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We watched a whole bunch of Emma this week! Sparked by our viewing of the 2020 Emma. (with a period) we decided we finally wanted to revisit Clueless. And then that sparked the ‘why not’ approach for us to watch the 1996 Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s was a whole bunch of Jane Austen and we had a crazy good time!
Emma. obviously hit our radar HARD. Kristin is big on Jane Austen and we’re all big on Anya Taylor-Joy so we were pumped on this one right away. It’s a take on the classic that makes the titular character and bit more sharp of tongue, but it works. Sure there are moments when she feels unlikable, but it serves to amplify the effect of her learning from her faults. Emma. was a ton of fun, and it’s so colorful and vibrant that we couldn’t not love it.
Revisiting Clueless was a trip. Wil had some negative memories of it from watching it too young so addressing those issues was really cool. But the most fun part of the whole thing was the fashion. Costume Designer Mona May totally crushed it. As Wil says in the episode, “Good fashion should be timeless”. And everything in Clueless is exactly that. It feels retro but never in an embarrassing way. Even the one thing we didn’t think would work today Wil again rightly points out that Zoe Kravitz could pull it off. It was a fun experience and we’re happy to have adjusted Wil’s initial feelings about it.
Finally the Gwyneth Emma. This one will always hold a special place in Kristin’s heart. It’s a classic. But in the same way that Greta Gerwig’s Little Women has taken over as her favorite version of that, so too has this new version of Emma. improved on the old versions perfectly. It doesn’t take anything away from the ’96 version or the nostalgia it provides. It has just been smartly redone and we’re happy to see it get even better.
We really love the story and the morals provided by Jane Austen’s Emma. It shows the strength of being a woman in that time period (or in 1995 in the case of Clueless) and it shows how learning from your mistakes is totally cool and that you can forgive people their faults should they acknowledge them and improve upon themselves as they weave their way through a complicated life. If you want to join us on our Emma journey, then hike up your dress and warm your butt by the fire with us for today’s episode of So…I’m Watching This Show!
