I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but this is the first time I've ever seen 'Clerks'. With many of these movies it's the first time, and I write as I watch, and for my favourites I usually write as I happen to be re-watching, or after I've shown it to someone else. 'Clerks', though, I've been meaning to see for... um... three, four years? A guy in Secondary (High) school recommended it, and I honestly meant to watch it, but I just kept forgetting. I'm only half an hour in so far but it's awesome.
Firstly, Jay and Silent Bob are part of the central cast, and I love those guys. This is (as far as I know) the first feature length movie they've been in, and they basically just hang around outside the store all day cat calling women and insulting men, and then dealing drugs a little when it gets dark. They often act as an intermediary between sketches, so we see like five seconds of them break dancing or something, and then we see more Salsa Shark.
There are so many great moments here. A customer watches a cat taking a dump in a box, while Dante is on the phone. There is a long discussion about star wars between Dante and his friend Randall. A gum salesman comes in and convinces a bunch of people to quit smoking, they form a mob, and end up pelting Dante with fags. Dante has an impromptu hockey game on the roof. Dante and Randall stand and watch some guy go through all the eggs, looking for the "perfect dozen". These are just a a few examples, and I get that they just sound like random happenings, but the slightly awkward acting, the black and white, the filming style, all help to make it funny.
The movie is effectively a sketch show, with the same recurring characters, and a thin plot about Dante and his relationship with his ex and current girlfriend to string it all together. It it split into a series of short chapters, which are sometimes just a few minutes long. I don't really think it needed as much of an overarching plot, nothing really needs to happen (not that anything did). It's good just being an average day, with tons of weird crap happening. The customer - server relationship is a great opportunity for humour, as countless sketch shows have shown.
The pair possess a surprisingly broad vocabulary considering their education, and the subject matter of their conversations. For all the shit he gives him, Randall and Dante are really great friends. Randall does try to counsel him on his dumb problems, and Dante doesn't really appreciate him. Randall is happy working in a video rental and insulting his customers all day and not really accomplishing anything. Dante though wants something more, but he doesn't know what that is. He is too lazy to change, but keeps complaining about his situation. Randall is just dumb and content. Dante is, for me, unlikable at times.
The tragedy is that if Dante really does want to change, he's going to have to start listening to his useless friend. Randall and his girlfriend are the only ones he lashes out at, when really he should be lashing out at everyone else - including himself. And stop saying "I wasn't even meant to be here today" for Christs sake. He is closed.
The credit song seems almost written by or for Dante, and as the movie ends I realise that it wasn't just a sketch show, it's a lesson. Do something or do nothing, but make sure that your content - and if you aren't, don't whine to others about it before you try to change yourself. Overall it feels very anti-Dante, but he just represents aspects of all of us personified in their extreme. Also lots of stupid funny stuff happened, which is cool.
Clerks: 79.6