![]() ![]() ![]() I was born in late 1981 so I was a a decade or so younger than Smith and his peers and I lived (and still live!) in Ireland so there was a bit more distance there, but even so ‘Clerks’ and ‘Mallrats’ really spoke to me when I discovered them in the late 1990s. Oh wow, I’m thrilled you decided to do this! □ November 10: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)ĭecember 1: Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) ![]() November 3: Clerks: The Animated Series (2000) So will my nostalgia fuel continue to take hold, or will these movies suck 37 dicks? In a row? I guess we’ll find out. So every Thursday, I’ll be analyzing a new View Askew film (and one TV series) leading up to Clerks III, which I am banking on getting a December digital release so I can cover it before the year’s over. Smith’s filmography has gone through a lot of different twists and turns between these two movies, which is possibly fodder for an entirely different series of reviews (although I don’t know if I have the strength in me to actually watch Yoga Hosers…), but I thought it would be interesting to revisit the View Askewniverse movies and see how they fare after all these years, a lot of which I haven’t seen in a long time, and some of which I’ve only seen once back in high school. I’m reminded how excited I was to see Clerks II in the theater sixteen years ago (obligatory “I feel fucking old” comment here), and while I’m certainly nowhere near as excited about the third installment (evidenced by me deciding to pass on seeing it in the theater), I’m still at least a little interested in seeing Dante and Randal again, and how this “saga” is going to conclude. His two latest returns to his original playground are easily his most autobiographical, with him musing openly about fatherhood, his own near-death experience, and looking back over his life and career as a whole.Ĭlerks III just finished its limited theatrical run, and Smith is currently on tour across the country showing the film and doing a Q&A afterward, as he’s done with his last couple movies. Clerks of course was filmed at Smith’s actual convenience store workplace, with him basically speaking through the main characters about how much their jobs suck and how they want more out of life but don’t quite know what, while Dogma is his attempt to grapple with his complicated feelings on being raised Catholic. Unlike a lot of his later work, these movies feel more personally connected to Smith, inspired by where he was or what was occupying his mind while making them. After Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith would leave his world behind to create other movies, but ended up circling back to his original characters for three more films in the twenty-one years since. Seemingly inspired by Smith’s love of comics and the ongoing continuity within, I guess that kind of also makes him a film world fore bearer to the MCU and all the other failed studio attempts to make cohesive cinematic universes. The View Askewniverse was the name given to Smith’s original five films, as they all took place within the same canonical timeline in or around New Jersey, with interconnected characters being referenced or appearing throughout, the most prominent of which being those wacky weed dealers Jay and Silent Bob. And despite any feelings I have over the trajectory of his filmography, I feel like I have to give him a bit of a pass thanks to the strong nostalgia I have over his first collection of movies, dubbed the View Askewniverse. He’s an affable stage presence, and throughout his career, has always seemed relatively down-to-earth, free of any sort of pretension about who he is. Even though I don’t love all his movies (some of them I pretty much hate), I find it impossible to not kind of like the guy. He’s kind of a polarizing figure, both as a filmmaker and a public personality, in that there seem to be two vocal camps that either love or hate him. Starting with his message board and blogs, then his Q&A DVD specials, and now with his ten thousand different podcasts, the man has been talking our ears off for decades now with his thoughts on movies, behind-the-scenes industry stories, and how his wife’s genitals still pwn his dick after all these years. But even beyond the films, Kevin Smith is an entertainment draw within himself. The nonstop pop-culture-laced banter, the boldly risqué humor, the snarky attitude… his filmography was prime fodder for a sarcastic 16-year-old kid to latch onto. I think I first stumbled upon Clerks working at the library while I was in high school, and I became glued into the world of Kevin Smith pretty quickly after that.
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