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Director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) serves up a winning Valley Girl spin on Jane Austen’s Emma, reinforced with a terrific cast, a uniformly solid collection of songs, and a plethora of catchy one-liners that are now embedded in the zeitgeist. I probably say, “I totally paused,” at every single stop sign now, and never resist the urge to use the word ‘sporadically’ as gratuitously as possible.

Clueless is funny. Clueless is sweet. But it could easily have been dumb and annoying. Enough credit cannot be given to (sorta can’t believe I’m saying this) Alicia Silverstone. Yep, the Aerosmith girl pulls off a remarkable stunt here. She plays someone who is indeed clueless, but not stupid, shallow but not empty, direct but not mean. It’s a high-wire act to play a ditzy character that we’re supposed to care about. Silverstone succeeds. And she’s surrounded by the most adorable ensemble I’ve ever seen in a teen film: Stacey Dash, the late Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Wallace Shawn, Dan Hedaya (“Get out of my chair” floors me every time), and Paul Rudd. Ah, Paul Rudd — he’s enough to make a cakeboy swoon.

If you haven’t seen Clueless, you’d better have a good excuse. Like, you were surfing the crimson wave and had to haul ass to the lady’s.