‘Clerks’ revolves around the day in the life of two retail employees who work at a convenience/video rental store called Quickstop/RST Video.
Writer/director Kevin Smith’s irreverent indie comic debut encapsulates the malaise of the twenty-something Gen X'er. 'Clerks' was a Judd Apatow film before Judd Apatow. (It is also the start of a cohesive cinematic universe long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe) It is brimming with hysterical pop culture critiques and bounces back and forth from high and low-brow humor, but it is not without heart or humanity.
Smith's budget constraints forced him to film in black-and-white, but that proved to be an effective way to alleviate some of the film's visual chaos as even he admitted he was an amateur when it came to cinematography. Much of his approach to filming 'Clerks' resembles that of post-war Italian Neorealism (Non professional actors, sets are on location , minimal studio lighting, cheaper film stock, narratives revolve around working class reality, etc).
Smith’s strength is in his writing. In order to organize what could have been a very messy narrative, he divides the film into chapters, each with a title evoking an idea or theme, and the chapters function more as a series of interconnected vignettes. This approach makes all the content- gross out, thought provoking, etc- easier to contextualize and more palatable.
While Smith may have been a true amateur film maker at the time he made ‘Clerks,’ almost every creative choice he made works for the story and themes. He made a cult classic film with a slew of memorable and endearing characters that is topical still to this day. Anyone who's had customer service experience will have deep appreciation for 'Clerks'.
MY RATING 4/5 STARS
'Clerks' as well as many Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow films are available to check out at The Brown Deer Public Library.
Comments