With 1995’s Clueless, we get a smarter than usual look at high school life. The movie follows the adventures of spoiled teen trendmaker Cher (Alicia Silverstone), the daughter of a well-to-do southern California lawyer (Dan Hedaya).

When her stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd) comes to town, the pair bicker due to their rather different outlooks on life. College boy Josh maintains a more serious, altruistic view toward the world and challenges self-absorbed Cher to do the same. She initially resists his jibes but eventually they get to her and she decides to do something about it.

After Cher manages to play matchmaker with her teachers, she gets a high from her good deed. To maintain this feeling, she decides to help a “clueless” new student named Tai (Brittany Murphy).

A fashion disaster, Cher works to remake Tai in her own image. The movie follows these efforts and their results as well as Cher’s romantic forays.

30 years after its release, one might expect Clueless to suffer from a lot of dated elements. Indeed, its era occasionally rears its ugly head through its dated music and pop culture references.

However, these create surprisingly few distractions, at least for those of us who still remember the 90s well. And that’s probably most of the audience for Clueless, as I have no idea if it’ll be a timeless piece of teen entertainment.

I do think it’ll hold up well for younger kids, though, since I don’t see a lot of dated elements. The film embodies a certain universal feel about high school that resonates if you graduated in 2015, 2005, 1995, or 1985 like some old fart at the helm of this review.

Much of the credit goes to writer/director Amy Heckerling. Via 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, she made one of the 80s best remembered teen flicks, and she manages to do just as well here.

Heckerling keeps a tight rein on the flick and doesn’t bog it down in unnecessary moments. She juggles a lot of balls as we follow Cher’s path and makes sure that the story advances as we enjoy the gags.

Perhaps Heckerling’s biggest achievement comes from the heart exhibited by Clueless. For its first act, it functions mainly as a parody of spoiled teens.

Cher certainly comes across as a potentially unlikable brat, and only the fact that we see her as a caricature redeems her. However – wonder of wonders – Heckerling actually manages to turn the tale in such a way that it develops into something natural and even believable.

Cher and her pals go from superficial, one-dimensional snobs to pretty likable and three-dimensional personalities. This is a very neat trick, since I didn’t think such a feat could be accomplished via these cartoony characters.

Of course, some of the credit goes to the actors, with a big nod in the direction of Silverstone. She maintains a light charm as Cher that makes it hard to hate her even at her brattiest.

We easily could become so annoyed at Cher in the first act that the rest of the film could never redeem her. However, Silverstone’s easy innocence makes sure that we like her in spite of her excesses.

Again, it helps that Heckerling frontloads those excesses into the movie’s first act. That’s the part that most aggressively acts to spoof the lifestyles of the rich and spoiled.

We still get some of those elements in the rest of the movie – Cher’s crush Christian’s (Justin Walker) faux Rat Pack hipster in act two stands out in that regard – but the story and character aspects dominate the movie’s final hour. We focus less on cartooniness and more on heart.

And that remains the word I most attach to Clueless, though I also think of it as bright, funny and endearing. Though the film easily could have degenerated into a simple and mean-spirited attack on conspicuous consumerism, it decided to go down a more memorable path. Clueless ends up as a rare teen flick that also appeals to the oldsters in the audience.

Clueless appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision presentation worked quite nicely.

Sharpness usually came across well. Softness crept into a few shots, but those remained fairly minor, so the majority of the flick looked detailed and precise.

No shimmering or jaggies showed up, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed light but appropriate and the movie lacked print flaws.

Colors came across as peppy and full. The movie enjoyed a bubbly palette that looked lively, with a nice boost from HDR.

Black levels appeared deep and rich, while shadow detail felt smooth. HDR added impact to whites and contrast. Outside of some minor softness that likely stemmed from the source the movie looked great.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Clueless, it seemed fine but it didn’t excel because of a lack of ambition. Like most comedies, the movie featured a limited soundfield.

This meant the mix strongly favored the forward channels. It showed very nice stereo spread to the music as well as some general ambience from the sides.

Panning was decent, and the surrounds usually kicked in basic reinforcement. A few scenes opened up better, though, especially in the parties.

