Film review: Beyond Clueless explores a golden age of teen movies

Fairuza Balk’s sultry croak guides us on a hypnotic journey through the teen movie genre in Charlie Lyne’s debut feature Beyond Clueless. Lyne skilfully marries heartfelt affection and academic distance in his cine-essay comprised of hundreds of clips taken from films released during one of the great golden ages of the teen movie, a period roughly book-ended by Clueless (1995) and Mean Girls (2004).

 

Don’t be fooled by the title; the classics are touched upon, but Lyne pays closer attention to more obscure entries into the teen canon. Watch in a state of horrified nostalgia as he dissects the aggressive heteronormativity of Eurotrip, and the not-so-thinly-veiled subtext of early Jessica Alba flick Idle Hands. A shimmering mosaic of a documentary, Beyond Clueless is a triumph of movie-criticism and movie-making.