Review Club #2 – Beyond Clueless

Welcome back to Review Club!

 

First up, we have the lovely Abbi, from abbiosbiston:

Writer/Director Charlie Lyne explores modern morality through the medium of the teen movies of the last thirty to forty years with a particular focus on the high school experience. Lyne divides his film into five chapters dissecting different elements of the journey through the teen years looking at everything from burgeoning sexuality to the ultimate transition into adulthood. This is mostly done by introducing a concept and then flashing through a series of illustrative scenes from various teen movies (and sometimes not teen movies??) While Lyne is definitely onto an interesting concept in the idea that we develop many of our expectations for life as well as our moral tenets from the movies, particularly during our formative years I can’t help but wonder if he’s reading too much into films like Idle Hands. And as he is the only voice in the film (not literally) it’s hard to get away from the feeling that you’re being treated to some kid’s film studies university thesis, which could have benefitted from some other expert opinions. I also wonder about some of the films he’s left out, Carrie being the most obvious (you know… and more than a passing nod to Clueless). If you’re a teen movie fan it’s interesting to see some favourites dissected, but there’s nothing groundbreaking here. 2.5/5

 

Up next, the always funny Eric, from The IPC:

BEYOND CLUELESS 2014

When this movie first started, during the first fifteen minutes or so, I kept thinking to myself, what the fuck have I gotten myself in to??? I’m a grown man who can make my own decisions and don’t have to subject myself to this. But then I remembered I was doing this for Melanie because I really like her so I pressed on. The first fifteen minutes of this consist of Fairuza Balk doing voice-over, over-thinking and over – analyzing high school movies such as The Craft (which she’s in), Disturbing Behavior, Mean Girls and Slap Her – She’s French. There’s not much that irritates me more than when people over think things and read too much into shit, so I wasn’t having a good time.

But then, when I was about to lose all hope – at the twenty minute mark to be precise – I witnessed one of the coolest montages I have ever seen. This movie is about high school movies so they get into a lot of them, but this particular set of images really impressed me. It’s people partying and dancing and slo-mo and it was just kind of incredible. I would advise watching it just for that alone – but I’m a huge fan of the montage.

And then they do it again a little bit later with a bunch of people fighting. And they close the movie with another incredible selection of shots of people jacking off and getting an orgasm (but I am also a big fan of the orgasm).

Anyway – in the end I liked this movie. There’s some bullshit over analyzing throughout but I think the overall product is worth a watch.

4 out 5 Prepons Orgasming

 

And finally, my turn:

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Beyond Clueless

Narrated by: Fairuza Balk

So, this movie. I wish I could say I loved it, and it was a wonderful insight into the world of teen films, but I’d be lying. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t great. And spoilerific, my goodness. It’s a good thing that I’d already seen most of the films showcased, otherwise I might have been upset (spoilers are one of my biggest pet-peeves). The narration, while mostly interesting, was rather lacklustre, with Balk sounding mostly bored as she droned on. And, as Eric and Abbi both noted, some of the films were bullshittingly over-analyzed, especially Idle Hands. I watched that segment with an incredulous “are you fucking serious??” look on my face. The director/writer Charlie Lyne also seems to be obsessed with finding the “hidden homoeroticism” in films, going into depth about it, most notably in the segments on Jeepers Creepers (which isn’t really a teen film to begin with, they’re young adults in University, but that’s besides the point), and EuroTrip. And as much as I would like to imagine Justin Long getting it on with a dude, he’s obviously not gay, his sister remarking on his ability to score using his tummy tattoo as bait (“hey baby, wanna see my tattoo?” “why yes I do, Justin, yes I do”). And if Lyne sees eroticism, homo or otherwise, in that horrifying scene with the bodies hanging everywhere, I think he has bigger things than teen films to worry about. Also, the film is called Beyond Clueless. I would have loved to see a segment that was actually about Clueless. We’re treated to a few sporadic scenes, but nothing else. Actually, they glazed over a lot of teen films that I liked, I think most of the films in my Top 15 Teen Films article were either not there at all, or not discussed. Most notably missing were the John Hughes films. The only mention of The Breakfast Club we get is seeing it on a cinema billboard in a clip from another teen film. Kinda disappointing. So, all in all, decent, but nothing to write home about. It gets a 6/10 from me.

M.

 

And that’s it for this time! Come back in 2 weeks for more!! 🙂