Review of Clerks, 14 years after it was released. Verdict: it doesn't hold up that well.
I don't think I laughed more than a couple of times. And for the past 14 years, all I could remember about the film was the pick-up hockey game on the roof and the big punchline about Dante's ex-girlfriend's encounter in the bathroom. In the years that have followed, the cult of Kevin Smith has waxed and waned but mostly endured, spinning off into comic books, diaries, and concert appearances, several well-trafficked websites (and many other fan sites), and other assorted merchandise and pop-cultural flotsam.
I've never understood why Clerks was so well-regarded. Actually, now that I think about it, despite an affection for Mallrats shared by almost no one with any sense, I don't like any of Smith's movies but I do like Smith and the way that he goes about making his films...if that makes any sense at all. (Ok, Chasing Amy was alright and Jersey Girl was underrated.)
On the eve of shooting his eighth film, Zach and Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith recounts his experiences with the actors and rehearsals on his seven previous films.
It's weird to work one way for so long, and slowly realize it's not necessary anymore; that it was just something you did when you didn't know any better. I hired pros; aside from on-set tweaking and an extra take or two, they don't need to be broken like wild horses or worked like puppets. Those days are behind me now. Now I spend more time thinking about/working on what the flick's gonna look like -- which, I guess, should be the primary job of the director.
This video has so much goodness in it: a short Bollywood-esque production featuring Daleks and the Tardis and then Kevin Smith arriving at an event flanked by a bunch of Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, and Anakin Skywalker. "Stormtroopers, keep it tight, we gotta move." I wonder if he always travels that way and if so, does he fly business class while the Stormtroopers are stuck in coach? (I assume Boba Fett has miles and can upgrade most of the time.)
Update: I really like the idea that the Stormtroopers, after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, are this giant unemployed workforce who occasionally find work chauffeuring Kevin Smith about.
Interviewer: Ok, tell me about your past work experience.
Stormtrooper: Most recently, I flanked Kevin Smith.
Good. What else?
Um, I was in the room when Lord Vader choked an Admiral.
Wow! Right next to Vader?
Well, no. He choked him over the video screen and I was in the room with the Admiral. But it was still pretty cool.
Oh.
Kevin Smith's iTunes Celebrity Playlist got rejected by Apple because his comments were too long. "This is a great playlist. Too great, actually. We don't have the space for comments that run that long."
A Kevin Smith signing in New Jersey lasted 13 hours (until 4am); they expected around 200 people but over 2000 showed up.
Kevin Smith's report from the Cannes Film Festival, where Clerks II got an 8-minute standing ovation. Harvey Weinstein: "In my thirty years of coming here, I've never seen a standing ovation last that long at a midnight show in Cannes. Ever."
Internet-only trailer for Clerks 2 by Kevin Smith. Going boldly where Harold and Kumar have gone before.
For what seems like the last 2 hours, I've been reading Kevin Smith's blog (Flickr photos here), and I have no idea why. He calls it "Kevin's Boring Ass Life" and that's what it is...a typical entry is not much more than "got up, checked email, dropped off kid at school, lunch, dinner, sex with wife, then watched movies/Simpsons until asleep". Couldn't stop reading though...
