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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
30 years of ‘Clueless,' plus the week's best movies in L.A.
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. We are pleased to exclusively announce that the Egyptian Theatre will host the U.S. premiere of the new 4K restoration of Charlie Chaplin's 'The Gold Rush' on June 26, the 100th anniversary of the film's premiere at that same venue in 1925. The restoration premiered as part of the Cannes Classics section at the recent Cannes Film Festival. On June 26, the restoration will screen in more than 70 countries, with the Egyptian being the exclusive engagement in the U.S. Film historian Jeffrey Vance, author of the 2003 book 'Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema,' will introduce the screening. Reproductions of the original film program will be available for 25 cents, the same price that it cost in 1925. 'The Gold Rush' features Chaplin in his iconic Little Tramp character, searching for his fortune prospecting for gold, and features some of his most famous moments on-screen. The restoration, carried out by Cineteca di Bologna and L'Immagine Ritrovata, draws from materials sourced from archives all around the world, including the BFI Archive, George Eastman Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Tickets are now available at On Saturday the Academy Museum will present a 30th anniversary screening of 'Clueless' in 35mm, with director Amy Heckerling, actors Alicia Silverstone, Elisa Donovan and Breckin Meyer, costume designer Mona May and casting director Marcia Ross all scheduled to attend for a Q&A. Written by Heckerling, the film is a loose adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Emma' relocated to affluent 1990s Beverly Hills. Cher Horowitz (Silverstone), a popular and fashionable teenager, sets about playing matchmaker for a new classmate, Tai (Brittany Murphy), enlisting her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) to help. Paul Rudd, in his feature debut, plays Cher's stepbrother. In his original review, Kenneth Turan called the film 'a wickedly funny teen-age farce from writer-director Amy Heckerling that, like its heroine, turns out to have more to it than anyone could anticipate. … Put together with verve and style, 'Clueless' is a sweet-natured satire of L.A.'s over-pampered youth that gets more fun out of high school than most people had attending it.' In the summer of 2020, Justin Chang interviewed Heckerling, who spoke about writing Cher's voice-over narration and getting into the mind of the character by saying, 'Once you get into her head, then it just goes. It's not the voice of God. It's the voice of that person. And you get into it, and it's not necessarily what the writer needs — it's what the writer wants you to think that person is thinking. And that's a lot of fun to do. It's like, as a writer, you're also playing a character.' The 'Clueless' screening opens a series on teen movies that will run through July 10. Other titles include 'Bring It On,' 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' 'Adventures in Babysitting,' and 'Saved!' all in 35mm, along with 'Napoleon Dynamite,' 'Dope,' 'Love, Simon' and '10 Things I Hate About You.' Also on Saturday will be another 35mm 30th anniversary screening, with the UCLA Film & Television Archive showing writer-director Maria Maggenti's 'The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.' A charming example of '90s indie filmmaking, the movie follows the burgeoning relationship between Evie (Nicole Parker) and Randy (Laurel Hollomon), two girls from opposite sides of the tracks who shouldn't particularly even be friends, let alone romantically drawn to each other. In his original review of the film, Peter Rainer wrote, 'The experience of first love is a movie perennial but rarely is it believably rendered. The best thing going for 'The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love' — an amateurish, sweet, little piddle of a movie — is that it captures a bit of the freshness, and the awkwardness, of the moment. … They seem like real people, and so their budding romance strikes a few remembered chords.' In a June 1995 profile of Maggenti by Chris Riemenschneider, the filmmaker talked about her inspirations in making the film. 'I didn't make a niche-market film,' Maggenti said. 'It wasn't about 'Let's make a lesbian film, and a bunch of lesbians will go see it.' I wanted to make a film that people would enjoy, a film about an authentic human experience, and it happens to be with someone of the same sex.' 'Death Becomes Her' in 35mm On Sunday the Academy Museum will host a 35mm screening of Robert Zemeckis' 1992 'Death Becomes Her,' starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini and Bruce Willis. Made with still-dazzling special effects work that should look spectacular in the Academy's David Geffen Theater, the film is about two women who go to great lengths to maintain their youthful appearance, including competing for the romantic affections of a top plastic surgeon. In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, ''Death' gets progressively darker and darker, forgetting all about humor in its attempts to push the more mordant limits of its story. The three principals are game enough about all this, soldiering on until the end, but their characters, not having much to do that they haven't done before, tend to sound the same single notes they have since Frame One. 