clerks

Clerks was director Kevin Smith's ( Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) first , and probably best feature. It was shot on 16mm for an initial budget of around $22 000 mainly in the convenience store where Smith was working at the time. The whole thing starts with mild mannered Dante Hicks being called in to work in the store on his day off to cover for a sick co-worker. He finished work only hours before , and has a hockey game at 2 o'clock. So from the very beginning we can tell he's not going to have a great day.

Dante's co-worker is Randal Graves ... he's not exactly the most model employee around, and Dante is constantly cleaning up after him , and profusely apoligising to customers he's offended. Randal isn't his only problem. He's also been fighting with his girlfriend , can't figure out where his life is leading , and is constantly having trouble with customers. He also has a couple of bums known as Jay and Silent Bob constantly hanging out in front of the convenience store dealing drugs , and generally irritating him and the customers.

Clerks is the perfect example of a good low budget film. A good deal of it's success comes from keeping things simple. It plays out as a series of vignettes centred around the sympathetic Dante , and every scene has a point and a purpose. Kevin Smith was obviously heavily influenced by Quentin Tarantino , and Woody Allen, since the movie references and the neurotic antics abound. The acting is pretty solid all 'round too. When you watch the performances in Clerks , you can truly appreciate how mediocre the performances of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are in later Kevin Smith projects.

It's hard to pick stand out scenes , because there are so many. This is a very character driven movie , and apart from the leads , there are a whole bunch of memorable characters. One of my favorite minor characters is Silent Bob's cousin Olaf , who is a heavy metal singer from Russia. There's not a whole lot more I can say about this that can be put into words...but if you wan't an extremely well structured low budget movie with normal looking people ( Jason Mewes was considered too odd looking to be featured on the poster art) , then this will certainly fit the bill , and leave you wanting more. It's just a pity that Smith deserted the winning formula for his later 'more sacharine and viewer freindly' films like Chasing Amy , and Dogma.