yrussell

I have mixed feelings about this. I saw the original Clerks in the cinema with my girlfriend (now wife) in 1994, with us being the same age as the characters. We saw part 2 on video, but for part 3, we went back to the cinema, making a special occasion out of it. We did enjoy it and had a great time. My wife said it was emotionally satisfying, and, yes it was. Yet, reflecting on it further by myself, I feel it's an inferior sequel to both parts 1 and 2. I wish it could have been a straight-up continuation of part 2, with Becky still alive and we catch up with Dante age 50 (after all, we're still the same age as the characters), perhaps having a mid-life crisis of some kind and finding solace in his life-long friendship with Randal and the love of his family. Well, that doesn't sound hilarious, but it would have been very meaningful to us (in fact, I felt hurt that Becky was killed off - that in itself ruins the memory of the very satisfying ending of Clerks 2). Instead of the movie I hoped for, we get a highly self-conscious meta-movie which spends far too long celebrating the minutiae of Clerks 1 and not enough time giving us a real story. Yet, I can see why Smith did it this way. The reason Clerks 1 was so vibrant and hilarious is because of its authenticity. Clerks 1 very much reflected the lived experience of Smith at that time. When I first saw Clerks 1, I had recently resigned from working at 7-11 (a convenience store chain), so I absolutely loved that someone made a movie about that kind of life. Now in 2022, I believe that Clerks 3 is a true reflection of Smith's life in 2022. He's a million miles away from being the real-life convenience store clerk who got lucky making a film on a shoestring budget. Today, he's a guy heading a durable and lucrative entertainment franchise (in fact, multiple franchises in the "View-Askew-niverse"). Nowadays, his job is providing content and pleasing his fans. In Clerks 3, he dishes out call-backs in huge volume, as if he's laying out a buffet for hungry fans. That's what this movie is all about. If Clerks 3 is a complicated mess, maybe that's because middle age is a complicated mess. If you look at some of Smith's other "meta" movies of recent years (e.g. Jay & Silent Bob reboot), Clerks 3 is equally shambolic as those. Just accept that Smith is not the same man as he was in 1994 and be thankful that he put in the effort to give his fans a heartfelt gift in the form of Clerks 3. And, finally, I just want to mention that Brian O'Halloran is a seriously good actor in this film.

Interesting low-budget Québécois film about a wealthy but youngish white collar criminal who goes on the run after his crime was discovered. With his story all over the news, he takes off in a car, carrying a huge quanity of cash, escaping into the wintry highways of northern Québéc. He is aiming to meet a guy at a remote airstrip who will help him escape to the Bahamas. The whole thing is shot as a video diary to his young daughters, whom he fears he might never see again. This movie is mostly a one-man show as he addresses the camera, trying to explain his crime to his daughters, telling them stories, and expressing a wish to see them again someday. Once he arrives at the airstrip in the middle of nowhere, things don't go quite as planned and he encounters a few hardships (even contemplating turning himself in). I won't give any spoilers, but I'll say that the ending wasn't what I expected. We're left guessing about what happens to the man after the story ends, but, as we've journeyed with him, we can't help but feel some sympathy for him, however misguided he's been.