“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”
This is a saying many of us relate to all too often. Hello, and welcome back to my nostalgic dungeon where I brew up some memories you probably don’t remember.
This week I’m remembering the timeless classic, Clerks.
Clerks was super geek Kevin Smith’s first and, some say, best film. It tells the story of a convenient store employee, Dante, who is called into work on his day off. A series of misfortunes follows, which continues to ruin his already disappointing day.
To begin, he gets to work to find gum jammed into the locks preventing him from opening the windows. This causes him to have to use the only resources he has available to make a sign stating they were open, shoe polish and a bed sheet. This spawned a recurring joke that he smelled of shoe polish. Then, he has to put up with his vulgar slacker of a best friend, Randal, who is seemingly incapable of taking anything seriously. It only gets worse from there, as his day continues to accumulate bad news.
I think what makes Clerks so great is its simplicity. It deals with characters that could easily be us and our friends, situations we could face and in some cases the reactions we’d have to those problems. Smith filmed the movie in black and white, not because it was artistic, but because it was cheaper than color stock. But that is what makes Clerks so good. It’s real. That’s a difficult thing to capture now days.
Smith made this film with the attitude of, “here it is, take it or leave it.” And luckily for him, and the rest of us, it was a brilliantly funny comedy that has been able to withstand the test of time.
Sure, there are a few things that really show the age of the movie. For instance, the video store next to the Quick Stop convenient store rented VHS tapes, and if that wasn’t enough, a joke is made about someone asking the dumb question for ice to put in their coffee. Iced coffee is the bomb!
Those little things aside, Clerks is still one of my favorite films, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Characters like Jay and Silent Bob show up in every one of Smith’s movies. Clerks remains, to this day, a classic comedy that everyone who has ever had a job should see.
Well, there you have it, this week’s Forgotten Favorite! Be sure to keep an eye open for the next installment coming your way.
