It was exactly 20 years ago this weekend, on July 19 of 1995, that the world met Cher, Dionne and Tai—but, if you were going by TIME’s review of the movie back then, you might have been like, whatever.
Though critic Richard Corliss praised Alicia Silverstone’s performance as a “giddy delight” and writer-director Amy Heckerling’s endearing touch with “loosey-goosey comedy,” his overall takeaway was that the plot-driven moments between jokes were dragging down the film:
Paying to see Clueless is not really mandatory. You can learn most of the jokes by surfing the TV and newspaper reviews and get a hint of Silverstone’s blithe luster by watching MTV’s relentless promotions. Taking this Cliffs Notes route, moreover, saves you from sitting through several slow stretches of plot sludge. During these scenes, Clueless has the feel of some mild sitcom purring in a far corner of the living room. You don’t watch it so much as notice it, from time to time, in a genial miasma.
But, Corliss concluded by asking, would that really affect whether audiences would enjoy the movie? As Cher might say, As if!
Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault: To Live and Buy in L.A.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- How Kamala Harris Knocked Donald Trump Off Course
- Introducing TIME's 2024 Latino Leaders
- What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- Your Questions About Early Voting , Answered
- Column: Your Cynicism Isn’t Helping Anybody
- The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024
Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com