Clerks
Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
Studio: Miramax
Upon first glance, Clerks really looks like it might suck. It was filmed completely in black and white using only two cameras. The actors are people that nobody on earth has ever heard of. This is the beauty of the movie. It feels real to watch. Clerks was the first movie from writer/producer Kevin Smith. He filmed it for $27,000, creating much debt on his personal credit cards. I’m very glad he did.
Clerks is a film about a typical day in a convenience store. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) play two clerks at the Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey. The movie begins with Dante receiving a phone call asking him to cover someone else’s day at work. He arrives and gets the store ready to open with less than perfect results. Randal arrives much later, and gets the keys to the neighboring video store, RST Video. (Randal doesn’t technically work in the Quick Stop, but they seem to be the same company.)
The movie simply goes back and forth between the stores, showing the kind of crap that clerks have to deal with on a regular basis. Believe me, if you’ve never been a clerk, this is what it is really like. People are generally stupid. Having been a clerk in a video store myself, I can fully appreciate the things that poor Randal had to endure.
While there’s not a deep plot like some movies, Dante’s focus seems to remain on a former girlfriend who he has recently discovered was getting married. He is very jealous of this, despite the fact that he currently has a girlfriend. Much of the movie deals with Dante trying to decide between his past and present girlfriends, while at the same time dealing with customers at the Quick Stop.
Clerks also introduced two very popular characters to the movie going public. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith himself) were an instant hit in the flick. These are two guys with nothing better to do than to hang out in front the store all day. They’re quite a funny pair, and they tend to appear in the rest of Kevin Smith’s movies after this appearance. They’re really pretty hard to describe, so just see for yourself.
Overall: 9.5/10
Additional Information:
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 92 minutes.
DVD Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Alternate Ending
Outtakes
Director's Commentary
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