Indie Highlight: Clerks II

There was somewhat of an American independent film movement that took place during the early 1990s—a series of career-launching debut features by self-taught directors with no film school diplomas, but lots and lots of ideas. There was Quentin Tarantino, the most infamous and probably most successful filmmaker to emerge from this era, who made a ferocious debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992. There was Robert Rodriguez, who famously shot and edited his first feature, El Mariachi, for $7,000. There was Richard Linklater who, with his film Slacker, displayed his knack for character and experimental innovation (one scene is shot on a Fisher Price “PixelVision” camera).

And there was Kevin Smith, next to Tarantino, probably the most recognizable filmmaker to emerge from this movement. A college dropout in his early twenties who was working in a convenience store in his New Jersey hometown when he made his own debut feature, Clerks, a day-in-the life of two mini-mart employees, Randal (Jeff Anderson) and Dante (Brian O’Halloran), the two drug dealers who hang out in front of the store, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (the director himself, Kevin Smith), and the various people they encounter from open till close. The film is loaded with dialogue that is sometimes jaw-dropping in its vulgarity (Clerks originally earned an NC-17 rating despite the fact that there is virtually no violence in the film at all), countless references to other movies, sight gags, and intellectual discourse on life, romance, sex and pop-culture. Smith wrote it with spot on precision and directed it with a minimalist, un-sensationalized style that resulted in a unique charm that worked brilliantly. Clerks earned Smith millions of fans, an award at Sundance, and a deal with Miramax, and became a part of the very pop culture it commented on.

Smith financed his film by selling his comic book collection, borrowing money from friends, and maxing out every credit card he could get his hands on. He shot Clerks on black and white 16mm film stock for roughly $27,000. Though not even a fraction of the budget for a Hollywood film, Hollywood has hundreds of million dollars to spend on making films, convenience store workers don’t. $27,000 dollars is a lot of money to owe, especially when you are only making six dollars an hour. And anyone who has ever shot anything on celluloid knows that it is a tricky process, a lot can go wrong, and with a limited budget, there are no guarantees that you will end up with a finished film. There is a good chance you might end up bankrupt with no finished film—plenty of other filmmakers have. Smith was taking a big risk, but he had the balls to do it. More importantly, he also had the brains.

In the twelve years since Smith broke out with Clerks, he has gone on to direct five other features, work as producer and as an actor on numerous other films, created the short-lived “Clerks” animated series, and worked as a screenwriter (he wrote a draft of Coyote Ugly and was hired to write a screenplay for a Superman movie that was ultimately rejected due to producers’ stipulations such as no cape and Superman must fight a giant spider in the third act). He’s directed mainstream-focused work such as Mallrats and Jersey Girl, but his best films have been his smaller, more indie-minded work, such as Chasing Amy and Dogma.

Now Smith has returned to the characters that made him a star, and offers Clerks II to the summer box-office.

Picking up 12 years after the original ended, Clerks II finds Dante and Randal working at the fast-food restaurant Moobys (a franchise based on a cartoon golden calf, also featured in Dogma), after their Quick Stop has burned down. Jay and Silent Bob return, fresh out of rehab and using their antics as a means of distraction to keep from falling into a relapse. The dialogue, mostly spewing from the mouth of the verbose and caustic Randal, makes the language in the first Clerks seem like something edited for television (Randal’s barrage of vulgarity actually makes a customer physically ill in one scene). More importantly the charm of the characters has not faded over the past twelve years, and Smith finds larger emotional issues at stake with his characters, who now, after refusing (or failing) to change with the world, find themselves fighting a war on all fronts—they are still at odds with their parents’ generation over the same issues they were twelve years ago, but in addition they must now face the younger generation—more pierced, more tattooed, more promiscuous, and raised on a different era of pop-culture (Lord of the Rings opposed to Star Wars)—Generation X vs. Generation Y. Randal and Dante must also come to terms with the success of former classmates who have moved on and found success, and the fact that, whether they like it or not, they are now adults.

I’ve been a fan of Kevin Smith since middle school. I watched the original Clerks countless times from eighth grade till graduation day, many times with friends, most of us able to quote the film verbatim. I’m from New Jersey, and Kevin Smith is a cultural icon here, much like Bruce Springsteen and Tony Soprano. I was skeptical when I heard Smith was making a sequel—how could he recapture the magic of the first?—and I was even more skeptical after I saw the initial trailer for the film. Now that I’ve seen it, I feel like I should have had more faith in Smith. Watching Clerks II is like running into an old friend—even though you hadn’t seen each other in twelve years and so much has changed (and hasn’t changed), the friendship is still there.