Clerks (1994)

US Working title:
“Inconvenience”

Directed & Written by: Kevin Smith

Starring: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti

Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: This is the movie that made it all happen for Kevin Smith. This is where we meet Jay and Silent Bob. I know that it takes place in a convenience store, and it’s a low-budget film. Yep. That’s pretty much all I know. 

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: I think a part of why I haven’t seen films that seemingly everybody else has is that I’m sort of a rebel who doesn’t want to follow mainstream. Or maybe in the back of my mind I was just saving up a collection of movies to not see so I could then write an insane blog about the movies I haven’t seen. That’s entirely possible as well.

1 hour, 32 minutes later…: How did this movie get picked up for global distribution? For what it is, it’s very impressive. Kevin Smith apparently maxed out a ton of credit cards and sold off a good portion of his comic book collection in order to finance the movie. That’s devotion to your craft, right there. And the movie looked rough because the budget was only $27,000. In that respect, it’s a fabulous film. But, I guess what I am wondering is what set this movie apart from other independent movies at that time? 

Was it the dialogue? It was really hard for me to pay attention to what was being said, because it was just two actors standing there ping-ponging dialogue to each other at break-neck speed, which made me feel like I was watching a filmed high school production of this thing this guy wrote. 

Did Kevin Smith have connections? I guess I should do some research into how the movie got as popular as it did, because I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around it. All throughout watching the film, I kept thinking what it would look like if it had a bigger budget and some of Kevin Smith’s regulars cast in some of the roles. Maybe then I would have gotten the humor in the dialogue, because normally I really like what he puts out there.

Final Thoughts: 3 out of 6 slices of pizza. For what it is and what it represents and how many people it has inspired to go out there and make their own films, it’s groundbreaking cinema. But the acting was rushed, and really rough, and for that reason, I couldn’t get into it. Before today, Clerks was this huge seminal movie that defined a generation, and launched Kevin Smith’s career. But now, I kind of wish I hadn’t seen it because the legend surrounding it would still be there for me.