(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Clerks)
Doug (vo): So there's been a little bit of talk about what movies perfectly capture the '90s. In my opinion, if you talk about a movie that captures it as a young boy, I'd probably say Mid 90s. But if you're looking for a film that captures it as a young man, that's definitely Clerks.
Story and review[]
Doug (vo): Clerks is a very low-stakes, all-nonsense movie about a clerk at a convenience store named Dante and a clerk at a video store named Randall just shooting the shit, talking about relationships, sex, movies, and if there's time, maybe doing their job. They encounter a bunch of colorful characters, both inside the store and outside the store. They either find trouble or trouble finds them. And there's an overall slacker attitude while wearing backwards hats and flannel shirts. It's about as '90s as you can get. But what made it stand out then and arguably still stand out now is the dialogue. Much like Pulp Fiction, this wasn't the first film to utilize dialogue that really sounds like how people talk or just discussing topics that aren't really important or move the story forward, but it is one of the few where it takes up the majority of the running time. Seeing how these characters talk about mundane things really defines them as characters. Heck, it kind of defines everybody as people. I mean, yes, talking about important stuff is important, but sometimes talking about not-important stuff and why it sometimes can be important to you can also really define who you are. These kinds of conversations are definitely the attitude, subject matter, and most of the time, verbiage people use when they talk in the '90s.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown)
Doug (vo): Yeah, okay, sometimes, the writing's a little too evolved for these people. In fact, once in a while, an actor or two doesn't really look like they know what they're saying. But because the film is so low-budget, you can tell they probably used some friends in the cast as well. It has a similar feel to the Peanuts Christmas special, you know, where it's about putting on a pageant, but the whole special itself kind of feels like a pageant, like, that's part of the point, I think. The fact that the stakes are so low in this movie should also reflect in the performances, which is not to say people are performing like they don't care much about acting, it's that they're playing people that don't care much about anything. There is talk about girlfriends and boyfriends and relationships and jobs and what they're going to do with their lives, but they're having these conversations just a little too late. It's not like things can't change and they can't do something really different, but they're thinking and talking about these things later than they should. Again, a very typical '90s trademark. At the center of it all are these likable characters that, as the trailer says, "Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you." There's certainly a nature of rebelling through doing nothing except when, out of nowhere, your energy just suddenly ramps up and you've got to do something, anything. I don't know, skateboard, listen to music outside, play a hockey game on the roof of the store, "Hey, want to go to a funeral?" I don't know, it's something to do. Most of the problems do come down to a lack of responsibility, but at the same time, we like watching them because there is still a little bit of responsibility. They do have jobs; they're just not very good at them. They are interested in having relationships, they just don't always know how to navigate them. And through all of it is a fair amount of very funny comedy.
(Footage focusing on the comedic moments is shown)
Doug (vo): This is a really good film to rewatch over and over because I swear to God, every time I show this film to someone—this includes me when I first saw it—I almost never laughed out loud. The dialogue goes so quick, and at the time, nobody was really talking that much about this kind of stuff or in this way, so the first time you watch it, you listen to it in like a hypnotic trance. It's kind of like ASMR of dumb people just talking about things that most of the time don't matter. But the when you watch the movie again, you know where some of the routines are going, where some of the lines are going to be and what some of the payoffs are. You start quoting them and you start laughing more with it. I think Kevin Smith himself has admitted he never quite made a film that stuck with people quite as well as this one did. And as his writing has gone on, it's focused maybe a little too much into geek culture stuff. Like, on the one hand, I respect that he's just being himself and talking about what he knows, but I like that there's really only one scene in here where they talk like that. They're talking about the Death Star and who is making it. There are no other moments like that, and because of it, that moment stands out more. It's so funny just hearing these two normal people talk about really anything and out of nowhere, they start discussing the contractors and plumbers that got killed when making the second Death Star. It's funnier because they do save it up, so when they start talking about it, it feels more random and you laugh harder at it. The movie's really good at not lying about what it is. There are moments where they really have to look at their lives and think about what they're doing and the choices they've made, but it never feels forced, it feels like they got there organically, like how these characters would reach these conclusions. In fact, they're not even really that solid conclusions, the ending is kind of open and it lets you decide what direction you think they're going to go in. That is, until the sequels. Yeah, I don't need to tell you the second one's pretty bad and I haven't seen the third one, but I actually heard it's okay, so maybe I'll check that out in the near future.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): But as this movie goes, it still really holds up. It holds up as a time capsule to the mid '90s, but it also works as a film for maybe young people not knowing where they're supposed to go in life. And yes, I feel like the problems of young people today are very different from the problems of young people in the '90s, but there are some things that are universal, too. And while I don't think this is a great film that taps into all that, it does still talk about it in a way that feels relatable, at least to someone that grew up in the '80s and '90s. And hell, if you didn't, I think you'll still like watching these people because they're just fun people to watch and listen to. Take what's left of the shoe polish and assure people this movie is still open for good business.
(A scene where Dante is sitting behind the counter is shown)