‘Clerks III’ Evaluation: Kevin Smith Gives an Indulgent, Poignant Sequel

The phrase “this one’s for the followers” is normally delivered from a defensive posture. However within the case of “Clerks III,” it’s virtually a press release of objective. Now practically three a long time faraway from the microbudget indie that made him probably the most unlikely main auteurs of the Nineties, writer-director-podcaster Kevin Smith has as soon as once more returned to the New Jersey Fast Cease the place he first staked his declare as a filmmaker, bringing his now-fiftysomething slacker heroes again to confront the listlessness of center age. However the true focus of “Clerks III” is just not actually Randal and Dante in any respect, however somewhat the movie “Clerks” itself, and Smith goals this third installment straight at his diminished however nonetheless rabid fanbase, for whom the movie stays a touchstone.   

After a full of life opening sequence scored to My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” – Jersey pleasure is on full show in Smith’s music decisions right here – we settle in as soon as once more with Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), nonetheless working on the Fast Cease, however seemingly content material with their narrowing prospects in life. Dante is now not engaged to Becky (Rosario Dawson), his fiancée from “Clerks II,” for causes the movie steadily makes clear. Randal is as motormouthed as ever, barely managing to tolerate youthful protégé Elias (Trevor Fehrman). Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are nonetheless endlessly loitering across the property, although this time because the house owners of a hashish dispensary the place RST Video was once.

However simply when the movie appears to be leaning again into the franchise’s previous slice-of-life rhythm, Randal is laid low with a near-fatal coronary heart assault. Taking inventory of his life decisions whereas recovering, he decides to lastly make one thing of his life, and resolves to put in writing and direct a movie primarily based on his and Dante’s experiences as comfort retailer clerks. Shot in black-and-white. With everybody from the Fast Cease scene taking part in themselves. In different phrases, he units out to make the movie “Clerks.”

For a lot of the remaining operating time, Randal and Dante – reluctantly serving as his pal’s producer and co-star – go about recreating key scenes from the unique movie, with loads of meta-commentary about its creation. A number of veterans of the early Smith universe are introduced again into the fold, and there are shock cameos from just a few A-list stars whose names needs to be simple to guess for anybody who’s seen a Kevin Smith movie earlier than. Regardless of periodic makes an attempt to construct a slow-boil battle between Randal and Dante, after some time the film nearly begins to resemble a protracted clip-show, or a dramatized forged reunion Q&A.

Is that this all wildly self-indulgent? A bit. Does it really feel just like the product of a filmmaker with loads of contemporary concepts? Not likely. Has Smith misplaced his fastball as a author? You would actually make that case, and the screenplay’s makes an attempt to recapture a few of the rapid-fire popular culture references and x-rated musings of the director’s heyday usually land painfully huge of the mark. However there’s one thing surprisingly poignant about all of it the identical. This movie is clearly an unusually private one for Smith – who ripped up an early model of the screenplay and began once more after struggling a daunting coronary heart assault of his personal – and the truth that so lots of its key gamers will ceaselessly be related to “Clerks” provides the complete affair an emotional cost that’s solely partially attributable to something that occurs to their characters. (Certainly, the sight of the previous prolonged crew, gray beards and beer bellies in tow, climbing to the highest of the Fast Cease for a rooftop hockey sport speaks simply as potently as something within the dialogue.) Very like one other (far, much better) trilogy from one other defining Era X filmmaker, remorse and the passage of time have unexpectedly emerged as “Clerks’” core themes.    

And as unusual because it sounds, time has nearly been too variety to “Clerks,” within the sense that so lots of the parts that after made it so refreshing and distinctive are more durable than ever to understand. The sight of grown males having hairsplitting arguments about “Star Wars” felt novel in 1994; now it’s principally the organizing precept of Reddit. Minimal-wage employees capturing no-budget vignettes about their boring customer support jobs is a whole subgenre of TikTok. And neglect Dante and Randal making a film about their lives – would a Gen Z reincarnation of Kevin Smith even search out a movie profession nowadays, or would he soar straight into podcasting, which he would in all probability discover simply as profitable?

“Clerks III” is just not an awesome film, however it does make you understand what a miracle it was {that a} movie like “Clerks” may have ever had the impression that it did, and that it occurred to reach at maybe the one second in time when it may have. Typically life is what occurs whenever you’re not even imagined to be there that day.