CLERKS
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman
Made on the very meager budget of under $30,000, by a dropout from film school, CLERKS is one of the funniest, good-natured and vocally raunchy movie in a long, long while. Originally slapped with the dreaded NC-17, on appeal it was given an R rating.
Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) is a clerk at the Quick Stop Groceries, in New Jersey, a convenience store where the nuttiest customers in the world seem to frequent. There is, to cite but one example of many, the elderly man who asks to use the employee restroom but who then requests to borrow one of the porn mags on the shelf to take with him into the toilet.
"Working" in a miserable video store next door, where he treats the customers with utter disdain, is his friend, Randal (Jeff Anderson). Throughout the film, where every other word consists of four letters spoken in a most offhand relaxed manner, are the customers with whom the two have to contend, each of who is odd in his own way. Randal is of the belief that every customer should be insulted.
Writer-director Kevin Smith who himself worked on and off in a convenience store does a masterful job in this his first film. But this is much more than a mere recounting of his experiences as a register jockey. This is one funny film.
Also starring are Marilyn Ghigliotti (as Dante's devoted girlfriend, Veronica) and Lisa Spoonauer (as Caitlin, the high school ex-sweetheart who has just announced she is getting married).
3.5 Bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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