, and people are laughing and having a good time. But it gets bad soon, as apparently there were a lot of drugs and laced wine going around, so people who weren't expecting to get high got super high. You see some people having bad trips here. We're also treated to some nudity, both of the male and female kind, throughout the show.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for your main event of the evening!" Image by Paille via Wikipedia
The last third of the movie is the Altamont concert itself. The show kicks off with a kickass live version of "Six Days on the Road" performed by The Flying Burrito Brothers. This is about the only part of the concert they showed where people are having a good time, dancing, and the music is rocking. It wouldn't last. They soon segue into Jefferson Airplane. God. In further research into the concert, I learned that this incident was started when someone in the crowd knocked over a Hell's Angels motorcycle. Well, a fight breaks out in front of the stage. Marty Balin of the Airplane jumps off the stage to sort out the fight and gets knocked out by an Angel for his troubles. Rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner got on the mic to sarcastically thank the Angels for knocking out his singer. This prompts another Angel to grab a different mic and basically tell Kantner to shut up. Then Grace Slick gets on a mic and tells everyone to cool down and "keep your bodies off each other unless you intend love." We don't see any footage of Santana or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Reportedly though, Stephen Stills was stabbed in the leg multiple times by an Angel. That's not shown in the documentary, though. What IS shown is the Grateful Dead showing up, hearing about what happened to Balin, and then decided to peace out and leave. Jerry Garcia ended up being the most level-headed out of everyone. And him being the one who suggested the Hell's Angels in the first place!
Now we come to the most infamous part of the film, concert, and the unofficial end of the hippie sixties. The Rolling Stones' set. The set ended up being a complete catastrophe. When they get to "Sympathy for the Devil" all hell starts to break loose. The Stones have to stop the set, multiple times, as fights break out in front of the stage. Jagger keeps trying to get on the mic and calm people down. But a few songs later, during "Under My Thumb," another fight breaks out. This time a black concertgoer, Meredith Hunter, gets stabbed to death to death by a Hell's Angel. And it's all, pretty clearly, caught on film. You can see Hunter throughout the show, wearing a green suit. The reasoning from the Angels was that Hunter had a gun and fired it off during the set. And I'll be honest, I couldn't tell from the footage alone if he had a gun and if he fired it off. The area he was at when the incident occurs isn't well lit. This is another thing that isn't really in the doc, but Hunter's sister, girlfriend, and friends did confirm he brought a gun to the show, later. At first, you might be asking yourself, why would he do such a thing. Well, remember, this was 1969, he's a black man, and the area where the concert took place (Livermore, California) was still fairly racist at the time. He brought it for self-defense. Now as to the gun firing, again, I don't know. No one can really tell for sure and once again, the footage isn't clean enough to know for sure. The Stones didn't realize until after the show that someone was killed. They continued playing, fearful that stopping would cause a full-scale riot, which honestly... after seeing this crowd in the film, it probably would have been worse if they had stopped.
There isn't much they show in the film, post-concert. You see people leaving the venue in the morning, while the mournful bellows of the song "Gimme Shelter" playing over it. At various points throughout the film, they show the reactions of Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger to different parts of the concert footage. Quite possibly the most powerful moment of the whole thing is seeing Jagger watch the stabbing, and the look on his face that screams "holy crap, what the hell did we do." There is also a bit shown the day after, with KSAN radio talking about the events that transpired, which is again interrupted by a Hells Angel. Sonny Barger (a famous enough Angel that he has his own Wikipedia page) calls into the station to explain "I ain't no cop, I ain't never going to ever pretend to be no cop. I didn't go there to police nothing, man. They told me if I could sit on the edge of the stage so nobody could climb over me, I could drink beer until the show was over. And that's what I went there to do." That should tell you everything you need to know.
Even today, in 2022, Sonny Barger is not someone I'd want to mess with. That's not a joke, that's a true fact. Image by Maysles Films via IMDB
Altamont has been described as a transition point between the end of the peace-loving, hippie, optimistic 1960s and the more cynical, depressing 1970s. Rolling Stone magazine famously wrote "rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong." Don McLean later wrote lyrics about the event in his song, "American Pie." "And as I watched him on the stage/My hands were clenched in fists of rage/No angel born in hell/Could break that Satan's spell."
