Clerks II is great. But I’m a Kevin Smith fan. Who isn’t? One week I forewent sleep to watch those speeches he gave at colleges. I like him because:
- He doesn’t take himself seriously
- He makes movies with flaws and they’re still good
- He doesn’t let anyone mess with his vision
Better than Kevin Smith is my Secret Boyfriend who is also proving to be better than even my Imaginary Boyfriend. I’ll discuss later. But for now let me say that he hooked me up with my own personal screening of Clerks II. Damn, he’s good.
So, without ruining anything for those of you without special Princess treatment at the hands of a Secret Boyfriend, I’ll tell just a very little bit about Clerks II. First, the soundtrack is fabulous. The opening song is The Talking Heads, (Nothing But) Flowers and it just gets better.
Second, you don’t have to like Clerks to enjoy this (although, I think you should see it). I’m the first person to say that Brian O’Halloran (Dante Hicks) was not such a good actor in Clerks. Oh, how can we forget the wooden “I’m not even suppose to be here today?” But he is so much better. I mean, he’s great. As is Jeff Anderson (Randal Graves). Proving that we really do get better with age.
This movie has a high school reunion familiarity to it. The guys are a little puffier. Their angst is more depressive. And their choices have more importance. The dialogue is sharper and the story raises the stakes at every moment without missing any opportunities for goofy jokes and geek debates. (“There’s only one trilogy, you fucking morons”)
Kevin Smith’s movies appeal to me for lots of reasons, specifically I enjoy his particular brand of sentimentality. Loyalty figures heavy in his flicks. Loyalty to friends, to New Jersey, to old jokes, to actors – sure, I love Mewes, who doesn’t? His wife is in the movie and she doesn’t wreck it – no, really, she’s good. Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, and Wanda Sykes have hilarious cameos. Wanda’s actually brought me to tears.
It’s all around good fun.
And on to the Secret Boyfriend vs. Imaginary Boyfriend distinction, because I said I would. My Imaginary Boyfriend only exists in my mind, hence the nomenclature. He is usually evoked when someone does something idiotic in the dating realm – as in “my Imaginary Boyfriend would never do that.” My Secret Boyfriend exists. In reality. No kidding. But his fabulousness is no one’s business but mine (shh, secret).
Bunche said,
October 20, 2006 at 3:31 am
Having seen all of Kevin Smith’s films and enjoyed all but two of them, I’m surprised to find that CLERKS II has ended up being my favorite. I recently sat through the original CLERKS and was fascinated to see just how much Smith’s work has improved; admittedly, the original has all of the earmarks of a first film, but if you set aside the inevitable DIY aspect of it, the film is funny as hell. As a metalhead, I find the sequence with the Russian guy doing “Berserker” downright hilarious.
But CLERKS II has exactly what all of Smith’s other films have lacked — most noticably the horrendous JERSEY GIRL — and that’s a real heart amidst the raunchy fun. All of the points that you make about its appeal are right on the nose, and I have to give it up to Rosario Dawson, a hot true-life comic book geek-girl who charmingly acted rings around the rest of the cast and wore those dorky glasses to great effect. After seeing her in that rather hot sex scene in ALEXANDER, I’ve had a hard time seeing her in anything without picturing her in her birthday suit, but all thoughts of that didn’t enter my head during CLERKS II because she played a fun, cool, and genuinely sweet woman that any guy would be insnae not to fall hopelessly in love with.
Skith fan though I may be, I hated his critically acclaimed attempt at a romance flick, namely CHASING AMY, because I didn’t give a damn about the characters, and was annoyed by Smith’s appproach to writing lesbians; I’m whatever the lesbian analog of a fag hag is, and I can tell you unequivocally that Smith didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. In CLERKS II he makes up for his ludicrous lapses in romantic scripting during CHASING AMY in spades.
And I have to say that Randall Graves was my favorite thing about CLERKS, and once again he steals the film; the stiffly upraised “Eff You!” debate to the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy is a show stopper, to say nothing of Randall’s horrified reaction to finding out about “Pillowpants.”
Discouragement Kitten said,
October 20, 2006 at 10:16 am
I have lots of secret boyfriends.
julieluongo said,
October 20, 2006 at 1:25 pm
The question is, are they still secret boyfriends if we talk about them? Or is it the secret that they, the boyfriends, don’t know about it?
Discouragement Kitten said,
October 20, 2006 at 2:24 pm
The rule of thumb pertaining to secret boyfriends – everyone but the secret boyfriend may know – male and female friends.
julieluongo said,
October 20, 2006 at 2:36 pm
I’ve blown it then. I can’t keep my own secrets. I’ll keep someone else’s though. No problemo. But it’s usually because I forget them.
Discouragement Kitten said,
October 20, 2006 at 2:40 pm
That’s OK – there’s always the next secret boyfriend.
The Actual Secret Boyfriend said,
October 20, 2006 at 2:59 pm
“Next secret boyfriend?” Not if I have anything to say about it…
julieluongo said,
October 20, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Doh.
P. Cunningham said,
October 20, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Don’t feel badly, Jules. I know you’re a good secret keeper. Why, you never told Sonia that I liked her.
Of course, you may not have know … especially since I think it was Jenn whom I revealed that, too.
D’oh!
Moral of the story: We both suck at secrets.
julieluongo said,
October 20, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Oh, yeah. You were crushing on her. I did know that. I just forgot I knew.
julieluongo said,
October 20, 2006 at 8:14 pm
P.S. Sonia reads my blog. (Doh, again.)
Jenn said,
October 21, 2006 at 11:57 am
Yep, I did know. Phil had no secrets from me – it was the power of the magic tea cabinet and our trips to the grocery store.