Clerks

2.5/4

Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith

Rated R for Extensive Use of Extremely Explicit Sex-Related Dialogue

Imagine putting a sign the size of a billboard on the side of the store that says, "Yes, we're actually open."  And then everyone who comes into the store still asks, "Are you guys open?"

Experiencing this once would be funny.  Experiencing it all day long for a double shift at a convenience store would be torture.  It would try the patience of a saint to avoid screaming at the customers to read the damn sign.

Such is what happens to poor Dante (O'Halloran), a 22-year-old layabout with no direction in life and no real desire for anything except to get out.  But this is the least of his problems.  His girlfriend Veronica (Ghigliotti) is pressuring him to go to college and "make something of himself."  He has to cancel a hockey game with friends. Caitlin (Spoonauer), his high school flame who he still worships, is getting engaged to an "Asian guy with a degree in fine art."  Above all, he wasn't even supposed to be at work today.

Anyone who has ever worked in retail (or any other job that offers little pay and even less respect) will understand the trials, the tribulations and the absolute inanity of the life that Dante leads.  This is just one shift in his life, but you get the sense that every day is life this.  The specifics may be dramatically different (no two weirdo customers are exactly the same, however equally weird they may be), but the boredom and frustration are not.

While Dante feigns politeness under a mask of benign indifference (and vents his anger when no one is looking), that doesn't hold true for Randal (Anderson), his best buddy that runs the low rent Blockbuster wannabe next door.  Randal has no patience for professionalism or common decency (even by the low standards of his position).  He prefers hostility and sarcasm, verbally abusing and insulting anyone in his line of fire.  He does and says things that Dante would love to do if he wasn't such a doormat.

"Clerks" is like an early version of "Office Space."  The Mike Judge cult flick may be more professionally made and more targeted with its satire, but both films mine similar territory.  This is a cry for help for the unloved, not respected work drone who might as well be a robot (and knows it).  It's a angry fist of rage at being denied dignity by everyone from the customers to the unseen employer who treats him like a cash register.  And a plea for sanity against the never-ending parade of eccentrics and bizarre personalities that never show up except at convenience stores to pester people like Dante and Randal.

The story behind "Clerks" is in some ways more interesting than the film itself.  To finance the film, Kevin Smith sold most of his comic book collection, maxed out 8 out of his 10 credit cards, spent a sizable portion of his college fund, and used the insurance money Jason Mewes received after losing his car in a flood.  He worked at the convenience store during the day and shot the film at night, getting only an hour or so of sleep per day during the 21-day shoot.  But the hard work paid off, attracting the distributing power of Miramax, launching Kevin Smith's career and becoming a cult classic.

As impressed as I am at how Smith was able to mine this territory and pull this film off, "Clerks" is uneven.  The film's best moments are when Dante and Randal are dealing with their customers.  This material is frequently funny (sometimes explosively so).  But while the material dealing with Dante's love life is on-target in its presentation, it gets a little long in the tooth.  Watching a character dealing with their problems should be as interesting to us as it is to them.

Still, there's something kind of charming about this vulgar and insightful piece of guerrilla filmmaking.