At the end of the day, it's very easy to blame the Stones for what went wrong. They made all of the bad decisions that ended up in this disaster. But honestly, I gotta level blame at whoever let them make these decisions. Some person or group of people allowed the drug and alcohol-fueled Rolling Stones to make these calls. No one stepped in and said, "No, you aren't allowing the Hell's Angels to provide security." But that's sadly the way the world works. Money talks. And sadly, sometimes people lose their lives because of it.
Gimme Shelter opened to a very limited theatrical run on December 6th, 1970, one year to the day of Altamont. It ended up getting another, wider release 30 years later on August 11th, 2000. The domestic box office is $256,094, but box office numbers for a film like this are more difficult to categorize as good or bad. This is a documentary of the old school kind, it was designed to inform, not rake in ticket sales. The only other interesting piece of trivia I can really find is that George Lucas was one of the camera operators at Altamont. However, his camera jammed early, and nothing he shot was used in the movie.
The filmmakers, Albert and David Maysles, along with their co-director Charlotte Zwerin, would do more documentary work together and apart. Probably the most well-known thing the Maysles brothers did, other than Gimme Shelter, was probably 1975's Grey Gardens. That Lucas kid went on to have a moderately successful career, doing a movie about WWII fighter pilots and one about hot rods and muscle cars. Oh, and Captain EO.
Gimme Shelter is presented in a different kind of way, from what you might normally expect. It comes from an era when documentaries were just raw footage. I mean, it's edited, but there are no voice-overs, no interviews, no infoboxes, nothing like that. It simply exists to just tell the story of what happened, in as much of an open and honest way as possible. And again, while I would have liked more information, it's refreshing to see the information presented in such a raw format. This is simply trying to tell a story, nothing more.
Now, I don't think flashy, stylistic documentaries are necessarily a bad thing. 1973's F for Fake, for instance, weaves a compelling story in a very creative manner. As does 2008's Man on Wire, which is one of my favorite films of all time. They all have music cues, talking heads, reenactments, and the whole nine yards. They are movies, attempting to tell a true story, in an entertaining fashion. But that's just it, they are MOVIES, and a lot of the "documentaries" produced over the last 20-25 years tend to take it too far.
I'm thinking of the 2020 Netflix "documentary" series, Tiger King. I watched the first episode and stopped because I knew how it was going to go. I knew that Joe Exotic would be presented as, if not a traditional "good guy," then as the outlandish and quirky owner of a tiger farm, who is so over the top that you can't help but love him and feel bad for him. I knew everyone watching would be convinced that Carole Baskin murdered her husband, without the documentary producing a single shred of evidence to support it. And I was right on both counts. I didn't anticipate that they would leave so much of Joe's bad behavior on the cutting room floor, though it doesn't surprise me. Let's ignore that he's a racist, animal abuser who sells tiger bones and that his tigers were fed horses that people donated to the farm. Oh, and he also once faked having cancer, which is ironic because he has cancer for real now. Joe Exotic is human garbage and Carole Baskin, while I won't say she's a saint, didn't kill her husband.
But who cares! Journalistic integrity be damned! You got a second Netflix season, a more fictional Hulu drama, and Nicholas Cage wants to play Joe in a film. You can either die rich or die with integrity. I know what I'm choosing, $$$$$ Image by Netflix via IMDB
But that little rant aside, the difference between Tiger King and Gimme Shelter is that the Joe Exotic show (and many current documentaries flooding streaming media) aren't meant to educate. You're not supposed to learn anything from Tiger King or see how your world is shaped by these events. It's a story with cooky characters that is edited and crafted so as to entertain you. Harlan County, USA this is not. But Gimme Shelter, while not as traditionally "entertaining," is designed to inform you about what happens when excess leads to foolishness. It exists as a reminder for Meredith Hunter, who was murdered. The events of Altamont were not just one bad idea, but a series of them. And unfortunately, they lead to four people dead.
Final Thoughts
I liked this movie. It was informative and powerful. The non-Altamont concert footage was great, some people live shots of the Stones about to enter their peak as performers. The Altamont footage is sad, disturbing, and real. There is a level of authenticity that you don't get with most documentaries. The only negative I can level at it is, again, the lack of contextual information regarding the events that led to this tragedy. If you go into this, not knowing anything about the concert, you will leave with many questions.
Gotta love the "what do I do with my arm" positions whilst making out Image by Maysles Films via IMDB
This is all my opinion, of course. You should watch it and let me know what you thought, JustWatch will tell you where it's streaming. On a lighter conversation topic, what are your favorite Stones songs? Or are you more of a Beatles person? Or do you hate all music recorded pre-2018? Let me know in the comments!
