Kevin Smith's Clerks 'steeped in narrative'

Now's your chance to catch Clerks, winner of awards at both the 1994 Sundance and Cannes Film festivals, playing this weekend in the UC Auditorium.

Clerks' claim to fame is it was made for barely over $27,000, which sounds like a lot of bucks, but in movie-talk, translates into "beans." It's black and white, and doesn't use a lot of fancy camera work, but writer and director Kevin Smith makes the most out of dialogue and zany characters. The setting is Quick Stop groceries (where else could you find more zany characters?) where main guy Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) is forced to come into work on his day off. He's bitter, he's grumbly, and all the customers are weird, including his buddy Randal (Jeff Anderson) who works at the video store next door. The main action of the film surrounds the traffic of zany customers and Dante's and Randal's sometimes-philosophical conversations, which are also sometimes unbelievable, but such good and entertaining dialogue is easily forgivable. This is a Quick Stop in New Jersey, after all, and how realistic does it have to be? ("It's a movie!" my roommate screams.)

"[Dante's and Randal's] discussions were a way to get it across to people that just because you're jockeying a register doesn't mean you're a complete buffoon or a total idiot," Smith said. (Remember that, people, next time you stop in at Granny Greve or the nearby Texaco, okay?)

Smith manages to make a film that represents our age group (whatever catch-all name you want to give it) without being insulting. Clerks is also steeped in narrative, which is so lacking in some films these days, you know? Sometimes you just want to see a film where you like the characters, they make you laugh, they tell you a story or two, and you leave feeling satisfied. For a buck (if yer a student), you can get that with Clerks on the big screen.

Take note:Clerks was enough of a success to allow Smith to make another film, this one called Mall Rats. It's the second in a planned trilogy that Clerks began and stars Shannen Doherty (as a mall rat?), plus skateboard champion Jason Lee and Marvel comics creator Stan Lee (playing himself). Mall Rats is set for release on Oct. 20.