CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 07/21/06

They're Still Not Even
Supposed to Be Here Today

By jason Davis

After an unsuccessful foray into the realm of PG-13, writer-director Kevin Smith returns to the hard R with all the sentiment of Jersey Girl fused to the vulgar comedy of the original Clerks for his first ever sequel.

Clerks II

Kevin Smith (also director)

Ten years after an emotionally exhausting day behind the Quick Stop cash register convinced Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) to change his life for the better, the pathological underachiever is finally set to re-create himself. With his clinging fiancé (Smith's wife, Jennifer Schwalback), Dante plans to leave Jersey for Florida, where his future father-in-law has promised him the management of a car wash. Alas, Dante's best buddy, the sarcastic Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) is on hand to insure doubt and confusion as to the ideal course of action and to facilitate another crisis of conscience for his pal. A structural revisiting of the original film, Clerks II juxtaposes the nostalgic attributes of a ten-year high school reunion with the humorous realization of self-actualization to create a moving and hilarious film.

The greatest strength of Clerks II rests in the characters of Dante and Randal. Brilliantly drawn in Smith's debut film, the sequel finds that although their places in the universe have changed, they are essentially in the same evolutionary ruts they occupied 10 years ago (12 years ago in real time). Dante appears to be getting on with growing up and undertaking adult responsibilities, while Randal is, as ever, coasting along on the inertia of his razor-sharp wit. Smith's ability to invert these perceptions through the course of the movie, creating a crisis that reverses Dante's original character trajectory while establishing a hitherto unimaginable vulnerability in Randal, is a testament to his skills in characterization.

Not content with undermining audience expectations in terms of the characters they've known for years, Smith spends much of the movie deploying a magician's sleight-of-hand with plot points. Comedic set-ups are dealt out, only to be subsumed by other plot developments, resulting in as much surprise as amusement when the earlier set-up is paid off. Interestingly enough, the film neatly traces the narrative path of the original Clerks, paralleling events like the rooftop hockey game, the funereal excursion, and the toilet necrophilia with similarly themed events to create a sense of déjà vu that raises expectations only to have Smith use the audience's memories as a springboard for more emotional moments. While the first film focused on the ennui of a life going nowhere, the sequel ponders the uncertainty of a life going somewhere and leaves nothing sacred in its wake.

Missing only the vocabulary-building intertitles of the first film, Clerks II captures the heart and humor of its forebear and presents an elegant development of the characters so close to Smith's heart. Lewd, crude, and capped with an unforgettable climax, Clerks II proves that Kevin Smith hasn't gone askew.

Clerks II

The Weinstein Company
Rated R; 97 min.

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Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and writes "TV Wasteland" for Cinescape.com. He lives and writes in Burbank.

Clerks II courtesy the Weinstein Company

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