Clueless

Plot

Cher Horowitz is a stylish, good-natured, and popular teenager living in a Beverly Hills mansion with her wealthy father Mel, a gruff litigator; her mother died during a liposuction procedure when Cher was a baby. She attends Bronson Alcott High School with her best friend Dionne Davenport, who is also beautiful and from a wealthy family. Dionne has a long-term relationship with popular student Murray Duvall, though Cher believes Dionne should be dating more mature men. Josh, the socially conscious son of Mel's ex-wife of only a few weeks, visits Cher and her father during a break from college. She playfully mocks his idealism, while he teases her for her vanity and superficial lifestyle.

After receiving a poor grade, Cher decides to orchestrate a romance between two teachers at her school, Miss Geist and the hard-grading Mr. Hall, so that Hall will relax his standards and allow Cher to renegotiate the grade. After seeing their newfound happiness, Cher realizes that she enjoys doing good deeds.

When a "clueless" transfer student named Tai Frasier arrives at the school, Cher decides to make Tai her next project by giving her a makeover with the help of Dionne, providing Tai with confidence and a sense of style. Cher tries to extinguish the attraction between Tai and Travis Birkenstock, an amiable but clumsy slacker, and instead steer Tai towards handsome, popular student Elton. However, Elton has no interest in Tai and instead tries to make out with Cher in his car after a party. When she rebuffs him, he leaves her in a parking lot out of spite and she is mugged at gunpoint. Josh picks her up and the two begin to bond.

Fashion-conscious new student Christian attracts Cher's attention and becomes her target for a boyfriend. When she goes to a party with him, Josh becomes jealous and decides to follow her to the party. She invites Christian to her home and tries to seduce him, but he deflects her advances. Murray subsequently tells Cher and Dionne that Christian is gay. Despite the failure of her romantic overtures, Cher remains friends with Christian due to her admiration of his taste in art and fashion.

Cher's privileged life takes a negative turn when Tai's newfound popularity strains their relationship, and when she fails her driving test and cannot change the result. When Cher returns home in a depressed mood, Tai confesses that she has feelings for Josh and asks Cher for help in pursuing him. Cher says Tai is not right for Josh, leading to the two girls falling out. Feeling "totally clueless", Cher reflects on her priorities and her repeated failures to understand or appreciate the people in her life. After thinking about why she is bothered by Tai's romantic interest in Josh, Cher finally realizes that she is in love with him.

In response to her epiphany, Cher begins making awkward but sincere efforts to live a more purposeful life, including captaining the school's Pismo Beach disaster relief effort. She accepts an invitation by Travis to a skating tournament where she reconciles with Tai. Cher and Josh eventually follow through on their feelings for one another, culminating in a kiss. Ultimately, her friendships with Tai and Dionne are solidified. Sometime later, Mr. Hall and Miss Geist get married, and Cher attends the wedding with Josh, Dionne, Murray, and Tai and Travis (who have begun dating). Cher catches the wedding bouquet, and she and Josh embrace and kiss.


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