Inter-species erotica
[Spoilers for a couple of funny bits, no plot spoilage.]
So I just got back from a preview screening of Clerks II, thanks to a friend who works for a local weekly and got passes. I expected to hate it. I'd recently rewatched the original and it had aged horribly, the non-acting of Dante and Randal being more hard to take with every passing second. And early on in this new one there's a hideous scene with Dante and his fiance (played, as you will hear in every review of the movie, by Kevin Smith's real life wife) that had me staring at the ceiling and assuming everything after that was going to be a wash.
But, before that, we'd had some lovely comedy, mostly bits of business involving Dante and Randal just talking about, you know, stuff, and having a supporting cast (especially Rosario Dawson, naturally) that they could actually bounce off of. And after that cringe inducing scene the fiance mostly stays off camera and the movie takes off. It's both the crudest and the sweetest film Smith's done to date; there's an extended scene featuring Randal using "porch monkey" (which he doesn't think of as racist) in front of an African-American couple that is howlingly funny if, like me, you like your comedy to make you feel uncomfortable, and there's an extended dance scene set to the Jackson 5's "ABC" that Smith threw in clearly just for the sheer joy of it.
My one reservation, aside from the fact that it's not a perfect movie, is that I felt a bit uncomfortable for the wrong reason during some bits that struck me as maybe a bit homophobic. But mostly, in addition to just bringing back tons of the dialogue that made Clerks so good, hitting a warm rhythm like old friends always do, there's also a decent little movie about futility, love and friendship in there, and the best gross-out comedy I've seen in years (when one of your highlights is a guy masturbating to another guy fucking a donkey while the first guy is crying and begging Jesus for forgiveness, you've crossed ground You, Me and Dupree fears to tread on).
Bottom line: If you're a Smith fan or a fan of the original, this is pretty much a must-see. And no-one is more surprised I feel that way than me.
So I just got back from a preview screening of Clerks II, thanks to a friend who works for a local weekly and got passes. I expected to hate it. I'd recently rewatched the original and it had aged horribly, the non-acting of Dante and Randal being more hard to take with every passing second. And early on in this new one there's a hideous scene with Dante and his fiance (played, as you will hear in every review of the movie, by Kevin Smith's real life wife) that had me staring at the ceiling and assuming everything after that was going to be a wash.
But, before that, we'd had some lovely comedy, mostly bits of business involving Dante and Randal just talking about, you know, stuff, and having a supporting cast (especially Rosario Dawson, naturally) that they could actually bounce off of. And after that cringe inducing scene the fiance mostly stays off camera and the movie takes off. It's both the crudest and the sweetest film Smith's done to date; there's an extended scene featuring Randal using "porch monkey" (which he doesn't think of as racist) in front of an African-American couple that is howlingly funny if, like me, you like your comedy to make you feel uncomfortable, and there's an extended dance scene set to the Jackson 5's "ABC" that Smith threw in clearly just for the sheer joy of it.
My one reservation, aside from the fact that it's not a perfect movie, is that I felt a bit uncomfortable for the wrong reason during some bits that struck me as maybe a bit homophobic. But mostly, in addition to just bringing back tons of the dialogue that made Clerks so good, hitting a warm rhythm like old friends always do, there's also a decent little movie about futility, love and friendship in there, and the best gross-out comedy I've seen in years (when one of your highlights is a guy masturbating to another guy fucking a donkey while the first guy is crying and begging Jesus for forgiveness, you've crossed ground You, Me and Dupree fears to tread on).
Bottom line: If you're a Smith fan or a fan of the original, this is pretty much a must-see. And no-one is more surprised I feel that way than me.
