Clerks : Les Employés modèles

Clerks (1994)

**** (out of 4)

Kevin Smith's cult classic about a two store clerks (Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson) who have nothing to do except be bored and deal the cards life gives them. It's hard to believe this film is now fourteen-years-old as it seems just like yesterday when it made a splash on the indie circuit. This was my first time watching this in at least six or seven years and it hasn't lost any of its magic. I still think Smith hit on something truly great in the fact that he manages to take this type of job and show all the hassles and frustration that comes with it. I believe it was Roger Ebert's review that mentioned movies never deal with jobs unless the job is that of a cop, robber or something like that yet here we get to see the life of a clerk who is stuck at a job he hates and surrounded by people that can't really add too much to his life. The real key here of course is Smith's screenplay, which I'd call downright brilliant. To have 90-minutes of nothing but dialogue speaks a lot for his screenplay as it remains so constantly entertaining with the majority of the jokes working. The politically incorrect nature of the humor from the "37" to various other sexual things is downright hilarious and that includes the surprise in the bathroom. The performances in the film have taken a lot of unfair heat in my opinion because while they aren't perfect I do think they fit the roles just fine and mixed with the B&W it makes the film seem all the more like a documentary.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Kevin Smith started his popular Jay and Silent Bob series with Clerks., a $50,000 film whose soundtrack cost more than the actual movie cost to make. It's poorly done, it's monochromatic (which actually works to its advantage), it's cheap, but it's funny, and that's all that really counts. The story is more than I thought it would be, and it's continuously funny throughout the whole short runtime. Many of the crude adventures of Dante and Randal are now legendary.

Dante (Brian O'Halloran) works at the Quick Stop convenience store. He's called in on a day off. His friend Randal (Jeff Anderson) works next door at a video store, but sporadically closes it to hang out at the Quick Stop. Throughout the day, various things occur, such as a gum representative trying to get people to stop smoking and chew his gum, a rabbi using the employee's bathroom (with an unexpected twist at the end), disrupting a wake, and the now-classic scene at the video store with "Happy Scrappy Hero Pup".

This movie has non-stop humor going for it. Whether it's Dante's or Randal's confrontations with the unruly customers (who seem over-the-top yet regular), their conversations about nothing (especially Star Wars), or their departures from their respective stores to play hockey or whatnot. I can see that Clerks. is to minimum wage earners as Office Space is to office workers. Dante's always a little timid when it comes to dealing with the unruly customers, but when Randal takes the stage, it's a lot funnier.

Although the parts about Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) and Cairlin (Lisa Spoonhauer) weren't that interesting (except for the 36...make that 37 people), they were necessary, and seemed to create a plot out of this, basically, sketch comedy. It succeeded, and turned it into a great all around film. Most of these people had never acted before, and although it does seem like they're just reciting their lines (there's almost no break in between the dialogue), they do a good job at it. Sometimes it seems a little too scripted (for voice and diction, etc.), but for a bunch of first-timers, it's not bad at all.

Considering the rest of the series (besides Mallrats, which I haven't seen), I'd say Clerks. is close with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for the funniest Kevin Smith movie. They're also the two crudest, and the first and last in the series, respectively. But Clerks. will always stay as it was when it was released 10 years ago-revolutionary. It showed that money and action aren't important to make a movie funny.

My rating: 8/10

Rated R for extensive use of extremely explicit sex-related dialogue.

This movie completely and perfectly describes the details of over the counter life as a clerk! It is one of the funniest movies i have ever seen.Kevin Smith is a very talented and insightful director with a great since of humor.The movie does look very cheesy and low budget, but a little movie trivia, Kevin Smith sold his comic book collection to fund this movie. Then after the movie became a hit he bought his comic books back! I currently work for blockbuster video and life is exactly like this movie! Thanks to this movie some of us are thinking about holding a hockey game on the roof of the store when we quit!I recommend this movie to every person who works as a clerk in a convenience store, or in a video store. This movie for those who don't work in mediocre place such as this will explain to you why we are the way we are!

If you have seen American Pie and think of it as being honest and real about sex and the way kids talk, then Clerks is right up your alley. I don't think a movie has pleasantly shocked me more than this one has. And make no mistake about it, this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

By now we've all heard the story of how Kevin Smith somehow scrounged up $27000 to piece this rag tag film together. It was at a film festival and some film executive saw it and offered him a generous amount of money. They fixed it up and before you know it we have the best indie film ever made. Kevin Smith is now a recognizable name in Hollywood and that alone should make you want to see this film.

Dante and Randal are best friends. They work at a small convenience store and a crappy little video store respectively. As a matter a fact, the video store is so inept that Randall actually goes to one of the bigger video stores in town to rent his movies. Anyway, Dante is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend that cheated on him and he has a present girlfriend that is wonderful to him. That is the basic premise for the movie. And that is all you need to know about the plot. Because what the film is really about is how these characters really talk to each other. It is a bunch of clever anecdotes pieced together hilariously to form a movie. But some of the scenes are just so damn funny that Clerks stays with you for a long long time.

Take for instance a scene where Dante and his girlfriend are discussing the various responsibilities of a man and a woman in sex. Each has an obvious gender biased view of the act but listen to how honest it is written, it gives meaning and much hilarity to the scene. From here, the two end up discussing how many people the other has slept with. And we all know that is an absolute no no in relationships. Because no matter how many or how little the number is, it is too much. But that would be too easy for Smith to end it at that. No, he takes it a step further. From here Veronica ( the girlfriend ) explains that she has only slept with X amount of guys but she has gone down on 36 others. Dante is mortified. How can she do that? And she explains that when she "does it" it means more than when she goes down and that is supposed to make him feel better. It of course doesn't and the pay off in the scene is brilliant as Veronica is walking back to her car. And that is just one of the scenes that makes the film work. There are dozens of other scenes similar in nature that are so humourous yet painfully honest that you laugh but when the giggles subside, you realize that it is so true.

The obvious strength of this film is the writing. But beyond that, Smith establishes himself as a director that can get a performance out of his actors. Almost every major character in here is so well done that you think they had 20 attempts to get it perfect instead of the 3 or 4 that the budget would allow. Dante is well played by O'Halloran but it is Anderson as Randle that I think steels the picture. He is so honest and natural in every scene that he is in that it actually bothers me that he has not established himself in the game. Is it because no one wants to give him a role or is it that he has no interest in movies? I don't know, I just wish he was around again because he is electric.

Jay and Silent Bob are funny as well and Bob provides the film with one of the funnier moments as he dances out of nowhere and then he shocks us with his only line of the film. And what he says may as well be Socrates talking and not a simple street hood. It really works.

I love Clerks. It is such a fun movie and if you haven't seen this gem, check it out. Like it for the funny film that it is, but love it for whats behind it.

This film has heart. And Smith is an inspiration to anyone that wants to do what he did. After all, he proves that nothing is impossible. He is living proof of that.

Funny, fast paced story of an assortment of pathetic losers, their dreams, girlfriends, and go nowhere lives. I laughed all the way through at the give and take between the two lead characters and their stupid friends and lovers. Both intelligent, sometimes even sagely; the two men lead lives of loneliness and boredom leading to a careless attitude about their jobs which, in time, will become their position on all things unless they choose to reverse the course they are following. I was groaning with glee as the store clerk had it out with his lady friend over how many men she had fellatio with. I liked the way the film was broken up into titled parts, each comprising a small story within the tale. Zany, well worth the price of entry.