When Kevin Smith’s low budget black-and-white debut comedy Clerks was released in 1994, a generation of would-be filmmakers and pop culture fans raised their heads upwards to the sky and shouted hallelujah!
With no pretensions and amazing creativity, Clerks tells the story of Dante Hicks, a clerk at Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, NJ. Next door is the video store where his pal Randal Graves barely does more than unlock the door. Dante and Randal have no stated goals nor ambitions. They and many of the other characters in Clerks speak the F word as though it is a necessary descriptive. They have all sorts of crude sex on the brain and not much intellect.
Outside their doors stand two stoners who deal drugs. They are Jay and Silent Bob. With only a boom box and weed to keep them going, they spend hours of every day either standing there waiting for customers or dancing and joshing with whomever happens to pass by.
Dante and Randal are 22 years old. They are going nowhere. Dante has a girlfriend who is in college. Her most memorable attribute is that she has had oral sex with 37 men. Two other characters who stand out in Clerks are the guy from Chewlies gum and the old man who needs to use the bathroom at the convenience store.
Clerks has gone down as a standout in the history of the late 20th century independent film movement. Even though the characters themselves are far from witty, their creator Kevin Smith is a profound observer of a certain lifestyle. The characters of Clerks became a franchise of animated and live-action films, comics, and merchandise. The original remains a joy to watch.
Then in 2006 came Clerks II. Dante now is working behind the counter at Mooby’s, a fast food place, with Randal and a young goofy religious fanatic names Elias. There are lots of gross sex jokes. Some of the content is so repulsive, it even disgusts more worldly viewers. Possibly the most sickening sex joke in a mainstream film is the inclusion of Kinky Kelly and the Sexy Stud, which features a sex act entertainment between a rough-looking guy in black leather and a donkey.
Mooby’s manager is Becky, played by Rosario Dawson, and she adds energy to the sequel. At one point, she surveys all the gross goings-on and says, “I’m disgusted and repulsed and I can’t look away.” Dante, Randal, and the gang are in their thirties. They are even more misdirected in life than before, but by the end of the film, there has been much excitement and even some progress to Dante’s life. Clerks II is a highly entertaining, well-conceived movie.
A few months ago, Clerks III was released. The guys are middle-aged. Randal has a heart attack and decides to make a movie of their lives. They return to Quick Stop Groceries, and Silent Bob becomes the cinematographer of the great moments of their past. All those great moments from Clerks I are revisited as a movie within a movie. What’s the point? We have the first two Clerks to see any time we want. This script isn’t as clever as the two others, and has melodramatic scenes that make it a more typical drama of middle age woes and losses. While Jay and Silent Bob retain their unique stoner qualities (along with Silent Bob’s rare but wonderful moments of intelligence), the other characters change in less extraordinary ways… except Elias goes way overboard. Ridiculous! Dante and Randal become troubled middle-aged men. Clerks III is a downer.
At the end credits of the first Clerks in 1994, Kevin Smith thanks Richard Linklater, Hal Hartley, Spike Lee, and Jim Jarmusch for leading the way. For many years since then, Smith himself has been a leader. Surely a Clerks sequel that is somewhat less amazing can be forgiven.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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