Clerks (1994)

Director: Kevin Smith

Writer: Kevin Smith

Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonhauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scot Mosier, Scott Schiaffo, Al Berkowitz, Walter Flanagan, Ed Hapstak, Lee Bendick, David Klein, Pattijean Csik, Ken Clark, Donna Jeanne, Virginia Smith

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Just Because They Serve You... Doesn't Mean They Like You.

Plot: A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.

My rating: 9/10

Will I watch it again? Of course.

Sundance Film Festival 2014

OK, so get this.  It's the midnight, and only, screening of CLERKS (1994), celebrating its 20th anniversary of the film's premiere.  Kevin Smith takes the stage and the crowd goes nuts.

He tells everyone that we're going to do the Q&A, that's normally done after the movie, before since it's midnight and everyone's probably seen the film so they can ditch it in the middle and go home to sleep and not miss anything.  Before the questions start he talks about this couple that, during the Class of '94 panel discussion earlier that day, asked if he could marry them.  He brings Dillon (20) and Nicole (20) on stage and officiates their wedding.  It lasted a few short, funny minutes and off the happy couple go.  Smith is an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, something anyone can do for probably five bucks.  It's nice when these unexpected things pop up like this.

Now Kevin talks about his experience with screening the film at Sundance 20 years ago and how the fourth and final screening was here at The Egyptian.  He knew his film was dead in the water at that point but he had someone there (the name escapes me) that was a big champion of the film and talked Harvey Weinstein into attending.  After the show Kevin was told to meet Harvey across the street at a restaurant where Harvey offered to buy the picture.  Kevin Smith's film career was made that night.  It was a touching story and Kevin got very emotional a couple of times, starting to tear up.  I'm sure the everyone else there (it was packed with a 266 seat capacity) was welling up, too, like I was.  It's a great story.  But then something else was thrown into the mix, something unexpected...Kevin brings CLERKS star, Brian O'Halloran (Dante), onto the stage.  The crowd goes nuts.  We only knew Kevin would be there.  Brian spends a few minutes with some anecdotes about his experience with Sundance 20 years ago, filled with laughs.  But wait...there's more....

Kevin brings up Jason Mewes, another unexpected guest, to the stage.  The audience is apeshit at this point but there's no Jason.  A couple of minutes later he runs onto the stage and says he was in the bathroom taking a piss and makes a motion that he was jerking off.  Fucking hilarious.

20 years ago, at the premiere, Kevin was the only one flown out by Sundance, so Kevin and pals had to scrape what little dough they had to bring anyone from the film out.  Unfortunately Jason wasn't able to make it but it's great now that he's here 20 years later.  The three of them crack jokes and reminisce for a few minutes and then the floor is opened to questions.  The biggest one of the night was a nice surprise.  Kevin will begin shooting CLERKS 3 this April 7.  He's currently waiting on budget approval from Weinstein but Kevin added that if he doesn't approve it, they have someone ready to finance the film for them but rest assured, they begin filming in a little more than two months.  Great news.  Smith is typically long winded and will take twenty minutes to answer a single question but last night he burned through five or six in 10-15 minutes.  Impressive.  They were given the 'get the fuck off the stage 'cause we're out of time and way past overdue to show the film' motion.  They took some photos and the movie began.

Oh, geez, I'm supposed to review the picture.

 It's a great fucking movie!