Clerks II (2006, Kevin Smith)

When it comes to my slavish reverence for comedy-- my Achille's Heel genre for a number of years at this point-- my softest spot is for Kevin Smith, he of fanboys so devoted that it's almost funny to see characters voice his anti-fanboy rants. He's comparable to my other soft spot, Judd Apatow (hi, I'm Drew, the only blogger who actually enjoyed Drillbit Taylor), in that both limit themselves to very specific casts, crews, and demographics, and have an affinity for blending sentiment with weiner jokes. More to the point, Smith and Apatow aren't particularly accomplished directors, in the visual sense, and that's not necessarily a knock: they both write potent dialogue delivered by (mostly) funny people, and movie magic for them is pointing the camera and watching it happen. So, given my avowed Apatow devotion, I suppose you kinda could've predicted that I'd be a K-Smith fan (or apologist, given how you feel about the man)-- not of the rabid variety, but yeah, I own 'em all (well, okay, not Jersey Girl, or that animated "Clerks" set), and don't find it too trying to go back to the well with mild frequency.

That being said, I've been mulling it over, and I think there's a chance Clerks II is Smith's best. Revisiting his 1994 little-picture-that-could, Smith avoids total redux by at least changing locales (the Quick Stop has burned down, and Dante and Randal have taken to being snarky and having their pop-culture-laced back-and-forths behind the counter at their local Mooby's) and sprucing up the cast a bit (welcome new additions include Trevor Fehrman's priceless evangelical Transformers fan Elias and a glowing Rosario Dawson as manager Becky). Early on, the movie proves itself to be quite funny. Jeff Anderson's Randal's screwup snark, presumably honed by 12 years of being snarky and screwing up, remains as glib and bawdy as ever, his penchant for ratatat vulgarity and sacred-cow screeds the high point of most of this movie's guffaws. Elias, too, is a singular comic creation, a soft-spoken, chaste, lovable nerd who, as performed by Fehrman, hits every note perfectly. (One could wish for more screen time, though.) Meanwhile, as the belly laughs continue out front, Dante (Brian O'Halloran, still a charmingly clunky actor) and Becky gab wistfully over a toenail-painting session. You see, it's Dante's last day before he leaves for Florida and a complacent existence with his dream-girl fiancee, but there's more than meets the eye with Becky and blah blah blah.

I know it all sounds pretty standard-issue, and it is, really. When it came out, Clerks II left a lot of people talking about it's startling emotional heft, which makes me wonder: have people really forgotten about Chasing Amy already? But Smith blends pretty seamlessly here. There's an endless parade of vulgarity, lots of Jay and Silent Bob doing their Jay and Silent Bob thing, obligatory screeds on pop culture (delivered by characters that are obvious mouthpieces for Smith's personal views), and a few cameos. But there's also an impeccably directed musical number smack in the middle, and near the end, the film's foulest, vilest scene (it involves a donkey) arrives sandwiched between two that go directly for the gut. It's an interesting mix, and that Smith managed to pull it off while making a really valid point about the horrors of aging is nothing if not impressive.

The humor kills-- during the first half of the movie, jokes arrive at metronome-precise intervals, and always hit like a perfect cymbal crash. The rhythm of Smith's comedic dialogue really hasn't been this good since the first Clerks, and part deux lands punchlines like waves on the Jersey shore (my personal favorite is the oblivious Randal's "porch monkey" faux pax, as much for the dumbfounded looks of everyone involved as for the actual verbal content).

But the drama works too. O'Halloran rarely sells it, but he lands a knockout punch right before the aforementioned musical number (set to the Jackson's "ABC", of course), in a perfect shot that manages to show him falling in love without, amazingly, telling us through expository dialogue. Rosario, of course, can sell anything; ostensibly, she's above the material, but she's got a natural screen presence and she positively glows throughout the film. Surprisingly, some of the film's heft comes from Anderson as the sarcastic, guarded Randal-- there's a scene near the end that, improbably, comes out pitch-perfect, because Anderson plays it so well. He's actually kind of wonderful in this, so attuned with the film's flippancy _and_ sentiment that he kinda carries it at times.

The film missteps, of course. Again, O'Halloran is hardly a master thespian, but I understand that there's a film-school-buddy chemistry there that's needed for the picture to succeed (well, that and you can't really replace the main character without looking at least a little bit retarded). But Jennifer Schwalbach? Smith again casts his wife (she had a role in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), but this time in a far more crucial role: Dante's meal-ticket fiancee Emma. I understand the necessity for Smith to make his films with people he likes, but really, there had to be someone else in his repertory that he could've snagged for this role. What, was Joey Lauren Adams at a Jennifer Tilly soundalike convention?

But small potatoes. Clerks II is Smith's most accomplished movie-- the gravity of 30s angst hits hard, all the jokes make their mark, and at the end of the day it's a tremendous little feel-good comedy. There's a real heart inside this coarse little picture, and Smith and Company coax it out with relative ease.

Rating: **** (out of five)