Dante (Brian O'Halloran) doesn't know what's in store for him when his phone
rings very early one morning. The twenty-something resident of Leonardo NJ
lives with his parents, sleeps with his dirty laundry laying around the floor
and has been forced by an unseen boss to work on his free day at the Quick
Stop Grocery store. Dante has to make a boring and predictable living there
selling coffee, newspapers, cigarrettes and other goods to people that he
hates, but at least he'll get to leave early that afternoon for a scheduled
hockey game. A hockey game that he's too tired and exhausted from the night
before to play since, as he's fond of saying every few minutes, he isn't even
supposed to be there that day. Dante has a loving and understanding
girlfriend named Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) that brings him lasagna and
advises him to quit the dead-end job that he hates. Dante, however, is still
secretly in love with Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer), his high school girlfriend
that has apparently become engaged to an Asian fashion designer and cheated
on him repeatedly while they were going out. He eventually finds out his
boss went to Vermont and tricked him into working at the Quick Stop all day
long, which only makes Dante's already miserable day even worse.
Dante is the slacker hero in Kevin Smith's "Clerks", the low-budget b&w debut
film that made Smith and his troupe of friends/associates independent film
celebrities back in 1994. Dante represents every young American man (and
woman) stuck in a dead-end 9 to 5 job with the potential to be someone
better, yet scared by personal fears and demons into staying with the devil
known rather than risk going into the real world to face the unknown devils
of persuing one's dreams (and potentially failing). "Clerks" isn't an
indictment of twenty-something slackers though, but a hilarious 'day in the
life' adult comedy about the lunacy unfolding around Dante's tortured
existence on this particular day of his self-perceived miserable existence.
He's a lovable and likable everyday man, and a solid Abbot on which Kevin
Smith unleashes a barrage of Costello-like lunatics, including his signature
characters Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith).
Dante's chief torturer happens to be his best friend Randal (a
scene-stealing Jeff Anderson), the absent-minded and authority-defying clerk
of the video store next door that has come to accept his status as a lovable
loser. Randal wears his social status with a badge of proud bemusement, and
doesn't mince words or his disdain for his job and the people he has to deal
with. "Clerks" uses the duo's chemistry along with foul-mouthed but smart
dialogue, low-budget charm and cheerfully anarchic spirit to tie together an
unbelievable narrative that somehow makes necrophilia, funerals, pot-dealing
losers (Jay and Silent Bob), porno movies and improvided rooftop hockey games
seem funny and, oddly enough, believable. At its core though, "Clerks" masks
a very uplifting and conservative message about love between both men and
women (Caitlin and Dante, Veronica and Dante) as well as between best friends
(Dante and Randal). The saddest ending for Dante isn't the Alternate Ending
of "Clerks" in which his miserable day ends in the most tragic of ways, but
his realization that Veronica is her true love instead of the make-believe
romanticized past he shared with Caitlin. A realization that comes too late
for Dante to save the most treasured thing he had, and which he also ends up
losing in the day he wasn't even supposed to even be working at the Quick
Stop.
The animated series that View Askew produced a few years later took the
characters and settings of "Clerks" to unbelievable creative heights. The
original b&w movie, however, can still be seen and appreciated for what it
is: a very funny testament to the tenacity of low-wage earners to go about
their lives without dying of boredom, and about the things they talk about
while passing the time in-between annoying clients they'd rather strangle
with their bare hands than smile to.
The Disc:
Originally shot on b&w 16mm film for under $28,000, "Clerks" didn't really
have much of a quality original print to go back to when it was time to do
the Laserdisc transfer of the movie. Since this Collector's Series DVD has
been basically lifted straight from the Laserdisc, "Clerks" looks about as
good as a digital transfer can make a low-budget 16mm film look. Shown in
its blown-up widescreen theatrical aspect ratio of 1:85:1, the picture has
all the tell tale signs of grain, scratches, film burns and edge enhancements
that one would expect from such a shoe-string production. Director of
Photography Kevin Klein's workmanlike photography lights the scenes with
enough care to keep most of the movie watchable, so just because it's
low-budget and shot in b&w doesn't mean it's an ugly picture to look at.
There are also few noticeable artifacts due to data compression, which means
this is probably as good as "Clerks" will ever get to look for a good long
while. Ditto for the audio, which uses a serviceable Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround to keep the conversations between Dante, Randal and the wacky
characters in the "Clerks" universe audible and properly mixed with a
fittingly edgy alternative music soundtrack.
Then comes the Bonus Material, which is decent stuff but not the orgy of
behind-the-scenes material we've come to expect on every View Askew
production that has hit the DVD market in the past few years. The highlight
of here is the first commentary track that Kevin Smith and his cronies
recorded together, which has become memorable more for Jason Mewes passing
out drunk than anything that's actually said or revealed. It was recorded in
Minnesota back in 1994 when the View Askew crew was filming "Mallrats", and
it sounds like if only two microphones were used during the recording
session: one for Kevin Smith's irreverent and self-mocking remarks (which set
the tone for every commentary track that followed) and one for everyone else
(Brian O'Halloran, producer/editor/sound man Scott Mosier, cameo king Walt
Flanagan, "Mallrats" producer James Jacks, and a few others). Vincent
Pereira easily emerges through the dead air and lost comments that the mike
missed as the best asset in this and future commentary tracks of View Askew
movies. He seems to relish setting-up and pointing interesting moments in
the film's production for Smith to tell an interesting anecdote or story.
Not the best commentary track in a View Askew DVD, but worth a couple of
listens; even an underwhelming commentary from these folks is funnier and
more insightful than the commentary track of your average DVD.
There are also six deleted scenes (14:50) that play consecutively but can be
skipped to scene by scene, which are mostly longer versions of scenes already
in the movie and don't hold more than a couple of little in-jokes ('uhhh,
"Navy Seals"!). Then there's the controversial Altrnate Ending to "Clerks"
(4:00), which I actually prefer to the sudden and happy ending the movie
currently has which fortunately keeps everyone alive and healthy for the
follow-up cartoon series. The Theatrical Trailer is here, along with a Soul
Asylum video of the "Clerks" song 'Can't Even Tell' (directed by Smith, in
color, using the same locations of the movie) and Film Recommendations for
other Miramax videos ("Pulp Fiction", "Chasing Amy", etc.). There are also
English subtitles for the hearing impaired and Chapter Selections using the
same heavy words (Harbinger, Quandary, Syntax, etc.) that Smith uses
throughout the movie to point out key moments of the "Clerks" narrative.
bottom line:
"Clerks" is best summarized by Kevin Smith: it's 'David Mamet meets Howard
Stern'. Dante and Randal remain the best two characters that Kevin Smith's
creative lunacy has given to the world, even more than the infamous Jay and
Silent Bob duo IMHO. The low-budget look and feel of the movie just enhances
their charm, but their foul-mouthed antics aren't meant for everybody. It's
a little pricey and short on extras compared with Smith's other jam-packed
DVD's. It's money well-spent, however, by anyone that appreciates a brutally
funny fable about the twenty-something art of slacking around work doing
nothing but talking your brains out.
By - J.M. Vargas
1/2
