Okay, I’m the first to admit that I had my doubts about Paramount’s latest cinematic venture, Clueless. First of all, Alicia Silverstone. Maybe she’s good at pouting and bungee-jumping in Aerosmith videos, but can she act? And more importantly, can she do justice to the film being touted as the defining film of the 90s generation?

The trailers, bedecked with Generation Xers talkin’ like 80s mall queens, were not helping matters. But then it came out that the same woman who wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amy Heckerling, also penned Clueless. Like, a glimmer of hope, fer shur.

And Clueless did a pretty good job of surpassing expectations. It was kinda like “Beverly Hills, 90210” meets Valley Girls (that’s a compliment, believe me). Silverstone plays Cher, the most popular girl at Beverly Hills High School and the leader of a mega-cosmo group of clog-wearing friends (she, Dion and Tai) who are addicted to their cellular phones and BMW convertibles.

Clueless follows the lives of three ultra-cool females through debate class, trips to the mall, multi-keg bashes and love and loss. Things start out pretty shallow, but as the plot progresses, Silverstone and company settle into their roles and manage to add depth to their characters.

Clueless and Fast Times parallel each other on one major aspect (this is a good thing): exaggeration. Fast Times positively reeked of decade-old trends (who else says early 80s better than Jeff Spicoli and Pat Benatar?), which not only dates the movie in a major way but also marks it as a treasure chest of times gone by. I seriously doubt any high school existed in the 80s quite like Ridgemont, but the film itself is a testament to its time.

Clueless also has this potential. In 15 years, our kids will rent it on laser disc some night and laugh at the thigh-highs, nose rings and vintage Jeeps that everyone drove around in. They’ll wonder if places like BHHS actually existed, and if people actually wore high-heel Mary Janes.