Heart Eyes: A Pop Culture Dream
The pop culture references seen and heard throughout the new movie Heart Eyes
Heart Eyes, the horror/comedy/romance movie, came out on February 7th, 2025 and was a really fun movie. The movie itself did a fun job of hinting at and using pop culture references from the 90s to now.
Clueless: This 1995 comedy/romance movie was referenced at least 2 separate times in Heart Eyes. The first instance was during the dressing room montage in the first half of the movie. Ally (Olivia Holt’s character) is put in an outfit worn by Dionne from Clueless.
The second reference was the title of Clueless being said by Monica (Gigi Zumbado). This was during her long, movie title fueled monologue toward the end of the movie. Monica was telling Ally to go to the airport and get Jay (Mason Gooding). She tells Ally to “I mean you can be so clueless sometimes”
Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion: This 1997 comedy movie was also referenced during the dressing room montage scene. Ally and Monica were in outfits very similar to the dresses Romy & Michelle wear at the end of the movie. Very fitting since there is talks of a sequel to this 97 comedy movie coming out in the next few years.
Hobbs & Shaw: This 2019 action/adventure movie that was a part of the Fast & Furious franchise. The two main detectives in Heart Eyes are named Detective Zeke Hobbs (Devon Sawa) and Detective Jeanine Shaw (Jordana Brewster). Heart Eyes even mentions that when they first approach Ally after her and Jay’s first encounter with HEK. Ally says “Hobbs & Shaw? Like the blockbuster movie?” (or something along those lines)
10 Things I Hate About You, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Bridesmaids, Notting Hill, Crazy, Stupid, Love & Love Actually: All of these dare I say classic rom/com movies are mentioned during Monica’s speech to Ally as mentioned above. “...It’s one of the 10 things I hate about you, honestly. You can’t let Jay go off to his best friend’s wedding, and hook up with a bunch of bridesmaids and move to Notting Hill. No. No, mama. Some kind of wonderful, crazy, stupid love, actually…”
Romeo & Juliet, Titanic, Bonnie & Clyde: These tragic love stories are all shown through Ally’s “Til Death Do Us Part” video campaign. The campaign shows the moments that the couples die in a beautiful black & white video with red scarves to showcase the blood.
Breakfast At Tiffany’s: This 1961 romantic comedy is also referenced during the dressing room montage. Heart Eyes takes a creative twist on the iconic black dress with pearls that Audrey Hepburn wears in the movie. It takes a modern take on one of the most iconic outfits in pop culture.
Those are all of the pop culture references that I caught during my watch through of the movie Heart Eyes. Let me know if there are other pop culture references that I missed!