You Too Can Be A Film Critic! It's Easy And Fun!

Hey everyone, I just got back tonight from the preview screening of Clerks 2, Kevin Smith's sequel to his 1994 indie-slacker classic. Those of you who know me well (ie. the only people who read this blog) know that since I saw Clerks in my sophmore year of high school, it has been my favourite film (or one of them. I still gots a soft spot for the '89 Batman). I freely admit that Clerks is not a perfect film. In some respects, it's entirely amatuerish and poorly filmed. But that's not why I love it. I love that movie for it's unpretentiousness; for the way that it values dialogue, wit, and (above all) ideas over fancy shots and big-time stars. It's a movie that genuinely has somthing to say about everyday life, and Smith felt so strongly about this that he made the whole thing himself with maxed-out credit cards. Ultimately, I love it becasue it represents a kind of democracy that popular film, up to that point, had never really seen.

So when I recieved a free pass yesterday to tonight's preview screening (courtesy of Sean "the Wordburglar" Jordan and the Silver Snail), I was quite excited. So in the interest of combining my two favourite passtimes (writing and forcing my opinions on others), here is my impromptu review of Clerks 2:

CLERKS 2
dir. Kevin Smith
2006


Sequels suck. That's the rule. Inevitably they come off as a pale imitation of the first movie; a cash in comprising reheated jokes and arbitrary conflict designed to spur the characters into one more wacky adventure. Search your hearts: you know this to be true. Sure, good sequels do exist. Spider-Man 2, Empire, Godfather II. But these are all exceptions - movies that defied the rules of sequels and managed to tell fully satisfying and original stories, while both retaining and expanding upon what made the original great.

Hopefully you see where I'm going with this.

Clerks 2 picks up 10 years after the original. Our slacker-heroes Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) have given up their mindless convenience store jobs - but only after the store burns down. Worse, they've traded the Quick Stop for a fast food restaurant, surely one step lower on the retail/ evolutionary scale. They're still beset by idiot customers, still trade pop-cultural jabs and philosophy, and they still spend most of their efforts sorting out Dante's love life. Except for one big differenece: they're 33. Which makes all of the above quite sad. You see, one of the advantages Smith has over most sequels is that a significant amount of time has passed since the first film. This allows him to show actual growth and change in his leads - or more accurately, examine what happens when there is no growth. Clerks 2 is all about missed opportunities. About what happens when you never quite do seize a hold of your life, when you don't ever get around to chasing your dreams.

You wouldn't think Smith, being a successful multi-millionaire film maker with a rabid fanbase would have a whole lot of perspective on this topic, but look closer at his career. Back in the 90's he was the next indie-movie-wunderkid. He had more press written on him by age 26 than most artists get in a lifetime, all heralding him as the next Altman or De Palma. 10 years later though, and Smith is still making more or less the types of movies he was when he started out: irreverent, foul-mouthed, buddy films with little to no visual style. He's never become the director that people said he should become. Hence, the central conceit of Clerks 2. At first the story appears to concern Dante's dilemma over which girl to choose: Emma (Jennifer Schwallbach), the controlling daddy's girl who wants him to restart his life with her in Florida; and Becky (Rosario Dawson), the cool, sexy, girl-next-door who truly 'understands' him. If this all seems to be preachy "follow your heart" crap, that's because it's meant to be. The real theme of the movie runs under the surface the whole way through, and only comes to bear in the 3rd act: just what "following your dreams" actually means. And this is where Smith pulls it all together. He not only crafts a satisfying sequel to his first story, but gives his characters a truly earned happy ending.

As for the usual Smith-isms, they're all here. The dialogue is as crude as the American "R" rating will legally allow (and that's not even mentioning the film's climax, which I'll only say involves a particularly "talented" donkey). Returning of course are Jay and Silent Bob, the drug-dealing duo who haunt the periphery of all of Smith's films, commenting on the action and providing comic relief. Smith's usual wit is also on display here, though he keeps the usual callbacks to his previous films (I would say thankfully) absent. Unfortunately, all of his bad habits have come along as well. Smith's sentimental streak runs rampant through through this film, though I'll take earnest sentimentality over the fake Hollywood kind any day. Also, though Smith has perfected the art of the pop-music movie montage, he pushes the boundary with not one, not two, but FOUR montages throughout the film. Oh, and Schwallbach is terribly one-note as Emma, though this can be explained by the fact that she is a) not an actress, and b) Kevin Smith's wife. Understandably, she also gets the least screentime. At one point she sports a t-shirt reading "Mrs. Dante Hicks" though it may as well have read "Mrs. Plot Device".

Thankfully, the rest of the cast performs admirably. O'Halloran brings genuine wit and depth to Dante's dilemma, and Anderson retains Randal's effortless biting sarcasm while discovering (shockingly) real heart. Dawson continues a string of star-making perfomances here, as she creates perhaps the most fully-realized of Smith's leading ladies. You can genuinely see why Dante falls for her (and frankly, when she performs an impromptu dance on the roof of the store to the Jackson 5's "ABC 123", I was right there with him).

So yeah, this is again not a perfect movie, but I would guess that it has accompished exactly what Smith set out to do. It's fucking hilarious, does justice to the original, and wears its opinions about success and happiness proudly on it's sleeve. Besides, when's the last time you went to the local multiplex and heard the line "mayonnaise in my cooch"?

**** out of 5

ps. I'm leaving you all with one of the unused promotional posters for the film. I'm sure you can understand why. Cheers.