Next time, it's back to the 90s. We're gonna do 1997's comedy For Richer or Poorer, staring two iconic 90s comedians, Tim Allen and Kristy Alley. Unless they restream Troll 3, in which case, expect some hot Contimation .7 action! See ya later, homies!
Hey everyone, how's it going? I had to take a short break from the Troll series. I was starting to get burnt out and I figured that a lighthearted movie or two would be good between all the low-budget nonsense of Troll. So it's time for Clueless!
Surprisingly, this is my first time watching Clueless all the way through. "What?" you might be asking yourself. "And you say you have, like, taste in movies? Ugh! As if!" Honestly, I tried years ago, but the valley girl dialogue turned me off so much. But I decided I needed to give it a watch for this, so I did. And I'm glad I did. I *spoiler* liked this movie.
I’m not a prude when it comes to movies, I’m just highly selective. I mean, you see how picky I am about my shoes and they only go on my feet. Image by Paramount via IMDB
First, the cast is stellar. This was the big break for Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy, though Silverstone had been featured in some famous Aerosmith music videos ("Crazy," "Cryin'," and Amazing"). Stacey Dash had been in some big movies (Mo Money and Renaissance Man) and Paul Rudd was on the show Sisters, but I think it's safe to say that their careers went into overdrive after this. Wallace Shawn was most likely the most well-known actor in this movie. But no one in this is bad at all. It's refreshing, after watching three out of the five Troll movies, to watch something with good acting in it again. Amy Heckerling was the director, she had previously done Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously, National Lampoon's European Vacation, and the first two Look Who's Talking movies.
I'm not going to go into huge detail with this, every scene is a gem, and you should watch it yourself. But I will break down the plot and describe key moments, so... spoiler alert.
We start our story with a montage, not always the best way to begin a film, but it works here. The Muffs do a cover "Kids in America" and all the cuts are fast and stylistic. Cher narrates "So OK, you're probably thinking, 'Is this, like a Noxema commercial, or what?!' But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl." This is a great intro, you see and understand pretty much everything you need to know about the characters. You see them shopping and driving (poorly) everything is cool, stylistic, and fast-paced. Cher and her friend, Dionne, are living in Beverly Hills and very much fall into the "valley girl" stereotype. Even though they don't live near the valley. If you're not from LA, you wouldn't understand. But Cher also helps take care of the household. Her Dad is a litigation lawyer, so they have money, and Cher assists in directing the maid and gardener in their duties. Not in a selfish kind of way, and she is never intentionally mean to them. More on that later. Cher also has a piece of computer software that has ALL of her different articles of clothing in it, and it helps her pick out an outfit, and even lets her know if it matches or not. What? Why did the 80s and 90s make computers seem so much cooler than they are in real life? She also takes care of her Dad, making him drink Orange Juice for vitamin C and scheduling someone to come by and give him a flu shot at his work. Her mother passed away while she was young, so she stepped up into that role. Near the beginning of the film, Cher's Dad lets her know that her ex-step brother, Josh (Paul Rudd) is coming by for dinner. Cher is disgusted, she hates Ant-Man and reminds her father that he and Rudd's mom were only married for a short time, a long time ago.
Cher is soon in debate class, where she is given the assignment of taking the "pro" position to the issue of refugees entering America. She pulls off an impassioned, if unresearched and simplistic, analogy of her father's birthday party and how people showed up who didn't RSVP. Well it threw her whole plan for the party into chaos, and she had to reseat people and redistribute the food, but it ended up working in the end. And she closes with the classic line: "And in conclusion, may I please remind you that it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty?" The class applauds, but the teacher is less impressed. When all her grades come in, she gets a C in debate and other classes. But as she tells her father, this is just the first offer, and is a "jumping-off point for negotiations." She convinces all her other teachers to raise her grade through her skills in persuasion, except for her debate teacher. He tells her that changing her grades is INCONCEIVABLE! (He didn't, but Wallace Shawn is the debate teacher, so...). Cher and Dionne go shopping as therapy, and she wonders why her arguing didn't work. Dionne reminds her that Vizzini is a sad, lonely, old man. Still single at 49. Suddenly, Cher figures it out! She needs to get her teacher hooked up with someone, to become happy, to change her grade! They pick another teacher, Miss Geist, played by Twink Caplan. They manipulate/encourage the two teachers to get together, which they do. Wallace Shawn gets happy and changes Cher's grades.
