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Kevin Smith’s recent films have been divisive at best. While entries to his filmography like Tusk and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
have found their fan base, there are just as many people who feel that the movies are too self-indulgent for someone who is not, for lack of a better word, in on the joke to understand and enjoy. Clerks III does have some of those moments, however there are enough emotional moments across the movie to offset those.
Clerks III follows the continuing adventures of Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) after Randal suffers a heart attack and resolves to make a movie about his life with the help of Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith). Also returning from past movies are Trevor Fehrman as the ultra-religious Elias and Rosario Dawson as Becky, both from Clerks II, as well as Marilyn Ghigliotti as Veronica from Clerks, and a large catalog of cameos from across other View Askew movies, Comic Book Men, and other famous friends of Smith.
The movie is sort of divided into three clear narrative parts. That’s not to say others are not, however there are clear delineation points between the beginning focusing on Randal’s heart attack, the middle focusing on the The Disaster Artist-type dramatization about the making of “Inconvenience” (the in-movie title for Clerks, based on the original title of the screenplay), and the third act that is best experienced not knowing what it is. The first part goes on a little too long and some of the jokes and interactions, particularly with Elias (no fault of Fehrman) don’t land as well as they could have. If someone has heard the story of the heart attack on any number of podcasts Smith did in the aftermath in 2018, they know basically every aspect of this part of the story already. The same can be said for the second part about making Inconvenience, however the initial emotional hook and narrative drive of the film are not tied to that so it flows a little cleaner.
That said, the second part of the movie is where there is a large amount of tonal whiplash between scenes. On two separate occasions there are points where there is a scene of emotional weight that is bookended by a comedic scene without much of a buffer between them. O’Halloran gets a great opportunity to showcase his dramatic chops in this movie and he makes the most of these opportunities, however going from one scene where it is designed like a comedy (which the film is) to a scene doing the emotional heavy lifting for the narrative does not always flow properly.
That may seem like a lot of negatives, however much like the rest of Smith’s work when the moments hit, they hit well and for maximum impact. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments that vastly overshadow the low points. O’Halloran and Anderson have been playing off each other since 1994 and they slip right back into the roles as if they never stopped playing them. The cameos from the original cast members of Clerks returning for their original roles in recreations of original scenes with a twist also work for great comedic effect.
Having seen this movie once, it is possible that this review is swayed by the fact that the third act meshes so well with the rest of the movie, and the trilogy as a whole. Maybe had the third act not landed as well as it did on a first viewing it would have been a less enjoyable experience and maybe on subsequent viewings it will not land as well. That said, this movie is up there with Chasing Amy, Clerks, Mallrats, and Dogma as some of Smith’s best work and is definitely worth watching more than once. It is playing in theaters this weekend at Fathom Events participating theaters including Island 16 and the Regal Cinemas in both Ronkonkoma and Deer Park before a probable Blu-Ray and digital release on (based on Jay and Silent Bob Reboot) Amazon Prime.
Final Rating: 8/10
