On C List of Movie Reviews
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Clerks (1994)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
12/16
12/16:
Clerks is well-made for a low-budget picture.
It's hard to find faults, but there's one that precludes me from giving the movie a '10' or recommending
it to anyone: the atrocious, off-putting pornographic language. If Kevin Smith can cut it out while
retaining the same style, then Clerks is a winner.
I can relate to a lot of stuff that are covered
in the film. My town used to have a general store that offered video rentals. Middle and high school kids would visit
to check out the video section while the adults stopped by for coffee, drinks, smokes, and deli sandwiches. One day, the owner
got busted in Atlantic City for prostitution and child molestation and was forced to sell the store to cover his legal
fees. Eventually, Wawa appeared and became a permanent fixture. Now, everybody goes there, but it's not the same anymore.
Also, the boys were playing street
hockey atop the store's roof, and one of them hit the orange ball that went over the roof and into the storm drain. It's a
common occurrence, which is annoying, and I've been through it before many times.
Anyway, the cast is fantastic, and only two stand out the most: Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson as Dante Hicks and Randal
Graves, respectively. The rapid-fire dialogue between the two makes it hard to keep up with them, causing me to
rewind the video a bit from time to time to catch everything they were saying. On the other hand, it's a smart move on Kevin
Smith's part to shoot the film in black and white beause the photography looks marvelous.
All in all, Clerks may be the only good film of Kevin Smith's career.