For all you kids out there, this is where Iggy Azalea got the idea from Image by Paramount via Tom and Lorenzo
Brittany Murphy's character, Tai, transfers to this school. When she comes on first, she's wearing jeans and flannel and a... she's wearing a god damn troll shirt. I mean troll as in the troll dolls, which were popular at the time, and not any of the Troll movies. But god damn it! I watched this movie to get AWAY from trolls. And now my old crush, Brittney Murphy, shows up wearing a damn shirt with a troll on it.
Every time I think I get out, I get pulled right back in! Image by Paramount via IMDB
Anyway. Cher decides to take Tai under her wing and do something nice for her. Cher calls Tai "totally clueless" and figures a makeover and hanging out with the "popular girls" will both make Tai popular and, therefore, happy. We very quickly learn that Tai and Cher come from very different backgrounds. Tai has had sex, done drugs, and is attracted to one of the school's "loser" skateboarders. But Cher is determined to get her hooked up with a popular boy named Elton. "If you make the decision to date a high school boy, they are the only acceptable ones," she tells Tai. When Tai asks which one is Cher's boyfriend, she responds all grossed out. "As if!" Cher doesn't date, as she is disgusted by high school boys. Later in the movie, she delivers this classic monologue "I don’t get how guys dress today. I mean, come on, it looks like they just fell out of bed and put on some baggy pants and take their greasy hair – ew – and cover it up with a backwards cap and we’re supposed to swoon? I don’t think so!"
So Cher keeps trying to get Tai and Elton together. They all go to a party in the valley, have some beers, smoke some weed. The skateboarder dude spills some beer on Cher's shoes, ruining them, which infuriates her. At the end of the night, Elton ends up giving Cher a ride home, instead of Tai like Cher was insisting. They park in a convenience store parking lot and Elton tries to put the moves on Cher. She tells him "No" a couple of times and asks him "What about Tai?" Elton said he would never go out with someone like Tai. Cher gets out of the car after he tries, again, to kiss her. In classic douche mode, he tells her to get back in the car, she says no, and he drives off. Cher then tries to call for a taxi, but she gets robbed. A dude puts a gun to her face and takes her phone and purse and, worst of all, makes her get down on the ground in her Alaia dress. After he leaves, she's got no money but manages to call Josh. He's with a college girl at his dorm, but as soon as Cher starts to cry on the phone to him, he tells her he'll come to pick her up.
Ant-Man comes to the rescue and picks up Cher, with his date in tow, and the two college kids sit in the front seat of the car, pontificating at each other. Now THAT I can remember. Being 19 or 20 and thinking I knew everything because I had taken 5 or 6 college classes. But anyway, the girl uses the "To thine own self be true" and attributing it to Hamlet. Cher says "Hamlet didn't say that." The girl gets real snotty with "I think I remember Hamlet accurately." Ugh, I DEFINATELY used to know people like that. I also used to be like that, too. Now I just say "Are you sure? I'm pretty sure" and then look it up. Cher locks it down with "Well, I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did" referencing the 1990 Hamlet film. Rudd laughs to himself, proud of Cher.
Cher and Dionne break the news about Elton to Tai, and she's devastated. It hits even more later, while they are in a restaurant, and Collio's "Rollin' with My Homies" comes on. She thought that was their song because they briefly danced to it. Also, what restaurant plays "Rollin' with My Homies" in the 90s? This was a decently nice place, like a Coco's or something. This is when it's revealed that Cher is "saving herself for Luke Perry" aka is still a virgin. She gives the aforementioned Baggy Pants monologue over World Party's cover of "All the Young Dudes." It's then that she meets her boy. A transfer student named Christian (Justin Walker). He shows up to class wearing black pants, a white t-shirt, a black jacket, and sporting a 1950s style haircut. He looks really cool, walking and talking like he's a man out of time. Cher is smitten and the two of them end up going out. He doesn't impress Cher's dad OR Ant-Man when he comes to pick her up. He drives a 1954 Nash Metropolitan, which I don't think I've seen before, and is a bitchin' little convertible.
This car is Phat! I can see myself rollin' with the homies in this. Image via WikiCommons
We find out that Christian loves to dance, loves art, and hanging out with guys. Cher is convinced that he is into her because he rejects all other women who come around. They are all at a party in a club, Tai is there, and Paul Rudd followed them. No one dances with Tai, so he decides to be nice and dance with her, so she won't feel left out. Later, Christian comes over to watch movies with Cher. We find out that he is a huge Tony Curtis fan and LOVES Spartacus. Hmmmm. At this point, I think the viewer knows what's going on. He rejects all Cher's physical advances and then ends up leaving, feeling "tired."
