Clerks II (dir. Kevin Smith, 2006)
So we’re back to where we began in 1994. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) are now 12 years older, but their job situation isn’t too much better. The film is about their romantic lives, but more than that, it’s about their friendship. These are men in their 30s now, staring down a dead-end life, working as nametag jockeys at a fast food joint. Dante may have an out with a bitchy fiancee (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Smith’s wife), but she’s very, very keen to leave New Jersey, and Dante is still kind of a wimpy homeboy. He loves his fiancee, but he has better chemistry with his really pretty co-worker Becky (Rosario Dawson).
Dante is a better man. He seems more assertive, but calmer. Nicer. Randall, now in his 30s, can no longer be taken seriously by younger folks, making him seem cranky rather than feisty. Although he does get a chance to lambast the relatively recent fanboy explosion over Lord of the Rings. “There is only one ‘Return,’ my friends. And it’s not ‘of the King,’ it’s ‘of the Jedi!’” He is now an old-guard geek. A generation has passed. Even Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) are cleaner. They still deal drugs, but they no longer partake of it themselves.
There are the usual romantic misunderstandings and revelations in Clerks II, but this is more about leaving and changing and growing up. Kevin Smith seems reluctant to give up his characters, and feels melancholy about it. Indeed, melancholy seems to be the dominant tone over Clerks II. Saying goodbye. Graduating. Fear of stagnation. Of getting stuck. Well, even though there is a scene where a man has sex with a donkey. That happens in the film.
I don’t want to reveal what happens in the romantic plots, but there is something of a triangle between Dante and his fiancee and Becky; I guess Caitlin and Veronica are long gone. I will say that Randall finally gets to speak up, and the relationship between these two men is really what drives to movie forward. Randall feels abandoned, and Dante is, once again, allowing fate to steer his course. But what happens at the end is a codifying mark on what the entire Askewniverse has been pointing to, and what Smith is saying about himself. I’m going to spoil the ending here: Dante and Randall, after some brief consideration, buy the QuickStop convenience store where they worked 12 years ago, and make it their lives.
This may sound sad and Sisyphean on paper, but it’s actually a celebration. The thing you may be trying to escape may actually be the definition of your life. It may, indeed, be what brought you comfort and happiness. The life at the QuickStop seemed horrible in 1994, but now Dante and Randall can call the shots. This is a film about looking around, and deciding to take charge of what’s around you rather than fleeing it. It takes strength to continue, Smith says, and what some may judge to be a life of creative stagnation may actually be a dream come true. It’s not a prison. It’s freedom and comfort. In the Camus sense, they made their rock “their thing.” But without the staid bitterness of Camus.
As I said, there is a Clerks III in the pipeline, which I look forward to, although it seems like Clerks II was the last word on the matter. But, as with Linklater’s Midnight films, Smith may eventually use Jay and Silent Bob to make continuous comments on his own age. What’s funny and charming in your 20s is not so charming in your 30s. Or 40s. Smith turned 43 this year. Jason Mewes is 39, and has been sober for years. What happens to a hipster deferred? Turns out he makes funny, dirty movies. If you’re in college, seek out Clerks immediately, and see all the Askewniverse films in order. They’re for you. You will be a fan. In a way, it’s hard not to be.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
