Writer, director and actor Kevin Smith recently returned to his roots with Clerks III. The summation of a trilogy rooted in his personal life gets meta with its plot, and now, critics are saying this works and is a sweet and poignant story for the masses.
Opinions on the project are making their way online today. William Bibbiani of The Wrap calls the movie nimble in his assessment. He says serious topics are allowed to be serious in the story, while whimsy is present elsewhere. Bibbiani also is displeased to a degree with the film’s finale during the credits. He says viewers will see it one of two ways, and, if they view it the second way, it undercuts all which has come before, and with Smith, one cannot really be sure of what is ultimately intended.
“[It] is either a profound attempt to completely demolish all cinematic pretense once and for all, or it’s a shockingly lazy attempt to give the film two very different final moments instead of actually committing to a single narrative decision. Frankly, with Smith, whose loosey-goosey filmmaking approach sometimes straddles between charming and half-assed, it’s hard to tell.”
For Andrew Barker of Variety, a similar view is in place. He says the project from Smith is meditative, much of the project is aimed straight for Smith’s core fanbase and regret and the passage of time have come to be core themes for the series. On the negative side of things, Barker argues one could make the case Smith has lost some of his ability as a writer, and, looking at the Clerks franchise today, much of what made it stand out when it opened in 1994 is quaint and out of touch in today’s culture.
“Time has almost been too kind to Clerks, in the sense that so many of the elements that once made it refreshing and unique are harder than ever to appreciate. The sight of grown men having arguments about Star Wars felt novel in 1994; now it’s basically the organizing principle of Reddit. Minimum-wage workers shooting no-budget vignettes about their customer service jobs is a subgenre of TikTok. And forget Dante and Randal making a movie about their lives – would a Gen Z Kevin Smith even seek out a film career these days, or would he jump straight into podcasting, which he would probably find just as lucrative?”
Though Barker and Bibbiani has positive things to say in their reviews, Mick LaSalle goes scorched earth with his. The writer for the San Francisco Chronicle calls the piece about as funny as a heart attack. He says the well of the series is dry, those invested in the series are so small a crowd now they are likely in the film itself and the only interesting bit is from Smith’s recent experiences.
“Smith himself had a heart attack in 2018, caused by the same blocked artery, so it’s interesting to watch the emergency room scene and know that you’re seeing a fictional rendering of a true experience. Alas, that’s the first and last event of any interest.”
Clerks III currently has a 69 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews. Jay would likely call that nice.
