Clerks

Hardly anybody every works in the movies, except at jobs like cops, robbers, drug dealers, and space captains. One of the many likings of Kevin Smith’s 1994 film, “Clerks,” is that it takes place during an entire shift on the job. The protagonist, Dante Hicks, is a clerk in a convenience store, and his friend Randal works next door in the video store. Roger Ebert said in his review, “Both stores are in a strip mall in Asbury Park, N.J. – marginal operations with ill-paid and disenchanted employees.”

Ebert described, “The movie has the attitude of a gas station attendant who tells you to check your own oil. It’s grungy and unkempt, and Dante and Randal look like they have been nourished from birth on beef jerky and Cheetos. They are tired and bored, underpaid and unlucky in love, and their encounters with customers feel like a series of psychological tests.”

Dante, played by Brian O’Halloran on a right showcase of defensive detachment, has that gift for getting through a bad job by running his personal life at the same time. He’s 22, a college dropout, dating the loquacious Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), and is shocked to read int eh paper that his former girlfriend, Catilin (Lisa Spoonauer), is engaged to an “Asian studies major.” Meanwhile, he’s heading in no direction, and he has had to cancel his hockey game to work on his day off.

His day begins at dawn. He sleeps in his closet. He drink his coffee out of the lid of the cookie jar. When the store’s steel shutters won’t go up, he uses shoe polish to write a big sign: I ASSURE YOU WE ARE OPEN. Ebert said, “He gets in desultory conversations with customers who are opposed to cigarettes, or looking for porno mags, or claim the vacant-eyed guy leaning against the building is a heavy metal star from Russia.”

Next door, Randal, played by Jeff Anderson, is working in the type of video store with a catalog so bad that he goes to another store when he wants to rent a video. He has customers with questions like, “Do you have that one with that guy who was in that movie last year?” He talks deep cinematic questions with Dante, such as: When Darth Vader’s second Death Star was destroyed, it was still under construction, so doesn’t that mean a lot of innocent workers were killed? Many of Dante’s customers are very strange. One is obsessed with finding a dozen perfect eggs, played by Walt Flanagan. Another finds an extraordinary use for the restroom, played by Al Berkowitz. A man named Silent Bob, played by Kevin Smith, is permanently outside the store. He’s allegedly a drug dealer, but business seems very bad.

Seeing how Smith filmed the entire movie in and around the convenience store, he shows originality in finding new set-ups.

There’s a risk that the movie could reduce itself to a series of people standing around talking, but look at the way he handles the conversation between Dante and Veronica, who paints her nails while they talk. Or look at the hockey game, which is finally played on the store roof.

“Clerks,” which has no nudity or violence, was originally supposed to be rated NC-17 by the MPAA just because of the language – which includes the type of graphic descriptions of doubtful intercourse acts that men sometimes go into while killing so much celibate time. (Ebert mentioned, “One sexual encounter does take place during the movie, off screen, and after it becomes clear exactly what happened, we are all pretty much in agreement, I think, that offscreen is where it belongs.”) Quentin Tarantino has become famous as a video store clerk who watched all the movies in his store, and then went out and directed “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.” Kevin Smith has done him one better, by working behind the counter and then making a movie about the store itself. Ebert said, “Within the limitations of his bare-bones production, Smith shows great invention, a natural feel for human comedy, and a knack for writing weird, sometimes brilliant, dialogue.”

A lot has been written about Generation X and the films about it.

“Clerks” is completely authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation. When they think of “X,” it’s on the way to the video store.

I saw this movie earlier this year, and I can’t believe I missed out on this. This is one of the best comedies out there. A lot of people could probably relate to the characters in this movie, so you should see this. It’s very enjoyable and you’ll get into this. Currently, it is streaming on Pluto TV, so check it out and enjoy yourselves.

Look out tomorrow to see what I will review next in “Disney Month 2025.”