Clerks (1994)
“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”
Set almost entirely within the “Quick Stop” and adjoining “RST Video” store, this Black and White debut from Kevin Smith is 92 minutes of joyous humour, observation, fantastic characters and more swear words than you can shake a stick at! Dripping with sarcasm, yet with straight talking characters who have gained cult and enduring status and an eminently quotable film that has spawned so many classics since release: “My girlfriend sucked 37 dicks!”
“What? In a row?”
The film is a joy throughout. Very much a personal film for Smith, and the film reflects this in every way.
Based around a single day, “Dante Hicks” (a superb Brian O’Halloran) is a tired, put upon clerk who had rather different plans for the day. Joined by “Randal Graves” (the film’s heartbeat and star, played excellently by Jeff Anderson), we enjoy their polar opposite views on virtually every subject of discussion, and there are many, often obtuse subjects, and always very, very funny. Randal, free spirited and carefree, manages the adjoining video store to where Dante runs the general store. Their daily dichotomy and conversations with their customers cover everything: from sex, to life, to the abuse of power and their very tall tales. Oh, and Star Wars. And Star Wars again! And meaningless jobs, incontinent customers, and generally hating their customers thoroughly! Darkly comedic, flat out hysterical at times. This is just a small sample of the topics for the day.
The relationship between Dante and Randal is key. Although opposites in many ways, it’s clear they are deep, best friends who are often prone to separately quoting the same dialogue: “Bunch of savages in this town”. Both are at times utterly hilarious with Randal prominent and dominating the time on screen. Assisted by a great screenplay from director Smith, his comedic timing is stunning. Together with the above taster of the topics of the day, there are numerous comedic examples of Randal simply being himself with no barriers to pretension or his job, just seemingly one stream of consciousness after the other. One particular example sees him reeling off several titles of required porn films to a distributor, with Randal perfectly at ease with the young mother and daughter standing at the counter!
Ably supported in key roles by Lisa Spoonhauer as Dante’s ex girlfriend “Caitlin Bree” and the excellent Marilyn Ghigliotti as present girlfriend “Veronica”, there are also cameo roles from fellow Producer and Editor Scott Mosier as stoner “Willam” (plus two other separate roles!) as well as the iconic introductory roles of “Jay” (Jason Mewes) and “Silent Bob” (Kevin Smith). Jay and Silent Bob’s brief intercut scenes are excellent and rather amusing.
As with all future Kevin Smith films both family and friends continually fill one and often more than one role, both in front of and behind the camera. Set almost exclusively within a small convenience store there are numerous extremely brief and funny cameos from various customers who annoy the shit out of Dante and Randel. To list them would be to hint at significant plot spoilers and/or funny exposition and regardless, this film is so good you need to watch it and enjoy the brief cameos as they come and go.
Not following a strict three act structure, 16 of the scenes are named with Title Cards, starting with “Vilification” to “Jay and Silent Bob”, “Syntax” through to “Denouement” to name just four. There are also numerous close up shots of random events or items, from painted toenails to an unnamed black dog (credited as Haiku), an unnamed black cat (credited as Lenin’s Tomb) and others to be discovered as you watch. With a fixed camera on the counter, we see Lenin’s Tomb relieve itself, to the bemusement of staff and customer alike! The camera use is interesting, as to an untrained eye it appears many scenes use only one camera, rarely two, often static, capturing one character alone, to be joined by another before departing the scene, with the camera rarely moving at all.
Backed by a great heavy rock soundtrack including “Got Me Wrong” by Alice in Chains, “Can’t Even Tell” by Soul Asylum and “Leaders and Followers” by Bad Religion, this very personal film for Kevin Smith touches on themes unsurprisingly close to his heart of love, friendships and loyalty and especially an overriding theme that life isn’t dictated and can be changed at any time. The film aptly shows this, and is a treasure and a triumph, heart warming and funny as hell. Shot, edited and produced in Kevin’s spare time when not actually working at the store where the film takes place, it is a genuine debut masterpiece. Friend Scott Mosier, as well as acting in front of the camera also assists with producing and editing and both Kevin and Scott were ably assisted by David Klein as Cinematographer.
Three decades since release and still as fresh and rewarding as when I first watched it.
A joy of a film.
“Clerks” can also be found within my 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon with each and every volume free to read should you have a Kindle “Unlimited” package. All 9 of my self-published books can also be read for free on Kindle (but go on, treat yourself to a paperback or hardback version!) and should you watch my short Youtube video linked in the middle of this article you’ll also find links to my Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee and other ways of supporting my work as an independent writer.
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection VOL.1" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.