Asked who won the movie, with a joke about Paul Rudd's eyes, the host says it is obviously Alicia Silverstone and wonders why they even asked; she is perfect, the ideal avatar for everything Amy Heckerling wanted to get across, and someone wound her up and she nailed it.
Much of what is memorable about the movie, even saying 'as if', would not be as memorable without the way she delivers it; the realization that 'as if' was left off the quote list is called almost criminal, 'whatever' with the W hands is added, and the hosts highly recommend rewatching the film.
"If I'm too good for him, then how come I'm not with him?"; "She could be a farmer in those clothes"; "let's do a lap before we commit to a location"; "street slang is an increasingly valid form of expression"; "Virgin Who Can't Drive"; "that was way harsh, Ty"; "everywhere in L.A. takes 20 minutes"; "I totally paused"; "Want to practice parking? What's the point? Everywhere you go has valet."; "As if"
Nominations open with Cher's 'if I'm too good for him, then how come I'm not with him', called an eternal truth and eternal question; 'she could be a farmer in those clothes' has many uses; and 'let's do a lap before we commit to a location' is excellent party advice.
Murray's long speech to Dion, played as a clip, is nominated for using the word misogynistic in 1995 so it rolls off his tongue; unlike Dawson's Creek, where characters seem to have memorized a thesaurus, Murray is proud of a prepared statement he delivered well, and Dion offers no comeback.
The 'virgin who can't drive' and 'that was way harsh, Ty' couplet is called maybe the most important exchange in the film; also listed are 'everywhere in L.A. takes 20 minutes', 'I totally paused', and Josh asking if they want to practice parking, answered that everywhere has valet, which one host finds true given a fixation with valet in Los Angeles.
The aphorisms are the truest and coolest in the film, and filling it with clever, eternally true lines is very Jane Austen; Amy Heckerling ('Hickling' as transcribed) modernized not just Austen's ideas but her way of having people describe their world, and the first-person approach makes it a perfect adaptation that stays true to the spirit while doing what it wants.
During the winner discussion a host realizes 'as if' was forgotten, calls it the best line and almost criminal to omit, and adds 'whatever' with the W hands, which the hosts did a lot.
The question is posed as who is at their best other than Alicia Silverstone and Amy Heckerling ('Hackerling' as transcribed); one host repeats that Paul Rudd is at his best here, and another jokes that his eyes are at their best in the film.
On a seventy-first viewing in HD one host finally noticed how much eyeliner Paul Rudd wears throughout, wondering if it is an emo move or part of his green-party, standing-in-front-of-the-fridge flannel persona; another doubts you are meant to see it and says this was the first film watched on a fancy TV, which revealed things about the aesthetic better left unseen.
The pick refers back to an earlier aside during the casting discussion: Clueless together with Paris in Romeo and Juliet is still the peak Paul Rudd run for one host, who says he will never be more important than he was then in that host's universe.
A tangent on the Arclight theater chain in Los Angeles, whose lobby displays film costumes that look like sewn-together tablecloths; cameras and lights do a lot of work, HD has ruined many illusions and is good only for reality TV, Game of Thrones production value and sports.
The Christian storyline, though the hosts move it toward aged pretty well; Christian's over-stylized retro persona; how the teenagers interact, such as Elton keeping Cher's photo in his locker; Murray and Elton sharing a popular crew; Cher and Ty doing a home workout video; the fashion computer's monitor
Cher's date with Christian is called the most problematic part of a problematic fave; asked whether falling for a gay man is a rom-com trope, the hosts can only think of the Rupert Everett and Madonna film and agree it is not really a rom-com thing, while finding it funny that the straight guys, Paul Rudd seeing Christian dance with a man and Murray, pick up on it before the ostensibly perceptive Cher and Dion.
Murray's reveal, played as a clip, uses 'friend of Dorothy', an old-school gay self-identifying marker from The Wizard of Oz, plus 'cake boy' and the Oscar Wilde, disco-dancing, Streisand-ticket-holding string; the hosts find it hilarious in a good way that Amy Heckerling put those words in Murray's mouth, call the Streisand line remarkable and Pulitzer-worthy, and the 'cake boy' line unfortunate.