Later, Cher is driving with Dionne and Dionne's boyfriend. He's trying to teach Dionne how to drive for her test. Cher explains the whole, weird Christian thing to which the boyfriend explains that Christian is gay. Cher doesn't believe it at first. The scene gets terrifying real fast as Dionne, not knowing what she's doing, accidentally gets on the freeway. She panics as trucks and other cars are flying past her, her boyfriend trying to yell panicked instructions over her screaming. They eventually get off and pull over to the side of the road, calming down after their "brush with death." If you think they're exaggerating, well, they are, a little. But man. On my second driving lesson, the second time I ever drove, we went onto the freeway. And my next two lessons did as well. I was absolutely petrified, scared beyond belief, I barely knew which side was "brake" and which was "go" on the pedals. The only thing that would have made it worse is if it was an LA freeway.
This part of the film is when Cher's reality starts to come crashing down. Cher, Tai, and Christian are at the mall together, Cher accepts Christian as just a friend at this point. Tai is flirting with some guys, who end up dangling her dangerously over the railing on the second floor of the mall. Christian steps in and saves her, the guys saying it was "just a joke" ("It's just a prank, bro" if this movie was made in 2022). Tai becomes the center of attention at school, having had a near-death experience, and this is when you get the idea that Tai has changed. Then, Cher tries to tell the maid to instruct something to the gardener, because he doesn't speak English. This offends the Hispanic maid, who doesn't speak Spanish, and that confuses Cher. Paul Rudd tells her "Lucy (the maid) isn't from Mexico, she's from El Salvador." Cher still doesn't understand what the difference is. When she takes her driving test, she does HORRIBLY, sideswiping another car, among other things. The driving instructor makes her pullover, not even allowing her to drive back to the DMV, and failing her. She tries to argue and persuade him, as she did with her grades earlier, but it won't work. She goes home, defeated, finding Tai and Rudd hanging out. She anticipates Rudd will give her a lecture about being irresponsible, which he doesn't. Tai wants to talk to her. She has a box of stuff relating to Elton and she wants to burn them, with Cher. Tai then confesses that she thinks Rudd has a crush on her. Cher doesn't think that he does and tells Tai that she doesn't think they'd be good together. Tai is insulted, thinking this was a personal jab at her, and tells Cher "You're just a virgin who can't drive."
The next scene is a classic. Cher is wandering outside, trying to come to grips with what's been going on recently. Between the Christian and Elton and Tai and driving situations, Cher admits "I'm the one who's clueless." It's a really impactful scene when you think about it. See, you assume going into this movie that Cher will be a selfish, dumb, ditzy blonde. And yeah, she's no Rhodes Scholar, but she's not stupid and she has a heart. This is when she comes to grips with the realization that she isn't as wise as she thinks she is. She lacks wisdom about the world and turned Tai into a monster. And this is also when she realizes that (oh boy) hold on to your nuts... SHE is in love with Paul Rudd. Yep. Her ex-stepbrother.
Yeah, that's what happens when you make all your decisions whilst shopping. Image by Paramount via IMDB
The awkwardness of this potential relationship never weirds her out, but what does upset her is that Paul Rudd knows her for who she is. She can't put on a superficial show to entice and manipulate him, because he knows the real her. Her lack of worldly wisdom and knowledge is exemplified as she watches the news with Rudd, who doesn't know why she's watching the news. The Bosnian War is being shown on the TV (sadly reminding me of the currently ongoing Ukraine Invasion, but moving on). Cher is confused, saying "I thought they declared peace in the middle east." Yeah, it's a funny statement, but the best example of Cher realizing just how out-of-touch she is. She then confesses to her Dad that she's in love with a boy who doesn't love her back and she wonders if she's good enough for him. She doesn't say who it is, mind you, so her dad responds with a very positive response of "obviously this boy is a complete moron" and "to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I want you with a stupid fella like that." He then reminds her of how valuable of a person she is, about how she takes care of him and the household, and that he hasn't seen someone like her since her mother. This uplifts her and encourages her to go forward.