'There is something regrettable in all this, because by industry standards this picture does take a few risks, and few enough pictures in today's Hollywood take any at all. But even though 'Death Becomes Her' has no fear of being out on the edge, brazenness alone is no guarantee of success.' The film is screening as part of a 'Summer of Camp' series, that will also include 'Valley of the Dolls,' 'Sleepaway Camp,' 'Flash Gordon,' 'The Birdcage,' 'Lifeforce,' 'Serial Mom,' 'Disco Godfather,' 'To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,' 'Showgirls' and 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' all in 35mm prints, plus 'Batman & Robin,' 'But I'm a Cheerleader' and more. There will also be triple features of the 'Austin Powers' movies and titles starring Joan Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor. Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival The Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival will settle into the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall on Saturday and Sunday. The highlight of this year's program will be the Saturday screenings of 1978's 'Piranha' and 1981's 'The Howling,' with director Joe Dante and star Belinda Balaski present for both. Dante is a masterful storyteller and unflinching in his recollections. Any opportunity to hear him talk is worth taking. Among the finest examples of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking (rooted in low-budget genre filmmaking but reaching unexpected heights), both 'Piranha' and 'The Howling' were written by John Sayles, who would go on to a notable career as a filmmaker in his own right. Also on Saturday will be will be a screening of 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II' with writer Peter Atkins and director Tony Randel present, as well as 'Return of the Living Dead 3' with director Brian Yuzna in person. Yuzna's 1989 cult classic 'Society' will also show. 'Personal Best' and 'Star 80' The New Beverly is featuring a double-bill of movies starring Mariel Hemingway on Monday and Tuesday: Robert Towne's 1982 'Personal Best' and Bob Fosse's 'Star 80' from 1983. 'Personal Best' was the directorial debut for the Oscar-winning 'Chinatown' screenwriter Robert Towne, who died in July of last year. The film stars Hemingway as a rising track star who falls in love with an older athlete, played by real-life Olympic track and field athlete Patrice Donnelly. Both are training for the 1980 Olympics. The film was noteworthy at the time for its frank depiction of a lesbian relationship, as well as its focus on the athletes at work. A January 1982 profile of Towne by Dale Pollack found him in a suite at the Westwood Marquis Hotel (now the W) 'filled with typewriters, phones, vodka bottles and stacks of yellowing newspapers.' In a sign of the moment (and mindset) in which he was making it, Towne took some objection to classifying 'Personal Best' as a gay-themed film, saying, 'I don't think in any way this is a lesbian or homosexual movie. What I'm interested in is how you deal with a society that encourages competition, and still care about other people. These two women are in love with each other. In order to place emphasis on who they're making love to, you have to show it. But there are only two minutes of sex in the film; there are two hours of competition.' I know I've talked about Bob Fosse and 'Star 80' around these parts a number of times before, but for me it always rates a mention. Thinking of the film specifically in relation to 'Personal Best' is worthwhile, as both films meditate on the use and meaning of women's bodies. Few films are as unsparing and dispiriting in their depiction of the star machinery of Hollywood as 'Star 80.' Hemingway plays Dorothy Stratten, the Playboy Playmate turned actor who was brutally murdered by her ex-husband and manager, played with psychotic commitment by Eric Roberts. In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson called it 'creepy' and added, 'Worst of all, there is a feeling of complicity that is not far from voyeurism that you get as part of 'Star 80's' audience, sitting through the increasingly morbid tightening of the story.' Two local theaters are finding unique ways to support their communities this summer. Vidiots is launching Movie Den, a program of tween and teen-centric matinees focused on engaging a new generation of film lovers. Underwritten by Mubi and Golden Globe Foundation, screenings will take place in the venue's microcinema. Tickets are $2 and popcorn is free. Titles in the program include 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,' 'Princess Mononoke,' 'Rear Window,' 'La Bamba,' 'Hairspray,' 'The Half of It,' 'Hot Rod' and more. In a statement, Maggie Mackay, executive director of Vidiots Foundation, said, 'As a mom to teens and a member of a community that has been through so much this year, it was important to me and our team that we try to make what we know will be a hard summer for so many a little easier, by expanding programming with an intention to get us out of the house, off devices and reconnected.' The Gardena Cinema, the last family-run independent single-screen indoor movie theater in South Los Angeles, will have free screenings this weekend as part of Pluto TV's Free Movie Weekend at indie movie theaters across the country. Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker — who did a Times interview from the Gardena last year and appeared there again just last weekend — has partnered with Pluto TV to support their program. Screening for free at the Gardena this weekend will be 'Grease,' 'Saturday Night Fever' and 1984's 'Ghostbusters.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Clueless' Musical Director Has 'No Interest In Being Modern,' Will Stick With 1995 Themes And Fashion
