Clerks
Directed by Kevin Smith. US. 1994. R. Running time: 92 min.
Sponsored by Steel City Coffee House
- Sun, Jul 20, 2:00 pm
“Cheap, touching, and downright nasty, Kevin Smith's first feature still remains the ultimate cinematic tribute to slackers (all apologies to Linklater, though it should probably be said that he was trying to sum up a cultural non-movement as opposed to chronicling the mores of these post-high school wasters, who exist outside of time). When it was first released in 1994, Clerks was one of those epochal fringe movies that comes along one or two times a decade and just hits a nerve. [Fourteen] years later, it's aged surprisingly well (though still not quite as funny as some would have it) and is actually much more palatable, given how it fits into Smith's whole elaborate alternate Jerseyverse. The story is thin, basically a contrivance that allowed Smith to shoot something in the place he was working at the time. Dante (Brian O'Halloran) gets called in at the crack of dawn on his day off to man the register at a crappy little convenience store and repeats to everybody who will listen, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" As the day progresses, Dante deals with psychotic customers, a jealous current girlfriend, an alluring ex-girlfriend, cigarette-buying kids, Jay and Silent Bob, a stiff in the bathroom, and a running argument with his buddy Randall (Jeff Anderson), who works in the even-crappier video store next door. Although these aren't guys anybody would really want to emulate—Dante being essentially a self-martyring whiner and Randal an antagonistic boob—Smith makes them into a fairly entertaining duo and easy enough company for an hour and a half.” (Chris Barsanti, Slant.com)