10 essential high school comedies

4. “Clueless” (1995)

Think the title suggests nothing but dumb fun? As if. Over a decade after Amy Heckerling made her name with “Fast Times,” she delivered a second, even greater, high school comedy. By transporting Jane Austen’s romantic comedy of manners “Emma” to the seemingly shallow land of Beverly Hills, Heckerling came up with a fresh way to explore the fractured world of high school life. Sparkling dialogue is knocked out of the park by an all aces cast (most notably Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd as step-siblings turned soulmates).