CLERKS (1994) // Reaction & Commentary // INSPIRING!! 

Fun fact. This was the most stolen VHS tape at rental stores back in the day.

“Very surprising reveal. I did not see that coming” ~ Shanelle “Neither did Kaitlin”….. ~ me 🤣🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

There's a lot of detail that went into this. For one thing, NOBODY thinks that Dante's getting off work at noon except Dante. Even Veronica shows up with a lasagna knowing that he's going to be stuck there all day.

This was Generation X cinema at its height in the 1990s. Clerks, along with Heathers, Dazed and Confused, Reality Bites, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Swingers, Slacker, and Boyz N The Hood, were what defined Generation X cinema.

"Why is this like the anti-Ferris Beuller?" is quality commentary! Great movie pick.

"In a row?" Still the funniest line of screen writing committed to film! 🤣

The original jersey trilogy have clerks mallrats and chasing Amy are great. But Dogma. That's the good stuff

This movie really captures the retail experience in a very truthful, if exaggerated manor. My time in Retail Hell coincided with this movie coming out on video, and we had it for rent. Of course, nobody ever actually treated the jerkoff customers the way Randall did, but we were all thinking it...

Never made the Ferris Bueller connection but you're probably right. Kevin Smith is a huge John Hughes fan. Check out Dogma for more on that 😉

Snowball is played by Scott Mosier, Kevin's producing partner. He attended film school with Kevin and the two agreed to work on whose ever film was made first. Kevin dropped out of film school to make Clerks and Scott acted as producer. Scott Mosier is a legend and one of the driest, most well spoken, and FUNNY people I've ever heard. Scott and Kevin were pioneers in podcasting, and did their SMODCAST for a number of years. I highly recommend listening to any of the older episodes of SMODCAST as it is a hilarious insight into the lives of Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

Shanelle, this was a groundbreaking film at the time, because it told a story with no pretense or budgetary concerns. What's even better though, is how each Kevin Smith film in succession (in the View Askewverse) builds to the overall love for these characters/locations/stories. Not all Kevin Smith films are a mandatory watch, but I highly suggest if you want to view the rest of these, the next films to watch (in this order) are Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Chasing Amy is in my top 5 all-time movies. You should definitely check it out!

I was in college when this was released. My buddy and I saw it at the student center that was able to bring in independent movies for the students to watch. We all loved it.

There's a whole series of these films that have overlapping story lines. It's worth watching them. There's an alternate ending where a guy comes in and shoots Dante. The distributor convinced Smith that he had a great comedy and shouldn't end it on such a downer so they cut everything after Randal throws the "Yes we're open" sign at him.

Two best quotes from this movie is “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” and “In a row?”

Love me some Kevin Smith this movie along with Chasing Amy and Mallrats are great, but being a lapse Catholic Dogma is my favorite

Keep going on this. I have a feeling you’ll enjoy “Chasing Amy.” It has a Clerks feel with bigger stars(Ben Affleck, Jason, Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, and a cameo from Matt Damon) and in color. But ESPECIALLY check out “An Evening With Kevin Smith.” Smith did a series of college Q and A’s with this being a video release. There’s a lot of talk about the movies but also stories about a documentary he did for Prince, almost writing “Superman Reborn” before it went to Tim Burton, and meeting his wife.

All of Kevin Smith’s Askewniverse films are great. And Silent Bob always drops one nugget of wisdom at some point in each film.

Thanks for the love! Also, I love watching others' reactions while watching the movie. 😊

Groundbreaking to say the least. This was the Nirvana of filmmaking. Meaning they both ushered in a slew of wannabes and genuinely inspired a whole new era, in this case, of independent film.

Randall is probably the character I am most jealous of in cinema, because he says exactly what he thinks with no fs given.

Kevin Smith is the punk rock John Hughes. Honestly, "Clerks" is the X-Rated "The Breakfast Club". There is REAL SHIT spoken in both of those films.

This is the first, and maybe the best, of a trilogy including Mallrats and Chasing Amy.

Great indy movie! I'm with you in that I love great dialog over everything else. RIP Lisa Spoonauer (Caitlin).

There's a version out there that adds in an animated scene when they go to the funeral--which if I remember right was from the brief "Clerks" animated series that followed many years after.

