Our statuesque lead has created a shallow monster and lost control of her.
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Tai’s confidence certainly improves as she conforms to this idealised image – but the more Cher teaches her how to dress, how to speak, and how to date, the uglier her personality becomes.
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Movie makeovers play out a wish fulfilment – that we can all, with just a little expertise, transform into a beautiful, confident creature.” The girl sits while other people fuss around her. ”The make-up, clothes and hairstyles are easy to come by, and pretty much effortless. It’s the sort of scene that appeals to audiences, says film studies lecturer Dr Julia Wagner, because it panders to our aspirational appetites. In a quick montage scene, Tai’s box dyed hair is washed out, make-up applied and her outfit overhauled (to the tune of Jill Sobule’s aptly satirical bop Supermodel) so that she can become polished enough to sit with Cher and Dionne at the top of the social hierarchy. Just as Emma Woodhouse takes the unrefined Harriet Smith under her wing, Alicia Silverstone’s queen bee begins moulding Brittany Murphy’s new kid Tai into her image. But 25 years ago, Clueless writer/director Amy Heckerling flipped this clichéd journey on its head to deliver a witty critique of the consumerist, privileged lifestyle of Los Angeles teens. The plot device of a character’s aesthetic overhaul helps to push the story forward and make a character seem more desirable, with their romantic lives often improved as a result. Makeovers have long been a trope used by Hollywood to give films a clear narrative arc, especially in romantic comedies.
But as Cher plans the transformation of new friend Tai from grungy misfit to Beverly Hills princess, she is blissfully unaware that the person getting the real makeover in this movie is herself. It’s her “main thrill in life,” her best friend Dionne points out, “It gives her a sense of control in a world full of chaos”. If there is one thing that Cher Horowitz, the heroine of 1990s teen-movie classic Clueless, loves, it’s a makeover.
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