Clerks.

Clerks.
January 1994
View Askew/ Miramax
Comedy
VHS
B

The low-budget film that launched a franchise, this Kevin Smith debut (as writer, director, and of course performer as Silent Bob) holds up very well.  Yes, it's dated-- how could such a mid '90s twentysomething movie not be-- but that has added to its bittersweet charm.  That Dante (as in circles of Hell) Hicks (Brian O'Halloran with his goatee and defeatist attitude) and Randal Graves (no need to explain that last name, played by a mostly straight-faced Jeff Anderson) are still stuck in their dead-end jobs a dozen years later (and apparently even beyond, since Shooting Clerks is in production), adds to the poignancy.  I haven't decided which Smith movies I don't yet own I want to get, but this movie is the then unintentional basis of them all, in the way that Sinclair Lewis didn't know he'd be returning to Winnemac when he wrote Babbitt.

There are continuity errors, including within just this movie.  (A heck of a lot of things somehow take place around 4 p.m.)  The movie is '90s proud of its budget, from the black & white simple shots to the sometimes off line delivery.  (I was surprised that Marilyn Ghigliotti has had the most mainstream success, because she's easily the worst of the leads, as Veronica.)  It has the nerve and cynicism of Generation X.  It is also college-age crude in its humor and sometimes characterization.

It is appealing in its What You See Is What You Get attitude, although I can also picture people hating it for those reasons.  It's also very witty, far too witty for its documentary-like feel.  (Juno would later be criticized for similar reasons, that no one, especially this young and working-class, could be that clever.)  But I don't think we're meant to take the movie that literally.  It's more like one day of Worst Customer Ever anecdotes, and if you've never found yourself thinking I'm not even supposed to be here today!, well, you're lucky.  It's an implausible version of relatable reality.

Besides the two pairs of bromantic friends (Smith and a raw 19-year-old Jason Mewes as Jay are of course the other duo), the movie has a number of supporting players who would be in either Chasing Amy and/or Dogma, as well as some other Smith movies I don't own at the present time.  Scott Mosier, who plays William the Idiot Manchild/Angry Hockey-Playing Customer/Angry Mourner; Vincent Pereira, who's Hockey Goalie and Engagement Savvy Customer; and Ernest O'Donnell, who is a Trainer, would all be in both sequels, as would the very versatile  Walter Flanagan (here Woolen Cap Smoker/Egg Man/Offended Customer/Cat-Admiring Bitter Customer).  Virginia Smith, who's the Caged Animal Masturbator here, would be a Con Woman in Chasing.  Kimberly Loughran, who plays Alyssa Jones's little sister Heather, would be Woman in Elevator in Dogma.