That was a special one. I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith, and his podcast has kept me company for hundreds if not thousands of hours. I genuinely love Kevin Smith as a person,despite all of the negativity he receives, he remains extremely positive. He always says it is far better to create than to destroy, and he encourages people to pursue the things they love and have passion for. I could go on for hours about information about this movie and what the film has meant to me for a long time. I won't, but I will say that Clerks 2 is far superior lol. I only say that because Clerks 2 became my go to movie when I was feeling sad. The movie is essentially the same idea, but the jokes and production are tighter. Jeff Anderson, as Randall Graves, is a revelation lol. His rant against Lord of the Rings and his plea to Dante at the end of Clerks 2, are some of my favourite pieces of cinema. Anyhow, love him or hate him, Kevin Smith has brought a lot of happiness into my life and the lives of many others, so that's a wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing this reaction Shanelle.

So glad you're the first reactor to get to Clerks! This movie deserves your style of treatment. Can't wait for Clerks 2 now, though it may be worth doing, as we called it, the ever increasingly inaccurately named Jersey Trilogy, in order.

I gotta recommend El Mariachi for a super low budget independent film.

Kevin worked in this convenient store, they filmed everything at night when the store was closed. Even the exterior shots, it’s actually at night lit up with some fluorescent lights. That’s also why the shutters on the store are closed. You gotta do the rest of the Kevin Smith movies in this series….Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma…these are the good ones, they’re amazing. Then comes Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks 2, which are basically just one long dick joke, not that great IMO. But Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma are classics that you must see!

Saw it in '95, and I really connected to it because I was in that world. I was a clerk at a mom n pop comic shop, and all day I would have to listen to people's hot takes on various Marvel and DC storylines (including the at the time controversial "Spider-Man clone saga"). Also, being a huge Bad Religion fan, it was cool to hear them in a movie! Glad you enjoyed the flick! (New subscriber BTW!)

When this came out, I was working at both a convenience store, and a video store. It SPOKE to me. I recall hearing that this movie's soundtrack rights cost more than the entire rest of the movie.

Shanelle: it makes me think I can write and make a movie. Rob Schneider: You can do it!!!

I graduated from high school in Metuchen NJ in 1994 and I saw this movie in the theater at least 10 times. It really spoke to me and most of my friends. We all were excited to see Mallrats when it came out but all my friends hated it because it was in color and "too slick" but I absolutely loved it. I'll always have a soft spot for Clerks but Mallrats is my favorite Kevin Smith movie with Dogma a close second.

Indeed, this was really Gen-X's first important post-high-school cinematic statement in the early '90s, after the rather-white-bread John Hughes '80s era. Much more textured and gritty, in aesthetics and characters. As a student of film, you should be big on Smith and Tarantino, whom you've examined earlier. The other Askewniverse films are pretty good, but the more money he got to make films, the less personal and "independent" they felt, which is fine as long as it's entertaining. You also might like his underrated non-Askew film "Jersey Girl," which is more adult and less quirky, but still has his signature dialogue and spirit in many ways. (And J.Lo. dies in the first five minutes, which is a plus).

I keep thinking about the deleted "final" scene, in which a would be robber shoots and kills Dante and the film just quietly ends on him laying face down in his own blood. I can see why it wasn't kept, but at the same time, it kind of fits the whole "I'm not even supposed to be here" vibe.

One of my all time favorite comedies...and yes, I was 23 when this movie came out. I know the black and white film was used for budgetary reasons, but I always felt the B&W, the graininess of the picture, and the very steady long scenes made it feel like you were watching footage from a surveillance camera...like the one you'd find in a 1994 convenience store.

Kevin Smith is such an amazing dude. I’ve seen everything he’s done over & over. If you ever get a chance to meet him, he’s an absolute dream. Like seriously, every time I’ve met him he remembers who I am and he always makes you feel like you’re one of the most important people in the world to him right then. I was a Clerk like him and also worked at a video store too not to long after this movie came. It was like my life on film so I really connected with Kevin. We View Askew fans are die hard and will follow Kevin anywhere! I can’t tell you how many times me & the Hubby have gone to see Kevin or Jason Mewes live somewhere or when Kevin takes his movies on the road with Q & A’s, but it’s the best experience and just so much fun. I even have Kevin’s autograph tattooed on my arm and several pics of him with my tattoo taken with his phone lol. You’ve got to see all his other movies now, you’ll really appreciate them.