1990s teen hit Clueless has been brought to the stage of London's West End by the film's original writer and director Amy Heckerling, who has focused on keeping the 90s theme integral to the story. Heckerling told BBC News that she has 'no interest in being modern,' and has stuck closely to the original story. The 1995 film, inspired by Jane Austen's novel Emma and starring Alicia Silverstone as lead character Cher and took $88million at the box office. It was credited with inspiring similar teen school dramas including Mean Girls, Gossip Girl and Legally Blonde. More from Deadline Shout! Studios Takes North America For Alicia Silverstone & Karl Glusman Thriller 'Pretty Thing' Alicia Silverstone, Oliver Hudson, Jameela Jamil, Pierson Fode & Melissa Joan Hart To Star In Netflix Rom-Com 'A Merry Little Ex-Mas' Alicia Silverstone To Star In 'Irish Blood' Series For Acorn TV And she admitted neither the original film nor the musical are documents of real LA life for most citizens. Heckerling told the BBC she wished the original film had been a musical, because ''there were natural moments in the script where characters could have sung.' Scottish singer KT Tunstall has composed an original score for the show, and she told the BBC she was inspired by the original film soundtrack. She called the new score 'a mixtape of all your favourite 90s bangers.' She said: 'You really have to think about whether a song fits the structure and flow of the story and whether it actually helps the audience understand the narrative better. Besides the story and music, the show sticks with the 1990s theme when it comes to the fashions. Characters are seen carrying pagers, listening to their music on Walkman stereos, omnipresent in that era. The original film also starred Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd in his debut role. It was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Lawrence. Best of Deadline TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Book-To-Movie Adaptations Coming Out In 2025 Everything We Know About 'Freakier Friday' So Far
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The Independent
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
How Clueless the Musical went from a ‘full-on Monet' to a ‘total Baldwin'
Time travel may not yet be possible, but for the next best thing watch Clueless. In the two decades since its release, Amy Heckerling's cult-classic teen movie has become shorthand for Nineties pop culture: flip phones, plaid skirts, sassy slang. The two syllables of its title seem to pack more nostalgia than literal rose-tinted glasses. At the centre of it all is, of course, Alicia Silverstone's blonde, sweet-as-pie high schooler Cher, a Beverly Hills update on Jane Austen's most likeably unlikeable heroine Emma. Now 30 years after the film's release, Clueless the Musical has arrived in the West End, with original music by Noughties guitar queen KT Tunstall. No one is happier about this than Heckerling herself, who has written a new script, and who from the start had always pictured her candy-coloured story set to snazzy choreography. 'It's not a realistic world I was making,' Heckerling explains in between rehearsals at Trafalgar Theatre. 'It's happier, nicer, cleaner, richer, with less strife, less racial tension. Everything is wonderful and the only thing to worry about is who likes who.' In short, it's a musical sort of world. But back then, she shrugs, Hollywood wasn't making musicals. Fans of the original can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this is a faithful adaptation. The story remains the same: teen queen Cher (now played by the equally blonde Emma Flynn) rules her school as a benevolent dictator whose vow to do more 'good deeds' leads to her taking a new girl under her wing and playing cupid with two lonely teachers. It remains as compulsively quotable as ever; 'As if!' gets a whole song of its own while. Heckerling's personal favourite quote? A line delivered by Cher during a class debate about Haitians seeking refuge in the US: 'May I please remind you; it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!' Heckerling pauses, adding dryly: 'Although it probably does now.' Picture the creator of Clueless. Now picture the opposite, and you've got someone close to Heckerling. The writer, now 70, wears black skinny jeans and a black jumper. Her black hair is unruly, forming a fuzzy halo knotted around her head. And her black eyeliner is heavy. Far from any leisurely Valley Girl uptalk, Heckerling speaks low and fast in a Bronx accent. A real New Yawker. All of which to say, she is the antithesis of Cher, which was, of course, the whole point. When I met Alicia Silverstone, I just loved her. She did this goofy thing, where instead of picking up her glass of soda to drink, she put her head down to the glass like a little kid Amy Heckerling Heckerling first read Austen's Emma as a film student at NYU drowning in Kafka, the Russians, and Dickens ('not even his fun ones'). Years later, after she had established herself in Hollywood writing films including Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Look Who's Talking, she was brainstorming what to do next when a question came to mind: what would the world look like if life was easy? If Heckerling was the type of person everyone instantly loved, the sort of woman who looked great in every outfit and didn't have cares in the world? 