Clerks II: For Older, Wiser Slackers
More than anything – work, or growing up, or maturity, or relationships – this film is about friendship, about two best friends who are at a crossroads in their own lives and with each other. And when that dynamic is working, the film is spot on. Now let’s face it, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson were not master thespians in their first outing.
Here they have stepped up to the plate and turned in two solid and moving performances that sell you on a real relationship between these two people. They’re not just dialogue robots this time round. This is a “Clerks” movie with heart. I don’t know how women bond with each other, although television tells us it involves shopping and crying. Guy friends… we’re not much for expressing our feelings. When we do, it’s awkward. But awkward gold.
Revisiting “Clerks” is like a reunion with your best friend. As I watched “Clerks II” I thought of the time me and my best friend made a pilgrimage to see the actual Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey. And I smiled, because going to the Quick Stop is a happy thing.
It is a real joy to see the Quick Stop again, not that we see it much in this movie. But the film very cleverly starts us off in black and white; I got chills seeing the store in monochrome on the big screen for the first time in my life, and it was a nice way to welcome us back to the “Clerks” story.
If you love these characters as much as I do, you’ll love how the film wastes no time in getting Dante and Randal back together. I just enjoy being around them and listening to them talk. And, again, there’s a sense of a (platonic, of course) relationship between them. Our first scene in full color is a drive through New Jersey; Dante picks Randal up from his parents’ house, we can tell they’re older, we can see that they work the fast food counter at Mooby’s, we can tell this drive is a matter of routine for them. All told visually.
Indeed, given the crudity of the first “Clerks”, this film shines visually. (A surprise, given that “Mallrats” is about the ugliest movie ever made.) Smith and DP Dave Klein do their opening through a loping, sweeping tour of New Jersey that tells us everything we need to know about this quiet little area. There’s also a wonderfully shot scene at a go-kart track that truly conveys a sense of freedom and escape. Smith’s skill as an editor has also increased tenfold; scenes in which he intercuts between several locations at once, such as the dance sequence, are most effective.
And yet there’s always a certain grounding. There’s a nice moment when Dante and Randal are alone with no customers to serve, and a long and irrelevant conversation to have. So the camera settles into the classic “Clerks” stationary two shot.
And structurally, there’s so much that’s recognizable. The workday starts. We get a montage of setting up the store. Boy and girl come together and Dante paints her nails. A car ride marks the day-to-night transition. The workday ends. Yep, this is still “Clerks”.
The most obvious cinematic difference is the use of color. Black-and-white is employed at some very key locations, but yes, this is a color “Clerks” film. Sort of. The film seems desaturated; we know we are looking at a garish purple-and-yellow fast food place, but the colors are still faded and dying, and this not only suggests the monochrome look of the original, but puts us in mind of aging, just what our mid-thirties clerks are doing.
You might think that going to color, or completely changing what store the clerks work at, would be the biggest difference between the original and “II”. Believe it or not, you’d be wrong. I have trouble remembering a traditional Part II that was so relentlessly different from its original. This flick is based more in character than in dialogue; you come out not quoting lines, but remembering scenes. Indeed I was almost disappointed to not have so many quotable lines from this film. It has a traditional three-act structure rather than the meandering day of the first film, and it keeps the focus very tightly on the clerks and not on clerk-customer byplay; there actually may have been a larger cast in the first film than the second. Unlike the first film, this is not a movie about one’s job.
Let’s put it this way. If you thought “A New Hope” and “Empire” felt different, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
While we’re discussing “Star Wars”, the obligatory “Star Wars” discussion scene in this movie goes for a very long time and falls kind of flat. And the less said about a scene involving a donkey, the better. Long patches of unfunny material that don’t do much with the best parts of this movie, and it’s a shame. I’d gladly trade every second of the donkey for just a little more time of Dante and Randal confronting what their lives have become.
Or more of Rosario Dawson. An effervescent Dawson just about wipes the floor with every other leading lady in all the other movies in the theater. She is unfailingly charming and convincing as, not a Hollywood glamour goddess, but a real person you could actually see managing a burger joint in New Jersey. She never once overacts or condescends or hits a false note, and somehow this big Hollywood star comes across as no different than Dante and Randal’s usual crowd of Jersey folks. From the moment she arrives at the restaurant and waves to Dante and he waves back, you realize what a generous and giving actor she’s prepared to be for this film, and as a result creates no less than a stunning performance to treasure.
But ultimately it all comes down to Dante and Randal. The moments between them. The tension as the camera whips around them as they debate Dante’s next move with the women in his life. The long and sad scene in a jail cell where they finally come to terms with where their lives have gone, and not gone. And the ending, an ending I never could have predicted but should have, because it just makes sense on a real and moving level. It builds to one of my favorite closing shots of all time.
And when the spotlight is on this important aspect of the movie, it is unfailingly sincere, caring and thoughtful about the plight of the Gen-X slacker who’s now just the ambitionless loser working behind a cash register. Generation X grows up. God knows what my generation is in for. Or even just me. Gen-X slackers wore flannel and listened to CDs while they work at video stores; Gen-Y’s losers wear emo glasses and ringer shirts and compulsively reload MySpace while they work data entry. God help us all. But Kevin Smith understands.
It’s a real shame that there are so many subpar moments for a film with so many great ones. Stupid, unfunny donkey sex scene. Stupid, unfunny “Lord of the Rings” argument. Stupid, revolting “Pillow Pants” scene which apparently I’m the only one in America to not fall in love with.
I’m not even going to dwell on the bad stuff, it will be easy enough to skip on DVD. Because I’ll remember the moments I loved. When Elias and Randal dance behind, and on, the counter – that will stay with me as a great expression of the pure joy of goofing off at work, and I’ll remember all the fun times I’ve had doing the same. When Randal confesses in the car that he misses a time when things are simpler, my heart went out to him, because I know what it’s like.
The “porch monkeys” scene culminating in a brilliant victory for Randal that had my whole empty theater clapping. And that final shot… what a way to end a movie. The perfect characters in the perfect location with the perfect band playing. You hear the famous fact that Dante’s not even supposed to be there today, but in a new context, and you realize how much he’s grown.
All this and a naked Jason Mewes too.
I love the world of View Askew. I love these characters, this merry band of Gen-X slackers extraordinaire, and I’m so happy I got to spend another couple of hours with them, seeing how they’ve grown, and in some cases haven’t. I loved meeting their new friends Becky and Elias. I wish them all well in the future. I don’t think there’ll ever be a “Clerks III”, but don’t worry. In my heart, I know what they’re all getting up to.
