Year:
1994
Studio:
Miramax Films/View Askew Productions
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
Teaser
They are the lowest rung of society, or at least within spitting
distance of the lowest rung. The faceless drones of the Service
Industry. They are clerks. And this is their story.
Movie
Kevin Smith's first film, done on a $27000 budget, "Clerks" is a fairly
well done independent film revolving around a day in the life of two
store clerks: Dante (Brian O'Halloran) in the Quick Stop and his friend
Randal (Jeff Anderson) in the next door RTS Video Rentals. We get to
see them put up with unruly customers, undependable managers, and
Dante's two girl friends Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) and Caitlin
(Lisa Spoonhauer). This is a slice-of-life film and it's not bad as
such.
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Actors
We're not talking about great acting here. Here we see that lots of
acting classes plus theatre work is still is not good enough for a
professional production. Still, as Kevin Smith points out, there are
some fine acting moments where everything clicks for a take.
DVD
The movie is in Letterbox Format. Lots of extra material: theatrical
trailer, a "dark" alternate ending, deleted scenes (mostly boring), and
a music video, all with comments by Kevin Smith. There is also a
commentary track featuring Kevin Smith and a bunch of people, most of
whom don't talk unless prodded by Kevin.
Recommendations
First time I saw this movie I couldn't get past the first Jay and
Silent Bob scene. Second time I sat through the whole thing and thought
it was bad but not horrible. Now with the commentary track explaining
things I think it's pretty good for a first real try. I still have a
hard time recommending this movie unless you love Kevin Smith's more
commercial films.
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