Vianca Vega is Blowing The Candles Out on Annual Birthday Screening with Clueless

Vianca Vega, known online as The Girl Who Works at the Box Office, has been a fixture of the Dallas film scene for years. She can usually be found working the concession stand at the Texas Theatre, always happy looking for a reason to talk about her favorite films.

Each August, Vega screens a film that she loves to commemorate her birthday. Over the last decade, local cinephiles have made somewhat of a tradition of treating the birthday screenings like a proper celebration. On Friday, August 8, Vega is showing Clueless (1995), a movie that she has loved for years and one that happens to be celebrating its 30th anniversary.

“With Clueless, every single time I watch it … the dialogue is so well-written. The way that it’s delivered, it’s always like, with a smile on each of these teen boys’ or teen girls’ faces, and whenever they’re making a mistake, it’s like you’re seeing it in their facial expressions,” says Vega. “For me, there’s something so authentic and pretty about Clueless, where it’s such a cool movie to be able to watch and have fun with.”

Vega is passionate about film in general, but especially movies from the ‘90s and early 2000s. Her birthday screenings tend to reflect that. Previous picks like Buffalo ‘66 (1998), SLC Punk (1998), Queen of the Damned (2002) and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) provide a snapshot into her tastes.

Clueless will fit in well with its predecessors, as it’s a coming-of-age comedy that has become a cult classic in the decades since its release. The film is inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma, but contemporized, trading the book’s 18th-century English setting for Beverly Hills in the ‘90s. Alicia Silverstone’s lead performance as Cher Horowitz, the film’s colorful fashion and its dialogue have become cultural touchstones for its many fans, including Vega.

Vega notes director Amy Heckerling’s study of actual high school students as making the film feel more authentic. She also highlights the fashion as a sharp technique the movie utilized to against the grain, as Heckerling and costume designer Mona May noticed a lack of color in real-world schools. May’s work on Clueless ended up becoming a major influence on fashion for the rest of the ‘90s, and its influence still reverberates through tributes today.

Vega, of course, knows these details by heart and is elated she has an excuse to talk about them on her birthday. She is, in many ways, the cinephile’s cinephile — she often travels to visit theaters across the United States to attend screenings of films she loves. That included a 30th anniversary screening of Clueless that took place in Los Angeles earlier this summer at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

“Something will draw me to a screening, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I have to attend that,’” she says.

Being able to share that passion with others by hosting screenings of films she loves is one way to bring some of the magic she seeks out in cinemas around the world home to Dallas. And, of course, no party would be complete without music. After the screening, DJ Charli Milk will be spinning tunes, providing a light, festive atmosphere for everyone to have a drink, dance and discuss Clueless.

“For the most part, it’s just because I genuinely love film,” Vega says. “I want to be able to experience it in different theaters and different formats, where it’s digital, whether it’s film, whether it’s literally someone playing, like, a Blu-ray on the projector and showcasing it on the wall. I just want to be able to be a part of it.”

Tickets for the Texas Theatre’s 35mm screening of Clueless are available now.