Cher decides what she needs is another makeover. But this time, a makeover of the soul. She wonders to herself "But what makes someone a better person? And then I realized, all my friends were really good in different ways. Like, Christian, he always wants things to be beautiful and interesting. Or Dionne and Murray, when they think no one is watching, are so considerate of each other. And poor Miss Geist, always trying to get us involved, no matter how much we resist?" Miss Geist is talking about the recent Pismo Beach Disaster, how sad it is, and how all those people lost everything. Cher decides to volunteer to help with donations. This is the turning point for Cher who, while she has been nice and helpful to people, this is her first act of... I would say pure selflessness. This isn't doing good for her dad or friends, it's doing good for strangers, and there is a difference. She gathers food and clothes and athletic equipment from her house for donations. She helps Miss Geist run the event and, while there, the stoner skateboard dude donates a box of food and his bong. He then apologizes to Cher about ruining her shoes, which Cher doesn't even recall at first, but then tells him not to worry. But he has to go around apologizing as part of his twelve steps... good for him! Anyway, he invites Cher to a skateboarding event he's in on Saturday. She says sure and goes. Shortly after arriving, Tai comes up to Cher to apologize. Cher apologizes also, they hug, promising to never fight again. In the next bit, we see the skateboarder pulling some tricks, Cher realizes that he's really motivated. "I had no idea" she says. "Oh, I did," Tai responds. Cher realizes what she should have seen all along. Tai likes the skateboarder.
A stoner, crusty girl being into a stoner, skateboarding, crusty boy? Inconceivable! Image by MGM via IMDB
Rudd and Cher are helping their dad organize information for a lawsuit, assisting one of dad's assistants. The assistant proves to be an ass, as he realizes Cher was doing it wrong, setting them back a day. She apologizes, clearly upset at herself, but the assistant yells and insults her, calling her an "idiot" and to "go back to the mall." Rudd tries to defend her, saying she's not an idiot, to which the assistant tells him that it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been "playing footsy with the dumb kid." Rudd says he doesn't know what the assistant means, which makes the assistant leave. Cher is sitting on the stairs, devastated, thinking that she ruined her dad's lawsuit. Rudd sits with her and tells her not to worry about it, he'll take care of it. He then chastises the assistant for insulting her and implying there was something between them. Rudd tells her that he needs to do this work because it's training. He wants to become a lawyer and go into environmental law. He then tells her "But you, I mean, you don't need to be doing this. Go out and have fun, go shopping." Cher looks at him and, calling back to the film's opening thesis statement, says "You think that's all I do, I'm just a ditz with a credit card?" Rudd stammers over his words, telling her she's beautiful and popular. But he doubles down on the learning experience and how her dad is the only one who cares about him. Cher looks at Rudd and tells him that her did isn't the only one. And then they kiss. Eww.
Cher narrates "Well, you can guess what happened next." And it's a wedding. wtf, this escalated fast! Then she catches us, "As if! I am only sixteen, and this is California, not Kentucky." Well, apparently, it IS Kentucky, since you just made out with your ex-stepbrother. But no, the wedding is for Wallace Shawn and Miss Geist. I'm really happy they ended up together. When it comes time to throw the flowers, the girls show up. And the damn maid, Lucy, is there, in her maid outfit. And at first, I was confused, why is the maid at the wedding of Cher's teachers? Matter of fact, why is the crowd full of high school students? Then I realized that Lucy was there because the wedding was being held at Cher's house. Oh okay, that makes sense then. But hold on a second... why is the wedding being held here? Who knows. Anyway. Cher catches the flowers. She kisses Paul Rudd in public, which apparently everyone is okay with, and then the credits roll. The end.
Clueless was released on July 19, 1995. It had a $12 million budget and was a hit, making $56.6 million. It debuted as #2 in the box office, behind Apollo 13, and was the 32nd highest-grossing film of 1995. Pretty good. Clueless has since gone on to become one of the highest regarded films of the 90s. In fact, when I decided I needed a Troll break, I googled "90s movies" to look for an idea. Clueless was one of the first that popped up.
The movie started as a pilot for a TV series for Fox. They wanted Heckerling to write a teen comedy about the "in-crowd." Heckerling decided to do it, but only if she could make fun of it. Much like Wes Craven, slasher movies, and Scream at the same time era, Heckerling was sick of doing normal teen comedies. Nothing ended up happening with it at Fox and later, on the advice of a new agent for Heckerling, was turned into a feature film and was then picked up by Fox, who loved it. It was originally called "No Worries" and "I Was a Teenage Teenager" a title which I love. Eventually, Fox wanted Heckerling to rewrite the script with fewer featured female characters. She didn't, and it became the subject of a bidding war, which Paramount Pictures won. This was a better situation anyway, since Paramount typically caters to younger viewers, owning Nick and MTV.
