Clerks 3

Red = Spoilers 

Clerks 3 is the third installment in Kevin Smith’s premiere movie “Clerks”. It’s a movie about making a movie. And it’s really meta the way Kevin Smith made this movie. It’s an installment of Clerks, about making the first Clerks movie. And all of the actors from the original movie are all 30 years older than they were in the original, and you know what they looked like in the original, and it’s just crazy to see them now. 

What’s it about? After an introduction and a segment that shows the guys are living a happy life and going about business as usual, we go inside the Quick Stop and meet Elias from Clerks 2. His character is great in this movie. After some usual Kevin Smith-like banter, Randall has a heartattack and is rushed to the hospital. After surviving he feels his life has been wasted and decides to make a movie. Dante puts his half of the Quick Stop up as collateral to his ex-fiance Becky to borrow $30,000 to give to Randall to make his movie. After they finish making it, Randall and Dante get into a huge fight and refuse to be friends anymore when Dante suddenly has a heart attack and falls to the floor and has to be rushed to the hospital as well. Randall edits the movie they made with Dante as the main character and takes it to him to watch. As they’re watching it, Dante dies as Randall yells for help. 

What’s good? I think the acting is fantastic from everybody. The best part of the movie is the acting. It’s flawless. It’s just a well-made movie, all around. 

What’s bad? It does seem to kind of drag on a little bit in the middle. You find yourself looking at the clock like “how long has this been going?” It’s not boring, it’s just kind of slow, I guess.

The acting? Just great acting from everyone. Energetic and emotional. Dante’s speech at the end is haunting. And Elias having his face painted and his hair done and keeping a straight face the entire time is incredible. 

The effects? There’s not really any effects. Just some light camera work and editing but there’s nothing that really counts as effects. 

It’s really meta. It’s so meta how they’re making a movie about the movie that they’re in. It’s a great idea. And to use all the old actors and make the old scenes new scenes the way they did it, it’s just a very creative script in the way that it’s put together. 

It’s a downer. It’s such a downer. Becky is dead, Dante dies, Randall has that heart attack in the beginning, the whole movie is one big down note. I mean, not really, it’s actually a very funny comedy, but it’s just got a whole lot of down notes in it. 

Elias. Elias’s character is hilarious in this movie. Not necessarily in the things that he says, just in the way that he’s there. He’s always painted up, and he has his hair done up somehow, and he’s got claws or something, and he never recognizes it. And he stands there with a completely straight face and just goes on and interacts with everyone like everything’s normal. It’s the funniest thing.  

Jay and Silent Bob. Jay and Silent Bob are more or less annoying in this movie. Although, I always thought, over time, Jay and Silent Bob became more and more exaggerated caricatures of themselves anyway.  

Silent Bob’s explanation. Silent Bob’s explanation of why he wanted to shoot it in black and white is a little-known secret that he’s been trying to put into the know for a long time. People have always wondered why Clerks was in black and white, and so few people know the actual reason. 

Kevin Smith at the end. Another admission he’s probably been wanting to get off his chest and out into the general public. A filmmaker’s true vision can never truly be recorded with a camera. You’re never going to see what they see. You’re never going to get the idea that they had. The closest you’re going to get is what you can shoot and what you can edit. That’s how he saw Clerks, and now you get to see it almost as close as he saw it. 

So, yeah. Go and see Clerks 3. It’s a great close to the Clerks trilogy. It’s the best movie about convenience stores I’ve seen in 30 years. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…