Mom and Pop video stores were the best back in the day. Blockbuster was very family oriented and didn't have a lot of the best horror movies and such.

That was one of my favourite movies as a teen in my early 90s and to this day, it is really a great movie.

The DIALOGUE. This movie exposed me to the back and forth delivery of dialogue.

I was aware of the movie's existence at the time of its release, but didn't see it until a few years later. There was a lot written/said about it at the time, and it was typically mentioned in the same breath as movies like Slacker, Reality Bites, and Singles, as they were all some of the first major examples of films by and/or about Generation X. (At least the first ones about us as young adults rather than as teens or kids). I think it's kind of timeless in some respects in terms of relatability, but it was especially relatable to me at the time, as I"m in the same age cohort - just slightly younger - as Smith and the characters in the movie, and share some other commonalities with Smith in terms of nerdy interests. While he got a bit more polished as a filmmaker, I think his later films show him increasingly losing some of what made this such a standout, as he began giving in to the excess of success and the bigger budgets - and bigger names - he had to work with. Still, his films almost always resonate with me to at least some extent.

Nice one Shanelle. This movie literally changed my life. So much so that, in 2002, on a whim, I drove from my home in Canada to the Quick Stop itself in Red Bank New Jersey. Amazing.

I saw this in 1995 at my university. They would show one movie a week for several showings. I saw them all for this one since I paid for a semester pass. My sister even drove 45 minutes to see this with me at the first screening that week. We loved it. My brother, sister, and I have seen several of Kevin's roadshow screenings where he does a Q&A after. The best one of these was Red State because it was in Kansas City and two of the Phelps grandkids who had left the Westboro Baptist Church came on stage to talk about how their lives were similar to the church in Red State. My favorite of his films are Clerks, Clerks II, and Red State.

When 'Clerks' came out, my friends and I (juniors in highschool) probably watched this movie more than 25 times that year - not an exaggeration.

God, I love this movie! And yes, I saw it back in 1994, though not in the theater - I rented it (I was 21 that year). Anyone who's had a job similar to being a store clerk knows - it's incredibly boring and repetitive and menial yet you still feel responsible (like Dante - not Randall, lol), and well...you need the job or you wouldn't be working there to begin with. Putting up with whackjob customers is the worst! I absolutely loved watching them cursing out a customer or just fucking around and then practically destroying the place with their very lame fight. They were totally relatable in many ways - one doing what most of us do and the other saying what we all wish we could say out loud. And being that age, without having a real clue of what to do next, treading water in this sort of job rather than pursuing a "career" - many, many of us know what that's like. It a tough rut to be stuck in but also a comfortable one. So relatable! I never cared at all that this movie was cheaply made or that the acting wasn't great - it was raw, emotional, and authentic which is not something we get a lot of in media. Yes, they may have crammed a year's worth of weird scenarios into one day, but they were such realistic scenarios that I recognized many of them from my own experiences. This movie is a gem.

You need to watch all of these now. Mall rats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks II.

Clerks was WAY bigger than Napoleon Dynamite among my circle. I was in college, saw it in the theater, then later about a million times on video. Lots of phrases, and full on dialogue, became part of our speech. Heh.

Girl! Your reaction to this movie is AWESOME! You belong with us. You are one of us! You GET IT!

you need to find the 10th anniversary edition DVD set and watch the included documentary. It's so good and the story of making clerks is fantastic.

Ah...Clerks. Mallrats and Chasing Amy next. Until we reach Jay and Silent Bob strikes back. And when it's all over we all say "oooh, what a lovely tea-party".

These two actors appeared as Dante and Randall in a short called The Flying Car. Kevin Smith did some remote segments for The Tonight Show for awhile, so he might've made this, too. It was one the funniest back and forths they've done.

I'd like to say I saw "Clerks" when it came out, but I saw "Chasing Amy" first. It seemed like *EVERYBODY* saw "Chasing Amy", and that's still one of my favorite movies.

I showed this movie to everyone in high school. We thought it was the realist, most life inspiring movie we’d ever seen. Nothing captured the beauty in the mundane like Clerks.

I think you'd really enjoy other Kevin movies. Mallrats, Dogma, Red State, Clerks 2. Also, a little bit of trivia. Kevin played a pretty big part in getting Good Will Hunting made. While working with Matt Damon & Ben Affleck on Mallrats he had gotten to read the script and got it on the desk of people at Miramax.