Christian's analog in Emma, read from Wikipedia in a way Cher would endorse since she loves Cliff's Notes, is Frank Churchill, who courts Emma while secretly engaged to someone else and waiting on an aunt's inheritance, so the storylines are not really the same; the host prefers him being gay to that.
GLAAD ('Glad' as transcribed) gave Amy Heckerling an award for the storyline, which was very progressive at the time; Murray pointing out that Christian is gay is not malicious, the joke is that Cher is totally clueless, which one host says has happened to teenage girls and, going by the friends that host still counsels through it, women of all ages, so the item is moved to somewhere between aged best and aged pretty well.
What still annoys is Christian's style: the over-stylized guy obsessed with the twenties and thirties, who deserves Cher not knowing who Billie Holiday is, though Billie Holiday deserves better.
Discussing a possible remake, the hosts find the way these kids interact foreign to teenagers now; Elton keeping a photo Cher took in his locker is quaint, silly and confusing, which is part of why Elton gets kicked out of the picture because he sucks, and the 'social director of the crew' line is loved.
Murray and Elton being in the same crew of popular guys confuses one host, whose high school popular set was uniform in style rather than race; another went to a weird school with a wide range, and a third had a clearly defined cool tier with pressure to look the same, so the kids with sagging jeans and the Eltons would have mutually rejected each other.
Cher and Ty doing a home workout video instead of a class has aged badly, though it is set in the nineties when everyone had workout videos; the hosts recall sneaking a mother's 'Tybo' tape (as transcribed), a Paula Abdul video with a routine still remembered, and the Barbie workout video starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Earlier, during the opening-minutes discussion, the fashion computer's actual monitor is said to look like trash now and not to have aged well, even though the idea was forward thinking.
Cher's plaid outfit and most of her wardrobe; the craft and Amy Heckerling's direction; the affectionate satire; the jokes; Cher's kitchen; the upper-crust design aesthetics; the short skirts
The plaid outfit still rocks and most of Cher's outfits are good, with her style coming back; one host wants to say the script but concedes certain aspects of it have not aged well, and lands on craft: the film was impeccably made, still really funny, with most jokes holding up despite being a specific nineties movie.
The film does not seem dated, has no fat and no scene to cut, so Amy Heckerling is what has held up best; she was ahead of her time because few satires manage to be so affectionate toward what they satirize, enjoying the silly characters even while mocking them, as with Ty's line that they speak like adults.
Cher's kitchen still reads as high-end: a Viking range and oven, the granite countertops seen on every HGTV show, great light, a good double-door refrigerator-freezer, and a startling quantity of cold cuts; only the cabinet handles would need updating.
A hand is raised to ask whether anyone noticed how the sandwich is made in the kitchen scene. — Amanda Dobbins
The sandwich scene is walked through: just after the makeover, Josh and Cher argue in the kitchen over whether her project has the right intentions while Paul Rudd gets out cold cuts, bread and mayonnaise, puts cold cuts on one slice, dips the knife for a paltry amount of mayo and spreads it directly on the turkey; the hosts are disgusted and wonder whether he was too busy acting to make a sandwich.
The sandwich has not enough mayo to moisten anything, no other condiments, no cheese and about one piece of turkey, a gross dry sandwich that horrified the hosts; even so Paul Rudd is a revelation and very funny in the film.
The design aesthetics hold up because the world is so upper crust that it is classic rather than trendy, unlike 90210 where the couches and styles look ridiculous; the real-life Los Angeles counterparts might lack taste, but Amy Heckerling's set and costume designers had it, and it clearly mattered that the film be nice to look at.
The skirts are really short without being slutty or trashy, which is hard to do, though perhaps the hosts are simply used to the look; the tiny white Calvin Klein dress is recalled with the clip of Cher's dad telling her it looks like underwear, and the hosts note she is only going on a date with the gay guy anyway.
