Documentary explores the psychology behind teen movies.
There is a great documentary to be made about teen movies and their effect on pop culture but Beyond Clueless definitely isn’t it. Some of the theories presented are plausible – I can just about get on board with Idle Hands as an allegory for masturbation – but others are tenuous at best. Jeepers Creepers as a fable about a man’s fear of his own homosexuality? If you look for a message in everything you will find one, but that doesn’t mean it is what the filmmaker intended.
It is almost insulting to attempt to dissect modern classics like Clueless and Mean Girls by ‘revealing’ ideas that are openly discussed in the narrative. Some of the other choices of films to focus on are equally inappropriate. Does anyone really need a ten minutes exploration of Slap Her… She’s French when genre staples like American Pie, Heathers and Porky’s are completely ignored.
Narrator Fairuza Balk, herself a teen movie veteran having appeared in The Craft, makes for a smug and annoying voice over which further takes away from the rare sections of the film that are actually interesting.
Beyond Cluess? With this documentary first time writer/director Charlie Lyne was just plain clueless.