Heck, a couple of sequences even offered some pretty solid split surround material, such as when a helicopter floated around one outdoor sequence. These were the exceptions to the rule, however, as most of the movie stayed with limited imaging.

Audio quality appeared good. Speech was natural and distinct, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects sounded clean and accurate, with good fidelity and no signs of distortion.

Music was perfectly fine, as the score and songs showed decent dimensionality. This track was good enough for a “B-“ but didn’t particularly impress.

How did this “30th Anniversary” 4K UHD compare to the 25th Anniversary Blu-ray from 2020? Both came with identical 5.1 audio.

As for the UHD’s Dolby Vision image, it looked substantially better defined and showed stronger colors and blacks. The UHD also lost the BD’s edge haloes and print flaws, so expect a major visual upgrade.

Note that the 2020 Blu-ray literally duplicated the original BD of Clueless from 2012. The 4K UHD becomes its first visual upgrade in 13 years.

No extras appear on the 4K UHD disc, but we get a bunch on the included Blu-ray copy. Note that this disc offers yet another duplicate of that old 2012 release, so the BD didn’t sport a remaster of the film.

The Class of ‘95 goes for 18 minutes, 31 seconds. We hear from writer/director Amy Heckerling, associate producer Twink Caplan, casting director Marcia Ross, director of photography Bill Pope, and actors Breckin Meyer, Alicia Silverstone (in 1995), Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, Paul Rudd, Dan Hedaya, Justin Walker and Wallace Shawn.

“Class” looks at casting, characters and performances. We get a very nice overview of the different personalities and learn a lot of fun notes in this useful little piece.

For the nine-minute, 39-second Creative Writing, we find remarks from Heckerling, Caplan, and Pope. We learn about the flick’s development and story ideas, the film’s take on Beverly Hills and high school, various influences, issues getting a studio to back the flick, visual design, and a few other production elements.

“Writing” becomes a bit scattered, as its focus flits around in different ways. Nonetheless, it includes more interesting information and keeps us occupied.

Fashion 101 goes for 10 minutes, 46 seconds and includes Faison, Caplan, Heckerling, Dash, Murphy, Meyer, Walker, makeup artist Alan Friedman, actor Elisa Donovan and costume designer Mona May.

As implied by the title, “Fashion” looks at the movie’s clothes. We learn how the outfits were adapted for the different outfits and get info about what May hoped to achieve with her designs. It’s another fun and fact-packed show.

During the eight-minute, nine-second Language Arts, we get comments from Silverstone (1995), Heckerling, Faison, Murphy, Caplan, Walker, Meyer, Donovan, and Dash. The featurette looks at the movie’s slang.

We find a good overview of how the flick’s distinctive dialogue emerged and also get a glossary of what some of the terms mean. It’s an entertaining segment.

For Suck ‘N Blow – A Tutorial, we get a two-minute, 47-second piece. It takes us to the set for the “suck ‘n blow” scene and we see aspects of its creation.

A few decent snippets appear. However, it’s fluffier and less substantial than the other programs.

Driver’s Ed lasts three minutes, 49 seconds. It features Faison, Heckerling, Pope, and Dash.

We see the filming of the clip where Dionne ends up on the freeway. Some raw footage adds to the piece, and we find some good details about this sequence.

Finally, We’re History fills eight minutes, 52 seconds. Here we locate notes from Heckerling, Pope, Shawn, Faison, Caplan, Donovan, Walker, Meyer, Murphy, Hedaya, and Dash.

We hear about working with Heckerling as well as reactions to the film and its reception. A few decent notes pop up here, but it feels a little more self-congratulatory than I’d like.

Inside the Trailers area, we find the flick’s teaser and theatrical promos.

We finish with a Clue or False Trivia Game. It runs alongside the film and quizzes the viewer on aspects of the film.

That makes this a little more fun than the usual text commentary. We learn a bit about the movie during this moderately enjoyable bonus.

Back in 1995, Clueless offered a surprisingly taut and funny little teen comedy. 30 years later, the movie’s aged quite well, largely thanks to crisp writing and nice performances. The 4K UHD offers strong visuals along with acceptable audio and a decent set of supplements. Expect a quality release for a fun film.