Summer Movie Olympics, Part 9: Counter Revolution

I have a long, tortured past with Kevin Smith and his work. I, like most of my friends in film school, loved his early movies in my formative middle school and high school years.

The first “Clerks” was like a revelation for me when I was 15- an indie movie that wasn’t pretentious and slow; it was vulgar and hilarious, with characters I could relate to. I quoted bits from it obsessively, watching it with my best friends late at night, and turning it off if my mom walked in- I didn’t want her hearing the language that Dante and Randal, Smith’s two alter egos, were spitting out. It was a big step for me in appreciating all independent film, and still has a place in my heart. “Mallrats” is still one of Kevin’s dumbest movies, but also one of his funniest, and had the bonus of introducing Jason Lee to the world. When “Chasing Amy” came out, I thought it was brutally honest and emotional while remaining funny as fuck. I’ve since cooled to that movie in the ensuing years- sure a lot of it is still honest, but a good bit of it is also too self conscious for it’s own good. “Dogma” is meandering mess, but at least Smith was trying to be a bit ambitious and explore bigger themes on a bigger canvas. The summer between high school graduation and my freshmen year at college “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” came out, which was supposed to be a fond farewell to the “View Askewniverse” Smith had created. It was nice to see all those characters one last time as I began my four years of film school and I looked forward to Smith growing as my own taste in films began to mature and expand. When “Jersey Girl” came out, Smith clearly wanted to grow as an artist and do something different. But his movie about fatherhood was forced and awkward, and way too sappy to stomach. The movie flopped badly and Smith began to point fingers for the box office failure. It was because Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez broke up before it came out, he protested. His fans didn’t want to see him leave his old universe, he cried. It seemed he was protesting too much- the movie was bad, and that was the long and short of it. The next thing you know, he was badmouthing his own film, joining the fans who had ridiculed it in hopes of winning them back. He got involved in flame wars all over the internet. Was this guy insecure enough to really let a few idiots on the internet (myself not included- I’m sure he cares what is said about him on this ol’ blog,) get to him? Worse yet, when I went back and watched some of his movies that I had so loved, their flaws seemed so much bigger than their merits once had. Sadly, i thought I was done with Kevin Smith forever.

Cut to a year or so ago, when Kevin announced he was going to return to the Quik Stop where he had made his name for “Clerks 2.” I was more than a little incredulous. Here is a filmmaker who had a strong and unique voice when he burst onto the indie scene in 1994, but has since failed to really develop or mature as an artist, and right when his career is stagnating he announces his next project is a return to the exact characters he made his name on? Sure “Jersey Girl” had been an artistic and financial failure, but at least he was trying something new. After the promise that “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” was the end of the Askewniverse, it just seemed like he was retreating in desperation.

It turns out those very insecurities are exactly what “Clerks 2” is about- and they are why I kind of loved the movie, much to my surprise.

The movie picks up a decade after the first film, except nothing has really changed for Dante and Randal. The Quik-Stop burns down in the opening of the film, and our heroes are forced to get new jobs- at a Mooby’s Burger Franchise, the restaurant chain Smith invented for a memorable scene in “Dogma.” Ever present comic sidekicks Jay and Silent Bob end up hanging out in front of the Mooby’s as well, furthering the theme that nothing has changed at all.

For the first few minutes of the movies, things looked bleak. After the initial Quik Stop burning scene, Smith cuts to a montage set to a great Talking Heads track. Honestly, the Talking Heads are far too good a band for Smith to include in one of his movies- when David Byrne sings “This was Once a Wendy’s” Smith cuts to…a Wedny’s. Subtle. The first scenes in Mooby’s are awkward- we meet Elias, a geeky co-worker who feels just a little too over the top. Worse yet, Dante is engaged to be married to Emily, a gorgeous and rich woman whose father promises Dante a job once they movie to Florida. Emily is played by Smith’s wife, and I don’t want to be mean about this- but she just simply can’t act. It’s a very nice thought to want to keep it in the family. But please Kevin, spare us her presence next time.

But then things begin to warm up. The incredibley gorgeous Rosario Dawson shows up as Becky, the manager of the Mooby’s. Turns out Becky and Dante hooked up recently, and have a thing for eachother. Dawson is clearly a star- she has real charisma and brings a lot to her role, really lifting the material. But the real heart of the movie is Randal- Jeff Anderson really steps up his game in this one, and his sarcastic asshole becomes more soulful this time around. This guy is angry and lonely, and with Dante leaving, he realizes he is gonna lose the one person who understands him.

When Jason Lee shows up as a former classmate of Dante and Randal, the movie really has found it’s momentum. Even though Randal calls him “pickle fucker,” Lee’s character, a successful internet tycoon, gets the best of them for calling them on their status as counter jockeys at the age of 33. His words really get to Randal, and the two friends pull one of their signature stunts from the original movie and abandon their post- for the go-kart tracks. The scene is actually really joyous and sweet. Randal is an immature, angry man who hasn’t grown up one bit in the last decade, and he’s just finally realizing and accepting it- but the trip to the go kart track “centers him.”

The movie is far from perfect- but so are all of Smith’s films. A long discussion comparing the merits of “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” feels particularly strained (Smith claims the scene is meant to illustrate that Randal is out of touch with the world and hasn’t moved on- whatever, it’s lame and doesn’t hold a candle to the discussions of labor politics in “Return of the Jedi” from the first “Clerks.) But overall, Smith makes this film about being in your mid-thirties and not growing up work- mostly because that’s where he clearly is in his life.

Kevin Smith went from Quik-Stop clerk to Sundance sensation in 1994. But in a way, he hasn’t grown as an artist from that moment- with “Clerks 2,” he is literally stuck behind the counter again, having not figured out what to do as an artist beyond what he was doing a decade ago. It’s a little sad to see him and his characters struggle with that realization, but by the end, Kevin Smith, Dante, and Randal have found a way to accept and make peace with who they are, and it worked for me. Maybe Smith will eventually find a way to move on, grow up, stop being beaten down by his own insecurities and stun us with something new- but for now, “Clerks 2” is a nice reflection on those very things. It’s a very personal movie.

“Clerks 2” didn’t make me laugh as much as Kevin Smith’s films used to. But it did make me smile, and that’s enough for now.