Review of Clerks (1994) by Mike S — 17 Oct 2015

The film Clerks, written and directed by Kevin Smith, became an instant cult classic movie when it was released in 1994. Since then Kevin Smith has carried on his dream and talent of film writing and directing. Clerks became a household name despite both the cast and crew being almost entirely made up of amateurs and with a measly $27,000 budget. Clerks overcame its obstacles and became a hit because it had an interesting plot, well-written characters, and a fitting visual aesthetic.

Clerks revolves around Dante Hicks and Randal graves who work as store clerks at a convenience store and video rental store respectively. Dante Hicks is called into work on his day off and his day only gets worse from there, from dealing with obnoxious customers, fighting with his girlfriend, and dealing with his best friends' antics. What makes the plot so satisfying is how relatable Dante Hicks' problems are; almost everybody has had a terrible customer service job, everybody has had relationship troubles, and everybody has had to deal with a friend that has all of your woes figured out for you. Dante avoids his duties and does as he pleases with the fact that it should be his day off as the only justification. Randal shirks all duty simply because he can; instead opting to hang out in the convenience store with Dante while he works. This flagrant disrespect for their jobs brings them to play hockey on the roof of the convenience store and desecrate a corpse of a friend.

The characters as they are written are superb. Dante is written to be relatable to the audience. We see Dante struggle with realizations that his girlfriend is not as pure and sweet as he thought while his ex-girlfriend enters the picture again. All while he unduly idealizes his position as a clerk. Randal is the agitating best friend that seems to always have an answer but is comfortable with his station in life. The two characters clash and mesh in extraordinary ways together. Randal drags Dante into the world of being a slacker just for the one day. The dialogue between the two is what makes the movie so excellent. Dante always blames something else for all of his troubles while Randal accepts that where he is at in life is the result of his own efforts. They discuss both everything and nothing during their day at work. The movie is a story of these two characters dealing with the mundanities of modern life in their unique, and often excessively vulgar, way. The minor characters are well-written despite some subpar acting. But this movie was casted almost completely of friends around Kevin Smith's hometown and the shortcomings are to be expected among young adults making their first movie together.

The visual aesthetic of Clerks is highly debated. The film was shot in black and white due to budget constraints. The impact of using black and white in a modern film was astounding. It works surprisingly well for the film. It helps to accentuate how dull the lives of the characters had become before that day. The fact that it was in black and white made it feel artsy but not in a pretentious manner. Some filming is noticeably shaky and unstable during some scenes, particularly the few scenes shot away from the interior of the convenience store.

Clerks is an amazing film highlighting the dull life of modern young adults. While not all audiences will enjoy the film due to an abundance of obscenities, it is worth giving a shot. Kevin Smith got his start with this movie and used it as a jumping off point for many of his films. If you enjoy relatable characters in a seemingly uninteresting environment with only themselves to create any entertainment through excellent dialogue throughout the mundanity of working a basic job than this is the film you have been waiting for.