Clerks (1994) Movie Review

With a bit of a slow game release schedule, the anime season still a while from wrapping up, and me needing to take a break from One Piece, I figured I'd go back over a series of films I enjoy, the Askew films from Kevin Smith. And what better way to start than the beginning with Clerks.

The Cult Classic that launched Kevin Smiths' career, Clerks follows around Dante as he is called in to work at a convenience store on his day off. After that the actual events are a bit random and mundane (Barring one), but what sells the show as a classic is how strong the themes of the show were. Those being what it's like to find yourself stuck in life and unable to find a way to move on for one reason or another.

Dante is unable to convince himself to do anything to change his life, and find himself blaming things on everyone else. On the other side of the spectrum you have Randal who always does whatever he wants, but also takes all the blame for his station in life on himself. They both sit on opposite sides of the spectrum but seem to find a common ground in how they both end up in pretty much the same position in life. Despite how different they are, this makes their friendship feel genuine.

I kind of how likable Dante ends up being despite being kind of an asshole. While he can be an absolute dick concerning how he's considering leaving his current girlfriend for his high school girlfriend who is a bitch, all without discussing it with his current girl, there is such a thick layer of self-sabotage hovering over Dante that you kind of end up feeling bad for him. And for a lot of people, it's easy to see things from his point of view, how he's scared to try and move his life in a new and unfamiliar direction. As well as his disgust with himself for being unable to do it.

You don't even get a very clean resolution to the whole thing. It ends on just this note of acceptance to the situation, and Dante possibly wanting to make things better in his life. And with that the show comes to an end, but it's not as depressing as it sounds. You end on a note that implies someone improving their situation is at least possible, even if it's not going to happen right away, and even if it was your own fuck ups that got you there.

This is all in addition to the show being hilarious. Since there isn't a lot of actual plot going on, you have a lot of non-sequiturs and funny conversations between characters. There is the odd aside of the 'Chicks with dicks' porno talked about in the movie, a discussion of the ethical concerns of destroying the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, and various others. They may not add a lot to the narrative, but they add a lot to the characters and make everything going on to feel a lot more real than they do in many other movies.

This is one of those shows that became a cult hit for good reason. It's aged wonderfully it's messages are timeless. It's not a hard movie to track down these days, so definitely give it a watch if you're into a more offbeat kind of comedy.