Indelible characters, charming self-awareness and a solid satire is what gets this fringy film in the archives
Alicia Silverstone is wonderful and to date would never find a role/film to match this—it was also smart to have Amy Heckerling bring this Jane Austin “Emma” up to date for the 1990’s- She directed fast times at ridgemont high and although this film isn’t as good as the 1982 coming of age drama- it has much in common and strides of its own
Rudd is good as is Wallace Shawn and Dan Hedeya as a Robert Shapiro-like shark Beverly Hills litigator.
It’s a light weight but again has a very solid screenplay and costume work—I can’t call it a biting satire but the light satirical elements taking aim at the rich and youth culture in general add much. It’s playfully self-aware
Oddly enough it’ shot by Bill Pope (baby driver, world’s end, scott pilgrim, matrix)
Set’s Emma set in the 90’s and certainly it’s far better than the average 1990’s teen film—but it is also very much a film of the 1990’s—you have a soundtrack with the counting crows, radiohead, and we have, in the first 5 minutes, mentions of OJ, The cranberries, Nine Inch Nails, Beavis and Butthead…. We have a ton of flannel and even have a reference to the mentos commercial (and song)
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