Dan M
Reviewer

      It’s hard to believe that a movie based on “The Inferno”, about two guys in a convenience store cracking dick and fart jokes, discussing the best film of the “Star Wars” Trilogy, and commenting on the sorry state that is their lives would become such a colossal film and spark the career of one of the most original directors in Hollywood. Kevin Smith’s debut film “Clerks” marked the beginning of a stunningly original blend of comedy and honesty centering on the plight of Generation X and the disenchantment most people feel when they’re trapped in inconsequential jobs that pay nothing and treat the employees as if they were scum.
 
      Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) wasn’t supposed to working today. Randall Graves (Jeff Anderson) does everything but work. Together, as a sort of odd pair of superheroes, the two ward off unruly customers, weeping funeral goers, nymphomaniac ex-girlfriends, and the ruse of drug dealing losers. And that’s all before closing time.
 
      The world that Smith creates must contain a mental institution because every single nutcase in the Asbury Park area walks into Dante’s store: there’s the egg trauma guy who spends day after day searching the dairy section for the perfect carton of eggs; there’s the Chewlie’s Gum representative who leads customers in a cigarette throwing assault on a “cancer Nazi;” but more importantly, there’s the infamous pair— Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively).
 
      As far as production value, it’s quite good considering it was made for $27,000. The timing is off in some of the cuts, and it’s pretty easy to tell when Smith and the View Askew universe had just grabbed passers-by to read a spot. The black and white stock combined with the “Grunge-era” soundtrack, including Alice in Chains and The Jesus Lizard, only adds to the disenchantment ambiance that Smith strives for.
 
      Smith’s vision of a small strip mall in New Jersey finds itself to be both humorous and disturbing. Sure, everyone laughs when Dante’s girlfriend reveals her sexual promiscuity or when Randall blatantly insults every customer that comes his way, but one can only imagine the pure torture living in this mundane life.
 
      There’s something to be said about a film whose most memorable scenes include two guys speeding away in their car from a funeral where they knocked the body out of the coffin or a hockey game up on the roof of the store. What is to be said? Who knows and who cares. “Clerks”: it’s better than “Navy Seals.”