This movie easily ranks highly for me. It's such a great movie to watch!

Has it really been 27 years since this came out?! Damn, time flies! The Clerks Animated Series was great too. Randal was hilarious in that.

I would highly recommend watching the entire View Askewniverse collection in order. Kevin Smith is who inspired my love for film. Some of the best movies of all time.

I've been waiting for the longest time for someone to react to this wonderful film. I'm glad that ur the first to see this. I strongly recommend that u react to the other movies connected to this. Before the MCU, there was the View Askewniverse. 37?!

Fun fact. Kevin Smith was a stickler for sticking to the script early on. Ben Affleck used to adlib in his movies and it used to irritate Smith. But as time went on he allowed adlibing and even encourages it now.

While in the Navy, my ship was home ported 1 mile down the road from this store. Of coarse I drove by the spot just to see it though I didn't want to go inside as I figured I might annoy the workers. There was a large cult following on base because of how close we were to this location.

Clerks was groundbreaking at the time. It was something you knew about but you didn't go see in the theatre and you eventually saw someone's bootleg copy on VHS. I'm Kevin Smith's age, so roughly the same age of everyone in the movie. A lot of people think that 'Mallrats' is the funnier movie (and was a movie aired on the networks), but it began with Clerks and it's probably Kevin's best work. I do like your comparison to a reverse Ferris, I can see it, never thought of it that way but you do have a good point. it was my generation's 'American Graffiti.' Just a slice of the 1990s. Glad you enjoyed it! New sub!

In a row ??

I've fallen asleep every time I've tried to watch it. This is the only way I could get through it. Thanks

For several years I went to a Sci-fi, Fantasy convention (Norwescon) and participated (crew member) in a movie making panel (3 times), creating a story, character and going around ton convention site filming, then it was presented to the con members on Saturday night.

Thank you my lovely, for taking time to review the most opinion spiking film on my shelf. Sometimes you can't have everything you want... or you can die happy 😊

Welcome to the club! This movie so spoke to me when I first saw it; even though I'm European, it was really the first movie I saw that reflected my experiences, cultural references for my generation. A true classic, made on 2 maxed out credit cards and all Kevin's pals.

I saw this in a small theater when it was still NC-17. Loved it then, still holds up.

Shanelle's grin gives life

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!" has become my mantra.

I'm Gen X and love this movie, but I REALLY love that you called it a reverse Ferris. I never thought of it like that, but it's like a realistic post-high school Ferris.

Having grown up maybe 20 miles from where this film takes place, i adore watching people see this film for the first time, these are my people, these are an amalgamation of the personalities I grew up with and until you live in Jersey…you dont know Jersey.

Welcome to the Viewaskewniverse! There is a very special voice at work during these films (Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, etc.) which truly captures the era. If you follow Kevin Smith's films he's going to take you many different places, disappoint you on occasion, and rarely produce a masterpiece. Clerks 3 will be out in 2022 and a doc about his life, Clerk, is touring festivals now. His film RED STATE from 2011 is probably his absolute best work. at 13:31 you nailed the WHOLE movie! PS - the CLOWN in the opening animation has his own movie too, it's called VULGAR. Can't recommend that you watch it unless you fall DEEP down the Kevin Smith rabbit hole.

Congratulations on the hockey playing. Played for 6 years growing up, we did have a girl one year on our team who was better than most of us

“He was mine first” I used this line in my best man speech to my best friend’s bride. Had the pair of them rolling, and several in the crown because they understood the reference.

I remember being a clerk back in 1995 and this movie was recommended to me by a fellow employee. Rented it at the blockbuster the next day and loved it. Definitely got a cult following. It was much more difficult and took far longer for a movie with no marketing to spread by word of mouth back then. It's not like today when something can explode overnight and be considered "old" two months later.

I miss video stores as well. We had a couple of video stores in Toronto called Queen Video which only closed a few years ago. You could find all kinds of films from all over the world. A great selection on Hong Kong films. Sadly, those days are gone

Kevin smith basically said that Randall was him which is why he has all the best lines, and he even wanted to play him in the movie but didn’t think he couple act well enough to pull it off.

To this day I cannot hear the number 37 without thinking "in a row?"

