I think I first stumbled upon Clerks working at the library while I was in high school, and I became glued into the world of Kevin Smith pretty quickly after that. The nonstop pop-culture-laced banter, the boldly risqué humor, the snarky attitude… his filmography was prime fodder for a sarcastic 16-year-old kid to latch onto. But even beyond the films, Kevin Smith is an entertainment draw within himself. Starting with his message board and blogs, then his Q&A DVD specials, and now with his ten thousand different podcasts, the man has been talking our ears off for decades now with his thoughts on movies, behind-the-scenes industry stories, and how his wife’s genitals still pwn his dick after all these years. He’s kind of a polarizing figure, both as a filmmaker and a public personality, in that there seem to be two vocal camps that either love or hate him. Even though I don’t love all his movies (some of them I pretty much hate), I find it impossible to not kind of like the guy. He’s an affable stage presence, and throughout his career, he’s always seemed relatively down-to-earth, free of any sort of pretension about who he is. And despite any feelings I have over the trajectory of his filmography, I feel like I have to give him a bit of a pass thanks to the strong nostalgia I have over his first collection of movies, dubbed the View Askewniverse.
The View Askewniverse was the name given to Smith’s original five films, as they all took place within the same canonical timeline in or around New Jersey, with interconnected characters being referenced or appearing throughout, the most prominent of which being those wacky weed dealers Jay and Silent Bob. Seemingly inspired by Smith’s love of comics and the ongoing continuity within, I guess that kind of also makes him a film world forefather to the MCU and all the other failed studio attempts to make cohesive cinematic universes. After Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith would leave his world behind to create other movies, but ended up circling back to his original characters for three more films in the twenty-one years since. Unlike a lot of his later work, these movies feel more personally connected to Smith, inspired by where he was or what was occupying his mind while making them. Clerks of course was filmed at the convenience store Smith worked in, with him speaking through the main characters about how much their jobs suck and how they wanted more out of life but didn’t quite know what, while Dogma is his attempt to grapple with his complicated feelings on being raised Catholic. His two latest returns to his original playground are easily his most autobiographical, with him musing openly about fatherhood, his own near-death experience, and looking back over his life and career as a whole.
Clerks III just finished its limited theatrical run, and Smith is currently on tour across the country showing the film and doing a Q&A afterward, as he’s done with his last couple movies. I’m reminded how excited I was to see Clerks II in the theater sixteen years ago (obligatory “I feel fucking old” comment here), and while I’m certainly nowhere near as excited about the third installment (evidenced by me passing on seeing it in the theater), I’m still at least a little interested in seeing Dante and Randal again, and how this “saga” is going to conclude. Smith’s filmography has gone through a lot of different twists and turns between these two movies, which is possibly fodder for an entirely different series of reviews (although I don’t know if I have the strength in me to actually watch Yoga Hosers…), but I thought it would be interesting to revisit the View Askewniverse movies and see how they fare after all these years, many of which I haven’t seen in a long time, and some I’ve only seen once back in high school. So every Thursday, I’ll be analyzing a new View Askew film (and one TV series) leading up to Clerks III, which I am banking on getting a December digital release so I can cover it before the year’s over. So will my nostalgia fuel continue to take hold, or will these movies suck 37 dicks? In a row? I guess we’ll find out.
October 6: Clerks (1994)
October 13: Mallrats (1995)
October 20: Chasing Amy (1997)
October 27: Dogma (1999)
November 3: Clerks: The Animated Series (2000)
November 10: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
November 17: Clerks II (2006)
December 1: Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
December ??: Clerks III (2022)
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Oh wow, I’m thrilled you decided to do this! 🙂
I was born in late 1981 so I was a a decade or so younger than Smith and his peers and I lived (and still live!) in Ireland so there was a bit more distance there, but even so ‘Clerks’ and ‘Mallrats’ really spoke to me when I discovered them in the late 1990s. I was facing the end of school and about to enter college and these films just spoke to me and my sense of rootlessness (I also look a little like Brian O’Halloran so I suppose that helped make Dante an identification figure for me.)
‘Chasing Amy’ didn’t hit quite as much for me – I liked the film but being terminally single it was harder to personally relate. ‘Dogma’ gave me complicated feelings given my own complex and changing background with Catholicism and religion.
I sort of drifted away from Kevin Smith after that (though I did see both ‘Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back’ and ‘Clerks II’ and I’ve read some of the comics which are honestly worth talking about.) I wasn’t really into the stoner element so Jay and Silent Bob minus Dante and Randal weren’t so much of a draw for me by themselves.
I have seen ‘Clerks III’ but I won’t say anything about it until you get to see and analyse it. Still really looking forward to hearing your views on them all!
Great to see you expanding your horizons. 😉