Clueless

Clueless was one of my favorite films in high school and college, but I was afraid to revisit it after my college friend Camila died. Camila and I bonded over our mutual love of the movie, and she knew the entire script by heart. Once after college I messaged her “saw a snippet of Clueless and thought of you,” and she posted my text in her stories and said “if you don’t think of me when you see Clueless, we aren’t friends! I don’t think of you at all!” I finally watched it all the way through for the first time after her death, and I felt as happy as ever. I love that Cher is self-absorbed but rarely ever stupid (she only seems ditzy when talking about world politics, and that is on par with the average American tbh). The little hints spread throughout the movie show her as a caring daughter and friend, even if her view of care is based on making sure her friend has good social standing. She is conniving but in a cute, silly way. And at the end she learns that helping people out of a sense of altruism is good! For some reason I didn’t make this connection before, but I remembered Camila grew up the child of immigrants in Los Angeles. Maybe she watched Clueless with equal parts humor and aspiration - Clueless is satirical about rich Beverly Hills people but never quite mean; you laugh at them but you are still invested in their story. This is such a purely fun movie, and instead of feeling sad after watching it I felt some of Camila’s joy. I thought of the first time we said “I got a C in debate?” in tandem on the floor of someone’s dorm room. I love Clueless and I love Camila. RIP, I’ll always miss you.