I was in HS when this came out. It was like only the cool kids knew about it. The kids that went off campus to smoke. But also like the Nepolion Dinomite of it's time.

The long takes were probably because they didn’t have much time to shoot each day. All the scenes inside the Quick Stop were shot after the store closed at 11pm until they opened at 6am. So, after setup and rehearsals, they had maybe 5 hours a night to shoot. The steel shutters being jammed was entirely to cover up why there was no daylight coming into the store.

I worked in a convenience store... in New Jersey... in 1994. Yeah, this movie was basically my life at the time. lol This movie gets a "Jeff's Kiss" from me. ;-)

This is peak 90's slacker

i see Dante as Cameron and Randal as Ferris... This movie has always been a fav from the day it came out. It brings back a lot of memories of friends who have since passed when we enjoyed indie films together.

One of the big things at the time was the swearing. It felt like one of the first things ever where people spoke like me and my friends spoke. Another was the young lawyers series *This Life* on late night TV in the UK around the same time. Kevin Smith blazed a trail that others followed after, including having people talking about Star Wars and comics in movie and TV dialogue. And in helping normalise comic books, especially so in *Mallrats* but also here, it helped create the market for the seeming incessant comic book character based films and TV shows we're stuck with today. I'm not such a fan of that. I kind of preferred it when it was a young men's nerdy thing we could enjoy outside the mainstream. Part of cool is exclusion: being the only ones in on something. But Clerks definitely appealed to the young male nerd demographic I was part of at the time. It was ours. And then came the comedy series *Spaced,* which is essential viewing and very faithful to struggling early twenties life in London in the mid-90s. You should watch *Spaced* and the rest of Edgar Wrights's work obviously, starting with *A Fistful of Fingers* which he started filming while still in high school.

"I'm not even supposed to be here today" a line I still say at work

I used to work at a convenience store right out of high school into my early 20s. This movie was just super-relatable.

Dante's line to his GF "Try not to suck any d*** on your way to your car" (or something near that) is hilarious and savage and kinda pitiful. This movie is so good.

kevin smith, his filmography and his speeches I've watched on youtube have been the greatest inspiration for me as a writer, hands-down. He's real.

I love this movie for the fact that Kevin Smith became a darling of all the critics when the movie came out. He was going to be the next big thing. They were all excited about his next project. And then his next movie Mallrats came out. You could almost hear a huge chorus of gasps from the critics, followed by a collective groan. "Oh no. We backed this guy?"

OK, Shanelle...now you have really opened a big can of Pringles. LOL Now you have to watch all of KSmith's movies in order so you can see him evolve...and see the ways he does not. Mallrats would be next, and you will love love love it, I guarantee. 💯😁

Proud to call these dudes fellow local boys. This was filmed a few towns away from me. I visited this store ( in Leonardo, NJ), n snapped pics like a true fan boy lol.

Just went down a rabbit hole and stumbled on this vid. As an old git, yes I found this video back in the day in a video store in England and had no idea what it was and took it home to find a whole new idea of what a film could be. It still holds a place in my heart and my top films of all time. Never thought of the Ferris angle but you make a great point. Subbed

I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan and you have captured his message. He wants everyone to just go and make a movie, anyone can do it so just do it. If he could do it, anyone could do it. He wants to inspire people to just put themselves out there and create.

“Veronica loves you, you bitch! She brought you lasagna!” 😂

Chasing Amy and Mall-rats are 2 must see of his movies.

I loved this movie - I was in college when it came out. One summer day, I made a pilgrimage to the store (about 1/2 hour from my home) in Leonardo, NJ… there were three stores in the strip mall: the Quick-Stop grocery, RST Video, and a tattoo parlor (which didn’t make it in the movie). I went inside the store and bought a disposable camera to take pictures to memorialize my journey, and a Klondike ice cream bar. The camera melted when I left it in the car’s glove compartment. The Klondike was delicious.

I've seen clerks. hundreds of times and that's no exaggeration I got into a groove of watching it nightly 4 different times regular, "new cut", commentary and anniversary commentary all in one night.

Glad you enjoyed it. Clerks has long been a favorite of mine since I was a teen.

My all time favorite, and, the MOST New Jersey movie ever made!

I was 11 when it came out. I went and saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when it came out because a bunch of my friends wanted to see it, that was the first movie of his that I saw. But I loved it, so I was over the moon to find out there were four more I could rent.