Celebrating 30 Years of Clueless: On adaptations that get it right

What would Cher’s reaction be to turning 46 years old?

Don’t say “As if.” I already thought of that joke and decided it was too cheesy to post, but I still want credit for thinking of it.

Regardless, Clueless turning 30 does feel impossible. The world of Clueless is perpetually sixteen, coming of age in the nineties and assuming that the nineties are never going to go out of style. And somehow, whenever I’m watching this movie at least, they never do. Just like the book it was based on, Jane Austen’s Emma, Clueless escapes the time in which it was created and continues to make its mark on this world. Not many movies, let alone adaptations, can say that. 

For me, Clueless is the gold standard of Austen adaptations. Maybe even adaptations in general. There are a couple things that Clueless gets right that I think should be part of the pledge people sign when they decide to adapt a well-loved book, movie, or TV show.

Seeing as there currently isn’t a pledge people have to sign before handling our favorite characters and worlds, I took it upon myself to make one.

There are two things someone should know before adapting a beloved work:

1. No adaptation can ever recreate the original.

2. You must love the source material to make a worthy adaptation of it.

On the first point, so many adaptations shoot themselves in the foot by trying to recreate the magic of the original. This is a doomed effort. 

Clueless is an adaptation that preserves the spirit of the work it is based on, even if it doesn’t recreate every little detail. It doesn’t try to copy and paste the entire plot of Emma into 90’s Beverly Hills, and it’s a good thing it doesn’t. This decision allows Clueless to be remembered separately from the original work, so much so that people often do not realize it is an adaptation.

This is not a disservice to Austen or her writing either. I think about transformative works as a dessert buffet. The original work is the main course, the meat and potatoes and things with nutritional value. But a good meal is never complete without dessert. Transformative works can never replace the original work; they can only add to the buffet.

In other words, we will always have the original. Don’t be afraid to give us something new.

On the flip side, attempting to adapt a work because you hate the original and want to “fix” it is also a doomed effort. Lovers of the original media can sniff out a director’s disdain from a mile away. Even if the adaptation borne of hatred attracts new fans, it will always alienate the people it should have been for, which is a crucial mistake.

In Clueless, this is obviously not the case. Love for Jane Austen’s witticisms, her attention to the minutiae of social norms, and her sly commentary about class shine through in every frame. The movie loves its protagonist the same way Jane loved Emma, even though Cher falls into all of the trappings of a spoiled girl who hasn’t seen a whole lot of the world. Despite her outward appearance, she is not made to be the butt of any joke, and she is the furthest thing from shallow. The movie extends a lot of grace to the teenage girls of Southern California, where other movies may have found it easy to sneer at them. This is one of the things that make Clueless feel so good to come back to.

Happy 30th birthday, Clueless! I think for as long as I’ll live, some part of me will always be rollin’ with the homies. 🫶❤️