Kevin Smith month: Clerks

A review by Brooks Rich

We kick off Kevin Smith month with his first film, Clerks, a small independent film made for less than $28,000 dollars. It grossed over three million dollars in theaters! The indie boom was in full swing in 1994 and Clerks was a new kind of movie. This wasn't a film about action heroes or gangsters or superheroes. This was about the workers at the local convenience store and their views on life. They'll serve you, but they don't have to like you. Dante and Randall are real people. Every town in America has a Dante and Randall.

The story takes place over the course of one day. Dante Hicks is called in to work. Throughout the film he keeps expressing that he wasn't supposed to be there that day. And finds out his high school sweetheart is getting married. He discovers this after having a fight with his current girlfriend about the number of ex-lovers she has. Dante must also contend with his friend, Randall, who works at the video store next door, and Jay and Silent Bob, a pair of stoners permanently camped outside the store. That's basically it.

Clerks is a very slight movie, but not in a bad way. It's low budget, black and white, and crude. The f- bombs fly fast and furious. There're a lot of scenes unrelated to the plot. The plot is probably wrapped up in twenty minutes of screen time. The rest of the film is spent playing hockey on the roof, discussing how dumb Dante and Randall find the customers, and arguing about the morality of blowing up the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. They have this debate with the same seriousness as two people might discuss our country invading another country. I've had debates like that. This stuff matters sometimes.

I love Clerks. It's easily my favorite Kevin Smith film. I love Mallrats and Chasing Amy as well, his two follow ups to Clerks.... but I always go back to Clerks. Dante and Randall are great characters. Randall is my all-time favorite Kevin Smith character. They are assholes, but assholes you wouldn't mind having a debate with. Smith gets a lot of shit these days for his films and the excuses he makes when a film doesn't do well, but I'll always respect the guy for what he did with Clerks. This film is the reason I wanted to cover him.

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