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“I’m not even supposed to be here, today!” Thus begins one of the best films that Kevin Smith ever wrote and directed. The words ring as a mantra for Dante (Brian O'Halloran), a Quick Stop employee whose life takes many turns in his open-to-close shift.
Dante is a stereotypical Gen-Xer. He shares his life with his hapless day-late-a-dollar-short friend, Randall (Jeff Anderson), who runs the video store next door. By runs, I mean he shows up. By shows up, I mean at some point during the day he will open the store, only to close it again to chat with Dante.
Dante has a blown-out-of-proportion crisis every five minutes. His girlfriend, Veronica, has been too intimate with past boyfriends, he has a long-lasting crush on his ex-girlfriend Caitlyn, he has hockey at 2 PM, and he isn’t even supposed to be at work.
Aside from Dante’s personal life, Dante and Randall deal with a barrage of interesting customers. Guidance counselors gone psycho, angry mothers, little girls buying cigarettes, and the duo known only as Jay and Silent Bob (played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith).
Clerks has a wonderful cast of characters that make this movie stand on its own. The dialog between the characters feels real. When Dante’s girlfriend tells him he’s very trusting for leaving money on a unsupervised counter, he replies with: “People see money on the counter, they think they’re being watched.” A true philosophical statement. Then there’s the philosophical debate on construction contracting and the Star Wars trilogy –- it makes me wet my pants every time.
This film is a low-budget. It is shot in black and white, so don’t think the movie is old –- it’s supposed to look like that. Clerks is rated “R” for its frequent use of a certain word I’ll call, Fire Truck (for our younger readers). Overall, it’s amazing how little money was used in making this film, since the end product is so good. When finished with Clerks, be sure to check out Viewaskew.com for pics and other great info about Kevin Smith’s other movies and any other productions from his company.
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