“Sometimes I wish I'd done a little more with
my life instead of just hanging out in front of
places. Maybe be an animal doctor. Why not me? I
like seals and shit. Or maybe be an astronaut.
Go into space and shit. Be the first to find a
new alien lifeform... and fuck it. People would
be, like, ‘there he goes. Boy fucked a martian
once.’”—Jay, Clerks II
You’ve got to hand it
to Kevin Smith for staying true to his
independent-film roots for now over ten years.
During the period between his 1994 breakout
feature, Clerks, and this 2006 sequel,
his career has made both turns for the better (Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back) and the worse (Dogma),
but Smith hasn’t forgot what made him a
successful filmmaker in the first place:
inventiveness. His style has grown different
over time—three years ago, I never would’ve
guessed that the guy would ever take a turn for
the sentimental with his famous
convenience-store duo, Dante Hicks and Randall
Graves—but his tried-and-true approach remains
the same today as it was in his first film.
Smith wisely centers his stories on smart,
affecting dialogue and its pertinence to
pop-culture and the life of everyday people,
even when the humor is vulgar and the language
is filthy. Clerks II is the perfect
“F-You!” to Hollywood; shot for $5 million
dollars, it is more interesting and funnier than
most major-studio comedies will ever hope to be.
Sitting everything
I’ve just said aside, Clerks II won’t
exactly change viewers’ lives, but it doesn’t
pretend to want to in the first place. Dante
(Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson)
are back—this time in full color film—after the
latter leaves the coffee pot on overnight at the
infamous Quick Strop, causing a fire to break
out and burn both the convenience store and his
next-door video-rental-shop down. The two find
jobs working at Mooby’s Burgers alongside
Momma’s Boy Employee of the Month, Elias (Trevor
Fehrman). Dante also finds a new romantic
interest in the film, Becky (Rosario Dawson),
but his feelings for her are slightly repressed
due to his pending engagement to his preppy
fiancée Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith). Emma
intends to move into a house her parents plan on
buying for she and Dante in Florida, within
close proximity to one of her father’s
car-washes, which Dante will be able to manage.
In his heart, though, Dante understands that he
belongs with Becky in his home of New Jersey.
The first thing I
noticed about Clerks II was its strong
embrace of Smith’s signature catchy dialogue. As
was in the first film, the characters fast-talk
through lyrical conversations regarding a
multitude of topics, this time ranging from
Lord of the Rings vs. Star Wars to
what racial slurs should be considered
offensive. The style works especially in
bringing Dante’s conflicting thoughts regarding
his love-interests to life; he nervously rattles
through his emotions in a way that is
simultaneously quirky and identifiable towards.
Many critics have ragged on the amateurishness
of the performances of the cast, especially
O’Halloran’s jumpy characterization of Dante,
but I have never had a problem with the acting
in either Clerks movie. Smith’s team of
regulars may not be a trained group of
thespians, but they are pleasantly appealing in
their roles, in which they often appear in many
of the filmmaker’s projects.
Clerks II may
not be as witty or reference-savvy as its
predecessor, but Smith’s screenplay has more
refined ideas this time around, which lend to a
sequel with both more laughs and tenderer
moments than the original. It’s a welcome—and
also very crude (how the MPAA allowed the first
cut of a film featuring an extended Donkey Show
to be rated R is beyond me)—follow-up on and
addition to a set of characters that are still
as virtually impossible to dislike today as they
were when audiences first met them in 1994. This
is one of the best comedies, as well as perhaps
one of the best overall movies, of the year.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews (7.26.2006)