On the precipice of fully blowing up in the mid-00s, Lindsay Lohan put in her time with some less appreciated Disney movies in between The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday, namely Life-Size and 2002’s Get A Clue. Similar to Clueless not just in title, the movie follows the high school existence of affluent Lexi Gold, who we see wake up in a manner befitting an East Coast version of Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) as she arises to get on her computer and see which outfit her best friend, Jen (Brenda Song), is planning to wear so she can sanction it. The obsession with fashion Lexi has in common with Cher also extends right down to her accessories, including a fluffy, feathered pen she has out on her desk (hers is neon green in contrast to Cher’s pink) during a career day presentation.
She then shows Jen her own ensemble over video chat (ahead of their time before the pandemic would make such means of communication necessary) so that they can each give their stamp of approval before seeing the outfit in the flesh. It might not be Cher’s iconic computer software that tells her if something’s a mismatch (even though simple eyes can do that as well), but it’s close.
At their Constance Billard/Bronson Alcott-esque school, the air of overall snobbery and concern with materialism further manifests as distinctly “slick” early 00s shots focus in on shoes, handbags, sunglasses, coats and the fact that every student is talking on a cellphone (because yes, millennials gabbed verbally before texting and DMing took total control). This, too, smacks of the Clueless scene during which Dionne (Stacey Dash) and Cher are talking on their phones to each other in the hallway of the school. Lexi walks through the halls in her own well-curated outfit as everyone stares at her in awe for getting a “human interest” (a.k.a. gossip) piece in the Daily Examiner’s junior journalist section. Already popular to begin with, this little bit of “prep school catnip” in terms of college application-ready achievements only adds to her cachet. To all but one person: the editor-in-chief of the paper, Jack Downey (Bug Hall). He’s the Josh Lucas (Paul Rudd)/Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) of the storyline. For while he secretly acts disgusted by Lexi’s obsession with capitalistic trappings, he also wants to get inside her pants. It’s all part of the “poor guy” wanting to defile the rich girl as revenge for his own station in life fantasy.
Because of the fact that Jack actually goes to school with Lexi and isn’t related to her in any way (no matter what Amy Heckerling says, an “ex” stepbrother is too close a relation to fuck with, literally), he more closely mirrors Dan’s character. This much is further augmented by the revelation that he lives in Brooklyn. Not to mention Lexi and Jen’s horrification at the prospect of even going to Brooklyn (again, this was 2002)—how very Blair Waldorf indeed… and Serena, too, even though she tries to act “chill” about such borough superiority. But, like Serena, Lexi can’t resist her attraction to the “edgiest,” most “brooding” guy in school, so she agrees to accompany him for the sake of their mission to gather clues that might lead to more information about the disappearance of their teacher, Orlando Walker (Ian Gomez). Who just so happens to have gone missing the day after Lexi’s article exposing his relationship with another teacher, Gertrude Dawson (Amanda Plummer), was published, complete with a “suggestive” photo.
Upon teaming up with Jack, the only person that knows Mr. Walker beyond a surface level, Jen and another student, Gabe (Ali Mukaddam), horn in on Lexi’s sleuthing because Gabe lives across the street from Miss Dawson—making him the ideal person to involve for stakeout purposes. With the quartet of a permutation, the Blair/Serena, Nate/Chuck parallel can be made. As well as the Cher/Dionne, Josh/Murray one. Jack’s undercutting belittlement of Lexi as a means to show that he likes her by trying to hide that fact also echoes Josh’s approach with Cher. Except Jack is slightly harsher when he mocks her for not knowing “rudimentary” things—like who Hedda Hopper is.
The foil between Ms. Geist (Twink Caplan)/Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Ms. Dawson/Mr. Walker is an additional “Clueless flourish” in Get A Clue. That is, if Mr. Hall had faked his own death in order to avoid being jailed for a crime he didn’t actually commit. But, once again, the Gossip Girl narrative takes hold when Lexi is brought to Brooklyn, where, to her shock, she learns Jack actually lives in the borough. How positively quaint. He then informs her, “Everyone assumes if you go to Millington, you gotta have a doorman and a summer house and all that—we don’t have any of that. I’m at Millington on a scholarship.” Lexi, still surprised by the epiphany of his “poverty” gives him another opportunity to “Dan it up” by declaring, “Look, Brooklyn’s not fancy like the Upper East Side, I like it here. Everybody’s… cool.” Mm. A little “too cool” in the present. Or at least they genuinely believe they are.
The voiceover element interwoven throughout the movie also channels a bit of Cher (when the hokey dialogue isn’t veering more toward Carrie Bradshaw), especially when she finds herself having an “I am totally butt crazy in love with Josh” moment as she stares at Jack from afar and thinks, “I really like spending time with Jack.”
That she likes spending time with him even though he berates her under the guise of flirtation (e.g. “Who’d have thought your insane obsession with material objects would actually come in handy?”) is another classic trapping of a Cher/Serena/Blair type. Being that the Gossip Girl book series had just climbed the top of the bestsellers list in ’02, its influence on teen culture seems to have played at least a small part in Get A Clue’s tone. And, of course, Clueless plays a major part in just about every subsequent “teen girl movie” that came out after it.
