Clueless

Release

Box office

The film became a surprise sleeper hit of 1995.[22] Clueless opened in 1,653 theaters on July 19, 1995, and grossed $10,612,443 on its opening weekend, which led to a ranking of second at the US box office behind Apollo 13.[23] The film grossed $56,631,572 during its theatrical run in the United States and Canada, becoming the 32nd-highest-grossing film of 1995.[24] Internationally, it grossed $31 million for a worldwide total of $88 million.[3] The box office success brought the then-largely unknown Silverstone to international attention and earned her a $10 million, multi-picture deal with Columbia TriStar.[25] The film developed a strong cult following after its release.[5][26]

Critical reception

The film was well received by critics. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 81% based on reviews from 120 critics, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A funny and clever reshaping of Emma, Clueless offers a soft satire that pokes as much fun at teen films as it does at the Beverly Hills glitterati."[27] On Metacritic, the film has a 68 out of 100 rating based on 18 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[28] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[29]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars.[30] Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted, "Even if Clueless runs out of gas before it's over, most of it is as eye-catching and cheery as its star."[31] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone contrasted the film to a more adult-oriented movie about teenagers released around the same time, Kids, stating, "The materialism in Clueless is almost as scary as the hopelessness in Kids", but concluded Clueless is "wicked good fun to be had [and] Silverstone is a winner."[32]

Accolades

Clueless won the award for Best Screenplay at the National Society of Film Critics Awards[33] and Alicia Silverstone won the award for Breakthrough Performance from the National Board of Review.[34] The film was nominated for a WGA Award for Best Screenplay.[35] The film was nominated for four MTV Movie Awards, winning for Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female for Silverstone.[36] Silverstone won the award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture at the American Comedy Awards.[37]

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly selected Clueless as one of the "New Classics", a list of 100 best films released between 1983 and 2008;[38] Clueless was ranked 42nd.[38] That year, the publication also named it the 19th-best comedy of the past 25 years.[39] The film is ranked as number 7 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 best high school films.[40]


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