Beyond Clueless
Every decade has its own style of teen movies. For example, the seventies dived head first into psychedelic drugs, alcohol and horror whilst the eighties transformed into realism and emotionality under the guidance of John Hughes. Even now, there is a striking tone with teen movies - a tone of liberation and smashing social construct with films such as The Duff and GBF making the most waves. Like me and for so many, the nineties (that catapulted into the noughties too because we all know that the decade didn’t end until 2004) was abundantly full of teen flicks, perhaps the most anyone had seen, and they unearthed the true horror or splendour of adolescence. In Charlie Lynn’s acclaimed documentary Beyond Clueless, the director excellently explored this once in a life time experience.
Narrated by The Craft’s Fairuza Balk, Beyond Clueless is a surreal look at coming of age cinema. Essentially, the film, told in chapters, is a collection of over 200 teen movies, focusing on the nineties and early 2000 period (you know, beyond……Clueless). Flitting through acclaimed movies to unheard ones, focusing on pivotal films that transformed the pubescent landscape of cinema. Travelling through time, a world of baggy jeans and over-sized flannel shirts, Beyond Clueless looks at favourites such as She’s All That, Slap! Her She’s French, Final Destination and more - choosing to find the thematic resonance in the sub-genres.
Which is where Beyond Clueless finds it’s, pardon the pun, craft. Elaborating on specific films, director Charlie Lynn makes this a journey into the psyche of teenagers and allows it to encompass the viewer. The documentary, through the poetic and haunting narration of Balk (a familiar face in the nineties and, undeniably, cannot be replaced in the silly remake of The Craft,) digs underneath the hierarchy of American school life. Finding familiarly in the horror, the pain within the comedy and the intellectual essay (as artistic as it is, the thesis of the film will have a lot of Film Studies Students bristling in remembrance) in the humour, Lynn captures the beating heart of an era - both cinematic and real - wielding his astute eye on them all.
The looming message here that pulsates on the sublime tongue of Balk (who, sidebar, has replaced Morgan Freeman as the narrator of my life) - that is illuminated in beloved famed films and their cult counterparts - is the developing rite of passage. As the characters spar with issues, albeit heightened to fit into Hollywood’s entertainment, they reach out and relate to all whoever has transformed unwillingly into these adult by-products forced to deal with growth and adolescence. The biggest sense here is that of becoming who you are and finding an identity in a world that is towering over you, begging for you to conform. In chapters, Beyond Clueless dabbles in the largest parts of life and cinematic life, from sex to status, and Lynn evocatively masters this.
The montage, at times, may be a little gauche as it lingers on overlong montages such as sex or prom, yet it never loses its stirring element. For anyone who watched these films growing up, to all who have to face the teenaged years with a sense of either futility or belonging, Beyond Clueless is for you. It’s a historical document that elucidates movies previously written off as bad or fell off the radar. The cleverness implemented in this alluring narration - a marriage of verse and acumen - is pieced by Lynn’s free use of films. It is a delicate portrayal of cinematic life for the All American Teen and strips your breath away in the most glorious manner, building at the most climatic moments and pulling away when the time is right. Truly magnificent, there is little in this inventive documentary that is not enthralling.