Clerks II, Me and Steve (SPOILERS BELOW)

After getting phone calls, emails, and in person questions, I finally saw Clerks II on Sunday. Apparently you all expected me to be there midnight on Thursday but alas I’m too damn responsible to skip out on my last week of work. Nevertheless, I made my way to the multiplex in my new-old home of Minneapolis on Sunday to catch the flick. Two days later, my head is still spinning.

I never thought that Clerks II would reach me the same way the original did. As I’ve written about before, Clerks made a huge impact on my life and spoke to me in a way that no film had done before. It gave me a career path as I changed my major to film and it was the first time I felt like my generation had a voice. Going into Clerks II my expectation was not to come across another life changing celluloid moment but rather a vulgar entertaining comedy. Instead I got a film where it seemed Kevin Smith had crawled inside my 32 year old head, cribbed notes from my life and as such created a piece of work that deeply affected me. Before I get too deep into the personal connection I felt, let me hit on the production of the flick itself.

Clerks II is funny as hell but not at the expense of the story. In Clerks, the plot or what there was of it, was secondary to the dialogue and jokes and here it’s the other way around. Sure there’s the trademark Smith dialogue but it’s all there to support and flow the story. There was also a lot of talk before the flick about it getting an NC-17 but I just don’t see it. Sure there’s some stuff people might find lewd and offensive and you shouldn’t take a 10 year old kid to it as someone did at my screening, but overall I’d say this was way tamer then expected. The pacing is tight and Smith once again self edits his way to success including a nice red herring in the beginning of the movie that’s a great wink to fans of the original.

Visually this is hands down one of Smith’s best efforts. The washed out color that permeates the flick goes hand in hand with the washed out lives the characters lead. Ratface, Smith’s longtime art designer, has topped himself again with Mooby’s. Let’s just say they’ll be plenty of freezing images when watching this on DVD to catch all the menu items and names.

I always think Smith gets the best out of actors (see Affleck, Ben) and Clerks II continues the trend. I’ve been indifferent to Rosario Dawson and even found her slightly annoying in Sin City but my god does she nail this role. I’ve always held that there are certain people who can deliver certain types of dialogue. Dawson instantly joins the group of people that are born to speak Smith’s words along with Jason Lee, Affleck, Jeff Anderson, and Jay Mewes.

Okay, so obviously I can recommend the film based on all of the above but again I truly fell for Clerks II because it hit me at the right place at the right time. The backbone of all of Smith’s films have been exploring relationships, particularly that of male heterosexual best friends. Watching the interaction between Randall and Dante really hit home for me. In fact, in the film, the two of them have two almost identical conversations that I’ve had with my best friend Steve in regards to my upcoming move. Like Dante in the movie, I’m preparing to leave Madison and my best friend in the next few days. (Unfortunately for me my life doesn’t totally imitate art as I don’t have 2 beautiful ladies fighting over me like Dante.) Like Dante and Randall, Steve and I have a friendship that’s extended into the work arena. I met Steve shortly after college at a home shopping channel and the 2 of us have been friends and collaborated on films and videos ever since. We have accomplished an admittedly tiny body of completed work but like Randall says in Clerks II, “I can’t think of anything better then spending time working at something I enjoy while hanging with my best friend.” That’s what I’ve been able to do for the last 9 years more or less. Now Steve and I are hanging up our movie making bootstraps for the most part. He’s found an amazing lady to settle down with and I’m heading towards Minneapolis to be closer to family and friends, and to try and construct a fuller life for myself. Watching Clerks II helped me understand why Steve feels a bit like I’m deserting him by moving and forced me to admit to myself (and Steve if he’s reading) that I have some desertion feelings of my own as he starts a life with his fiancée. To top it off I’ve been going through a bit of a career crisis of my own where as Steve has found a pretty sweet gig that he enjoys for the most part. Unlike the film we don’t have rich Jesus loving drug dealers that are going to step in at the last second and fix everything so instead we’re going to have to adapt as our lives change. Clerks II is always going to be a film I treasure as it will always remind me of the amazing friendship and period of time I spent with Steve these past ten years and hopefully it will be a checkpoint to look back on as our friendship grows and evolves.

Steve if you’re reading this I hope:
A) You heeded the spoiler warning and waited until you saw the movie

B) Know that I love you…in a completely heterosexual way

And

C) You don’t get me a donkey for a going away party.