FormerlyDoh11

Clerks III is a strange beast. At times hilarious, at times monotonous, at times cringe inducing, at times dramatic, it's the ultimate mixed bag of a movie.

Kevin Smith's output since 2010 (and this is coming from someone who is a big fan of his) has been largely disappointing. His wit and humor that was razor sharp in the 90's-mid 2000's seemed to dissipate in the latter portion of his career.

So color me absolutely smitten when the first 20 minutes felt like vintage Smith. Randal, Dante, Elias, Jay and Silent Bob were back and felt like they never left. It felt like classic Clerks at the beginning of the film, as we listened to these people we know so well at this point resume their well honed and endlessly entertaining and very silly interactions.

Even Randal's heart attack (well known at this point from the trailers and Smith's various interviews before the film came out) is handled well as is Elias and Dante in the waiting room awaiting news on their friend.

The film takes a turn for the worse however when Randal, finding a new lease on life, decides to make a movie based on his life and it's basically an excuse to reshoot scenes from the original film with the actors as they are today. I like that Randal wants to make the most of his life, I just wish he would have done something else that was more original.

Most of the middle chapter of the movie is montage after montage of scenes as we know them, or behind the scenes commentary (that if you're familiar with the Clerks. Story is practically just a retelling of how decisions were made- like shooting in black and white, Jay not wanting to dance with anyone else around, etc.) with zero changes to them (other than the occasional remark on the situation from a character that's hit or miss).

This part of the film when they're recreating scenes or talking about the movie are boring and add nothing but fan/self indulgence for Smith to riff on his indie masterwork through extremely rose tinted nostalgic glasses.

However, there is a tense beating heart in Clerks III and there is an emotional subtext that is well set up before they start shooting the movie and when they finish shooting the movie that I wish would have been touched on more while they were actually making Randal's movie.

A brilliant scene in particular comes when Dante and Randal are shooting the salsa shark scene where Dante's real life struggles (which are a massive part of this film) come bubbling to the surface in the scene they're recreating. It's such a smart way to create conflict that it makes you angry that not more was done to capitalize on the opportunity Smith absolutely nails in this scene.

It's probably the most dramatic scene Smith has shot since the jail scene from Clerks II (and is not nearly as long), and it had me on the edge of my seat watching Brian O'Halloran's Dante just come unraveled in a tense confrontation with Randal.

Had there been more scenes like this where the character's real lives could have intersected more with the shooting of Randal's movie, Smith could have a meta classic on his hands.

Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Jason Mewes and Smith ease back into their roles as if they never left them. They've never been great actors, but they know these roles and there's no drop off in their performance from prior films (save for a couple of scenes with O'Halloran which I'll get to). For fans, it's a pleasure seeing the boys in action when the scenes are the characters actually interacting and not either talking about or recreating scenes from Clerks.

A subplot with Dante and wife Becky (Rosario Dawson) isn't handled well until the end of the film with O'Halloran's acting feeling contrived instead of heartfelt. In terms of original material, it's one of the few parts of the film that didn't work for me.

But the film does pack a powerful punch by the end of it (minus a self indulgent last couple of minutes). This is definitely Smith's darkest work in the Viewaskweniverse and the definitive ending of the Clerks films and it's actually touching even if it's incredibly depressing in some respects. It's a much more true to life ending in the vein of the original film as opposed to the fairytale ending of Clerks II (minus the ironically dark last shot of that film).

Smith does have great things to say about making the most with the time that's given to you and about friendship, but it gets too bogged down with self indulgence which is a shame because the potential was there for this to be up there with the "classic" Kevin Smith films.