'Who in culture is like that?' Heckerling asked herself. Emma! And Cher was born – brought to life by Silverstone who was 18 and a relative unknown at the time. Heckerling set up a meeting with Silverstone after seeing her play a teen girl breaking bad in an Aerosmith music video. 'It was just something about her,' says Heckerling. 'I felt this warmth. And then when I met her, I just loved her. She did this goofy thing, where instead of picking up her glass of soda to drink, she put her head down to the glass like a little kid. There was something so innocent and childish about her.' Down the line, there was talk of Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon being cast, but Silverstone and her soda niggled in the back of Heckerling's mind. Finally, she submitted the script to Paramount with a VHS tape of Silverstone's Aerosmith video attached. The film opened at number two at the US box office – a surefire hit for its creator and stars. More important than its cash haul, though, are the years that followed, which have seen Clueless venerated to cult-classic status. Its success spawned a TV show, written by Heckerling and starring Peep Show actor Rachel Blanchard, and a 21-book series. As recently as 2020, there were talks of a Veronica Mars -style spin-off that would focus on Cher's equally chic BFF Dionne (Stacey Dash). Granted this isn't even the first time that Clueless has got the musical treatment. In 2018, Disney alum Dove Cameron stepped into Cher's Calvin Klein LBD for an off-Broadway jukebox musical that remixed Nineties songs (think Aqua's 'Barbie Girl' rejigged as 'Valley Girl'). This time around, singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and lyricist Glenn Slater (School of Rock; Sister Act) penned original numbers all shot through with the Nineties MTV energy of the original soundtrack. 'Human Barbies', for example, a song about Cher's ability to manipulate and charm those around her, is a Green Day-style pop punk thrasher. On why Heckerling chose to do away with the jukebox format, she points to a 'negative vibe' around jukebox musicals right now – an acknowledgement perhaps to the show's less-than-favourable reviews. Even before 2018, Clueless the Musical was decades in the making. It was first workshopped by producing legends Barry and Fran Weissler (Chicago and Pippin) but things didn't click, says Heckerling. They wanted different things; the Weissler version would've shifted perspective onto the housekeepers and gardeners of Beverly Hills, filtering Cher's story through the eyes of hired help: Clueless as social commentary. It didn't make any sense to Heckerling. This was her perfect bubble of sunny optimism and the Weisslers wanted to burst it. 'It's a movie,' she says. 'Movies are fantasies that make you feel happier, stronger, bigger. You don't watch Peter Pan and say, 'Hey, most guys don't wear tights and fly around.' Or Fred Astaire movies, they'll be in a room with shiny floors. In the Bronx, there are no shiny floors, trust me, but I want to see it on screen. I want to pretend to live in it.' The world could do with a little more escapism, according to Heckerling. Or a lot more. Take this year's Oscar nominees. 'I watched most of the films and I was just like, 'This isn't making me any happier,'' she says. Heckerling had hoped Best Picture winner Anora would end happily, in a 'they rode off into the sunset' sort of way. It did not. For those of a certain age, Clueless is a generational touchstone – single-handedly responsible for popularising plaid outside of Scotland and introducing 'whatever' into the cultural lexicon. For others, including Chyna-Rose Frederick, the actor playing Cher's BFF Dionne, this musical will be their introduction. 'I hadn't watched the film until I auditioned, which is probably sacrilege,' laughs Frederick. That said, she was still familiar with the characters thanks to the film's chokehold on Halloween costumes. 'And I knew Dionne and [her boyfriend] Murray as the glamorous young Black characters of the Nineties. I always looked up to them.' There is no escaping the fact that most of the actors in Clueless the Musical were not born when Heckerling's films hit cinemas – and wouldn't be born for quite some time after. But while they may have no clue what a flip phone is, they understand its place in the pantheon of great romcoms – not least Flynn, who is taking a 'purist' approach to playing Cher. 'I know that if I was coming to see the musical, I'd want to see the parts of the film that I loved so much,' she says. Flynn – who previously played Legally Blonde 's Elle Woods on Broadway, the other iconic romcom blonde – worked hard to mimic Silverstone's speech, the way her mouth moves and her cadence. 'It's part of the reason why people love Cher so much.' Heckerling knows it's a tall order for the musical to live up to the film, particularly for fans of the original, but she is excited, nonetheless. Amid news that Paramount has ordered a reboot of Clueless without so much as a cursory email to let her know ('It's like, well pay me because I created the characters!') Heckerling takes solace in the fact that this musical is hers. Before we part ways, I'm curious to know what Heckerling thinks of the small asterisk that has attached itself to the vaguely incestual love story at the heart of Clueless between Cher and her ex-stepbrother Josh. Heckerling doesn't understand. 'First of all, my grandparents are stepbrother and stepsister. I mean it's the ghetto, you're not swiping on your phone. It was whoever was around.' Letting a minor familial technicality stop a love story for the ages? As if!
