Clerks is the movie that kick-started Kevin Smith’s career and it’s still a unique and exhilarating experience. Shot in black and white and featuring only a handful of actors, it seems like a standard-issue low-budget comedy. However, what separates Clerks from other movies is the phenomenal script and general honesty that you will feel immediately. If you ever worked in a similar place, you will recognize those talks that are going nowhere, customers, and the general vibe featured here. Considered one of the best independent movies ever, it was shot in a shop where Kevin worked at the time, on a shoestring budget. This is the reason why the movie is in black and white.
As you will see, none of these technical things influenced the quality of the movie. And one might argue that they actually improved it. Clerks tells the story of the ordinary man and this is the reason why it resonates so well with people. This isn’t the story of some rich bankers, lawyers, troubled detectives, or all the other usual suspects. It’s a story of two ordinary men working dead-end jobs and trying to make that work just bearable. Plus the whole thing is happening during the nineties, so get ready for that wave of nostalgia about to hit you.
Welcome to Leonardo, New Jersey, a small town with an even smaller convenience store called Quick Stop. We follow Dante Hicks who works in that store during the course of one day. Of course, he wasn’t supposed to work, but his boss called and asked him to work today. Faced with weird customers and huge amounts of boredom, Dante passes the time with his next-door neighbor Randal. He works in the shop just next to his, a video store called RST…
Clerks is one of the funniest and most honest movies I have ever seen. And although Dogma will always be my Kevin Smith favorite, Clerks are definitely up there. Jokes keep firing at you from the beginning ’till the end, leaving you hungry for more. There’s a lot of talk about sex, life and relationships. With perfect pacing, it will never bore you, so just relax and let Dante and Randal take you on a journey. A journey that is their lives.
At this point, I should tell you that this is actually the first movie in Smith’s View Askewniverse that also includes: Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks II. All of them are worth checking out. Finally, Clerks is also a great character study that enables you to think about your own life, goals, and other stuff but with a smile on your face.
Director: Kevin Smith
Writer: Kevin Smith
Cast: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
Fun Stuff: Kevin Smith, a keen comic book fan, sold a large part of his collection to help fund this film.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/
