Bizarre are the cinematic universes. It is possible, for example, to enjoy any single film in MCU but seriously who would love 21st movie in that particular franchise without watching any of the others? Without seeing approximately 20 other films ahead of it, Avengers: Endgame will most likely seem like a cough syrup fever dream.
Plus, if one has seen only Clerks 1 and Clerks 2 or knows a lot about Kevin Smith’s life and films then this movie can be boringly written and stupid at times as well. Still, if you understand what View Askewniverse means to the author, Clerks III is an unexpectedly emotion-filled meting with old friends. \
Clerks 3 finds him nostalgic and taking stock of his life almost three decades after Smith began his filmmaking career. It’s the most meta movie he has ever made, and that’s saying something from a guy who directed Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The film finds Dante and Randal working as their own bosses at Quik Stop but not exactly happier than they were in 1994. The two men are generally stuck in a rut, now in their fifties which is an age where the term ‘best friend’ seems a little lame and Clerks 3 starts the same way. Elias (played by Trevor Fehrman) is supposed to be funny but becomes cartoonish and just uninspiring.
However, this film does excellently when it embraces emotion. Dante comes across as a pretty tragic figure; Becky died some years ago just like his daughter did while he was unhappy with what Randal dragged him back to at the end of Clerks 2 i.e. Quik Stop. Of course, Dawson plays his ghost wife who tells him all about people she had sex with since she got to heaven—she could charm anyone into anything whenever she wished—but he suffers from depression deeply that even a phrase “I am not even supposed to be here today” from Clerks becomes “I don’t even want to be here today or any other day.”
Clerks 3 gets interesting when Randal suffers a near death heart attack. During recovery period, Randal makes up his mind to shoot his own story together with Dante henceforth the rest of the movie follows them as they try acting with much popularized characters among actors from previous Clerks movies (not forgetting about some other cool cameos). Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) assist in making of which Bob shoots it black white because he is experienced camera man. Like cinematic ouroborus, Clerks 3 is about making of Clerks eating this odd trilogy’s nourishing tail.
For fans of Clerks and Smith alike, the rest of Clerks 3 is a delightful series of inside jokes and fun winks to the audience, who are essentially given front-row seats to the making of Clerks through the perspective of its own characters. As the movie within a movie is filmed, everyone comes together and gets some time to shine, but Dante and Randal’s characters in particular are satisfyingly fleshed out. Consequently, it becomes a movie that pays tribute to independent filmmaking itself as well as Smith’s fans.
There are countless smart references to life surrounding Smith and how he made Clerks including its notorious cut ending all enjoyable only when watched by an audience already invested in these things. It’s Smith preaching to the choir but it’s a fiery sermon with an unexpectedly moving, beautiful ending that wraps everything up intelligently integrating clerks universe with his life. Because pop culture obsessed film like Clerks has also been absorbed into the cultural Zeitgeist (to such an extent that even the Library of Congress has classified it as “culturally significant”).
The fact is, Clerks 3 seems really cheap on an aesthetic level, which is surprising given the $7 million budget. The jokes are weak and some of them even become weaker with a camera that’s shooting comedy in a very flat style. The soundtrack is clichéd and consists of either tasteless pop-punk or emotional filler music. Though Learan Kahanov’s cinematography is bright and colorful, it feels anonymous when compared to David Klein’s great works in Clerks and Clerks 2 but for the dialogue, it almost felt like anyone could have directed Clerks 3.
Perhaps this was some sort of back-to-basics approach designed to make Smith produce one of the most simply made films after years of experimenting; maybe Smith had a heart attack and decided to go back to the beginning which makes sense since Clerks 3 is about that. In this way, the flatness of the film’s style may be seen as reflective of Randal’s indie film he wants to create (though those few moments where we might get what they’re filming are too far-fetched).
In reality though, Clerks 3 seems like exactly what would happen if awkward-and-crying reunion old buds who haven’t been around each other for a dozen years were to meet up again. In places initially mundane or just plain bad conversation flows yet punctuated by occasional bursts of laughter that remind us why we were friends in the first place. If you’re any kind of Kevin Smith fan then you’ll be moved deeply by this ending because despite its amateurish stumbles in parts, there’s an honest beauty about half way through Clerks 3.
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