CineFix has a great Seven Things You Probably Didn't Know video about Clueless. One that I like was Silverstone was cast because Heckerling was on a treadmill, watching MTV, and saw Silverstone in one of her Aerosmith music videos. Amazing. CineFix also has a Clueless Drinking Game video that Stacey Dash shows up for. Very entertaining.
Heckerling wrote the script as, basically, a modern update of Jane Austen's Emma. There are websites and YouTube videos that go into detail between the characters. Buzzfeed and As The Bunny Hops both do nice jobs of that.
The 1995 Pismo Beach Disaster took me by surprise. See, I have lived near Pismo since 1999, and even before that... my family had been taking vacations in this area since my mother was a little girl. So I was mystified, "wait what Pismo Beach disaster?" I had to look it up. It turns out that it was fake, but it fooled me for a second. Pismo Beach is a great town, btw. Great clam chowder. It's no wonder Bugs Bunny was always trying to go to Pismo Beach for vacations.
Make sure you take that LEFT turn at Albuquerque to enjoy a disaster-free Pismo Beach Image by Paramount via ScreenRant
Silverstone is probably best known for Clueless, but she's had a very consistent, steady career since then. A couple of years later, she famously (infamously?) played Bat-Girl in Batman & Robin. Paul Rudd probably had the biggest career of anyone, with feature parts in a ton of comedies, such as Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, a recurring character on Friends, and staring in Role Models. But of course, Paul Rudd is Ant-Man in the MCU, his biggest role yet. Brittney Murphy was well on her way to building up a great filmography, before her untimely death from Pneumonia on December 20, 2009. She was sadly only 32. But she was in some great movies. Drop Dead Gorgeous, the critically acclaimed Girl, Interrupted, 8 Mile, Sin City, Happy Feet, and was also doing the voice of Luanne Platter on King of the Hill. Speaking of King of the Hill, Breckin Meyer (the stoner skateboarder, Travis) was also on King of the Hill, providing the voice of Joseph Gribble. Of course, we can't forget Wallace Shawn, who's been in so many movies... but might best be remembered in the post-Clueless world as the voice of Rex in Toy Story, which also debuted in 1995. Elisa Donovan (Amber in Clueless) went on to do Morgan Cavanaugh in Sabrina and star in the Dog Who Saved Christmas trilogy. Dionne's boyfriend, Murray (Donald Faison) became famous as Turk on the show Scrubs. Lastly, I want to mention Julie Brown, who's a fine actress, but I recently saw her in a movie called "Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women" which was horrid. I'll probably do a review of it at some point. Just wanted to mention that.
I still can't get over how good all these people are in this movie. I've been watching too much Troll. Or maybe not enough Troll? I don't know anymore! Image by Paramount via Entertainment Bee
I want to point out that the cinematographer for Clueless was Bill Pope, a legend in the cinematography world. Pope worked on Army of Darkness, the Matrix trilogy, Spider-Man 2 and 3, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Baby Driver, Shang Chi, and the upcoming third Ant-Man movie. He was also the visual visionary behind the videos Janet Jackson's "Nasty" and Metallica's "One" among other videos. Just a cool little thing.
I really loved the soundtrack to this film. I love 90s soundtracks, with tons of contemporary songs and old hits covered by younger bands. The Muffs and World Party covering "Kids in America" and "All The Young Dudes," respectively. We also had Radiohead with an acoustic "Fake Plastic Trees." Beastie Boys, Cracker, Counting Crows, Coolio ("Rollin' with My Homies") all contribute. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are actually in the movie, performing "Where'd You Go?" at the club scene where Paul Rudd and Tai dance. Great stuff, I want to track down a copy of the CD for my collection.
Now, I'm going to level a couple of criticisms towards this movie. Some of them are minor but one is very serious. First of all, the gay character... again, while he is presented as a positive, But there is a scene where Murray refers to him as a "cake boy" and "disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy." These aren't terrible slurs and are not meant to be insulting to the character, but it's still in bad taste. Also, the whole part where Cher and Ant-Man get into a relationship is... that's pretty uncomfortable. First, you have the brother/sister aspect, which isn't that bad, but still weird. They don't see each other as brother and sister, and they were only step-siblings for a short while, a long time ago. It is also another reference to Emma, where Emma gets with her sister's brother-in-law. But it's the age gap that bugs me. Now I could care less if an 18-year-old and 81-year-old get together. I wouldn't do that, but hey, whatever makes you happy, it's none of my business. However, the legal age of consent is 18. Cher is 16 and, while they don't say how old Paul Rudd is, he is in college and presented as being older. He's going to be probably 19 or 20. That's not okay. Even if they don't have sex, that's a path you don't want to walk down. And why isn't the dad livid about this? He even says at one point "You divorce wives, not children." So he still views Paul Rudd as his kid. So why isn't he flipping out? Why is everyone cool with this? No. Just no.
I've seen some people online argue about how bad Dionne and Murray's relationship is, calling it "toxic" and putting the blame for that on Murray. Ehh... they fight, a lot, in the movie and they antagonize each other. But I wouldn't say that one side does it significantly more than the other. But they do show that Dionne and Murray do love each other, most of the fighting seems to almost be like a public performance for them. And I don't know... I know people that are like this and I would never be in that kind of relationship myself, but they seem to make it work if they can fight the right person to fight with. So I dunno. I hesitate to call it "toxic" but what do I know. I'm just a virgin who can't drive. (That statement is not 100% accurate).
One video I recommend watching is this one by The Take on YouTube. They talk about Cher's arguing style and how persuasive arguments relate to both the character of Cher and the plot. It's quick and entertaining and interesting.
After the movie became a hit, ABC opted to pick up Clueless as a sitcom, bringing it all back to TV. Heckerling was involved for part of the first season but eventually left. They only did one season on ABC, then another two on UPN, before being canceled altogether. Silverstone, Murphy, Rudd, and Cher's dad were all recast. The actors playing Dionne, her boyfriend, Amber, Miss Geist, and Wallace Shawn all returned for the show. The first season ratings were okay, it was part of ABC's TGIF lineup during the 1996-97 year. They did crossovers with Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Moesha. The ratings dropped from 97-99 on UPN. Maybe I'll watch this and review it someday. They've been trying to get a Clueless dramatic series going for the last couple of years on Peacock. In this version, Cher has gone missing and it's up to Dionne to take over the role of the school's most popular girl. Peacock dropped it but CBS is working on it now. Honestly, this sounds worse than the dramatic Fresh Prince of Belair reboot, Belair.
There have been plenty of other Clueless spinoff media. There was a series of young adult books based on the show. Twenty-one were published between 1995 and 1999. Marvel published a special photo magazine in 1997 called Spring Fever. But that wasn't the only Clueless comic. BOOM! Studios published a pair of Clueless graphic novels. Senior Year in 2017 and One Last Summer in 2018. They were co-written by Amber Benson, Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Heckerling wrote Clueless: The Musical, which opened in NYC in 2018. There were two officially released Clueless PC games. Clueless CD-ROM came out in 1997 and was essentially a series of mini-games aimed at younger girls. Clueless: The Game was released in 2009, and is a dress-up game. Gotta love it when the spin-off games don't relate to the subtext of the movie. There was an edition of the 2009 "game" that was made for the Nintendo DS, but it was never officially released. Though ROMS have found their way into the hands of internet users.
Final Thoughts
I really liked this movie. Despite some slightly questionable dialogue and an ending that borders on lite incest and absolutely implies statutory rape. I still give it a high rating because the other 95% of the movie's runtime is very well done. Cher is very well-rounded and fleshed out. The performances are all top-notch. The story of self-discovery is excellent. And except for a small bit of dialogue, it's very progressive with its gay character. Overall, I highly recommend this funny and interesting film.
Yes Mr. Rudd, we all know you don't age... Image by Paramount via IMDB
That's what I thought, anyway. Disagree? Are you a snob and a half who's totally buggin' over my review? Let me know! If you haven't seen it yet, JustWatch will tell you where to go to stream it. Again, I am in no way sponsored by JustWatch. As if! It's just the website I use personally so I use it for this!
The next review will be a little different, then we'll get back to Troll, I promise. It'll be on a 1970s documentary. Boring, right? Not at all. It's Gimme Shelter, the infamous documentary showing the Rolling Stones North American tour in 1969, ending with the disastrous Altamont Concert in California that saw four people die. So we'll be talking about that film and also about the event, filling in any gaps that the film left out. Until then!
