News

Sav Rodgers’ documentary Chasing Chasing Amy premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and has been making the festival rounds ever since, screening at 76 festivals around the world to date. Level 33 Entertainment gave the film a theatrical release last month, and now we’ve learned that Chasing Chasing Amy will be available to rent or own on VOD as of next Tuesday, December 17th!

MediaPlayNews reports that in the documentary, filmmaker Sav Rodgers takes a journey of self-discovery while making a documentary about Kevin Smith’s 1997 film Chasing Amy and its polarizing reputation among LGBTQ+ people. They go on to reveal that Chasing Chasing Amy explores the transformational impact of the ’90s cult classic on a 12-year-old queer kid from Kansas, coming of age and to terms with his identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making...

Kevin Smith is working on a sequel to his 1999 cult comedy Dogma, he is also in talks with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to return.

Over the last few years, Kevin Smith has looked to his back catalogue for inspiration for future films. With Clerks 3 officially ending the story of Dante and Jay And Silent Bob Reboot bringing his famous slacking stoners firmly into the 21st century, Smith is now looking at sequels to his other hit films.

Speaking at Vulture Festival over the weekend, Deadline reports that Smith confirmed he’s writing a sequel to Dogma. The 1999 film followed Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as angels cast out of heaven by God, who attempt to exploit a loophole in Catholic Dogma to return. The film features a glorious performance from Alan Rickman, the acting debut of singer songwriter Alanis Morrisette and appearances by Smith’s regular cohorts Jason Mewes,...

Sav Rodgers’ documentary Chasing Chasing Amy premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and has been making the festival rounds ever since, screening at 76 festivals around the world to date. Now, Level 33 Entertainment is gearing up to give the film a theatrical release on November 1st, and we have the trailer embedded above.

MediaPlayNews reports that in the documentary, filmmaker Sav Rodgers takes a journey of self-discovery while making a documentary about Kevin Smith’s 1997 film Chasing Amy and its polarizing reputation among LGBTQ+ people. They go on to reveal that Chasing Chasing Amy explores the transformational impact of the ’90s cult classic on a 12-year-old queer kid from Kansas, coming of age and to terms with his identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making as a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ cinema, he finds himself at a complicated crossroads.

When Kevin Smith made "Clerks" in 1994, he was only 23 and ignorant of the ways of filmmaking. Smith was inspired to make a movie by Richard Linklater's "Slacker," figuring he could write a fun screenplay based on the way he and his friend conversed. Made for only $27,575, "Clerks" was about witty but directionless twentysomethings as they struggled through their romantic angst while trapped at their dead-end jobs. "Clerks" struck a nerve with Gen-Xers, introducing a certain type of pop culture chatter that hadn't really been heard in movies before. It was a huge hit.

Smith returned in 1995 with "Mallrats," another single-day movie about twentysomethings wrestling with their romances and emotional immaturity. His 1997 film "Chasing Amy" was an unconventional romance about a straight man who falls in love with a lesbian, and how the lesbian may be developing feelings for him in exchange. Ultimately, however, the straight man's sexual insecurity causes their relationship to implode.

In another world, The 4:30 Movie might have been named ‘Movierats’. Kevin Smith has long told tales of New Jersey kids simply hanging out, be it at the local shop (Clerks), the local fast-food restaurant (Clerks II), or the local mall (Mallrats). Here, he takes that template and applies it to the local multiplex — what better love-letter to cinema than a film set almost entirely at the cinema? And more specifically, the cinema of Smith’s own youth, which he now owns and operates as Smodcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands, NJ? Disappointingly, for all the promise in the premise, it rarely projects in quite the way you’d hope.

In typical Smith style, this is very much a story from the heart, remixing personal experience in cinematic form — lead character Brian David (a charming and engaging Austin Zajur) is a clear Kevin Smith stand-in, a deeply nerdy kid with a passion for cinema,...

As Hollywood attempts to keep up with the ever-changing face of streaming, Kevin Smith has gotten into the movie theater business.

The director’s latest film is The 4:30 Movie, which serves as a love letter to small-town cinemas. It came at a time when he was feeling “existential” about being “one more goofy-ass tile to this never-ending wall” of film and television content on streaming platforms.

“I know it’s hard out there. It’s always been hard,” he said. “That’s the one thing I could say. But it’s worth the struggle. It’s worth the fight. Like, it’s worth making that tile, man, because that tile winds up being all the difference in some person’s life you’ll never meet.

“I meet people who tell you wonderful things about movies you’ve made years ago that other people lambast, and they’re like: ‘That’s my favorite movie.

The 4:30 Movie, the sixteenth feature film from director Kevin Smith, is now in theatres (you can read a review by JoBlo’s own Alex Maidy at This Link), and to mark the occasion we have decided to look back over Smith’s entire directing career and assemble a list of Kevin Smith Movies Ranked, from #16 to #1. This list doesn’t represent everything Smith has done; you won’t find movies he did uncredited rewrites on (like Overnight Delivery) or wrote for someone else to direct (Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie), or even the segment he contributed to the anthology horror film Holidays. For this list, we’re only covering the features that had him at the helm. And here we go…

KillRoy Was Here (2022)

While recording an episode of the Edumacation podcast, Smith and co-host Andy McElfresh “accidentally brainstormed a Christmas horror anthology” that would revolve...

Plot: Writer-director Kevin Smith presents his most personal film to date with this coming-of-age story — set in the summer of 1986 — that follows three sixteen-year-old friends who spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies at the local cineplex. When one of the guys invites the girl of his dreams to see an R-rated film, all hilarity breaks loose, as a self-important theater manager and teen rivalries interfere with his best-laid plans.

Review: I have been a Kevin Smith fan since I saw Clerks in the mid-90s. Smith had a solid run over the early course of his career, but the 2010s were less kind from a critical standpoint. While I have stood by his projects even when the quality was less than I knew he was capable of, my gut told me that Kevin Smith had another great project in him. I am happy to say that The 4:30 Movie is...

Who says 1994 was a classic year for cinema? Netflix begins today to make that argument, curating a release of 17 films that turned 30 this year. The streamer has its list below. I have mine, and with the exception of the seminal Farrelly Brothers-directed Dumb & Dumber with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional, the film that stars Jean Reno and a sinister Gary Oldman and introduced the world to the outsized talent Natalie Portman, and maybe Ron Howard’s The Paper, there’s a lot missing. How about Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Clear and Present Danger, Sicario, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Interview With the Vampire, Speed, Ed Wood, and the other two films in a starmaking year for Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. Speed, Once Were Warriors, and Ang Lee...

Shaun and his best mate Ed are in trouble. They’ve discovered two zombies in their garden, and the lumbering flesh-eaters show no signs of stopping. However, Shaun and Ed have found one way of slowing the approach: throwing records.

And so, as the two zombies grow closer, Ed and Shaun rustle through the latter’s collection. “Sign o’ the Times … Purple Rain,” Ed suggests as projectiles, only to have Shaun tell him no. That is until Ed reaches a low point in Prince’s discography, the Batman soundtrack. “Throw it,” Shaun commands, striking a blow against the living dead.

The above scene is just one instance of the humor and horror that director Edgar Wright and his co-writer Simon Pegg bring to the RomZomCom Shaun of the Dead, released twenty years ago. Shaun (Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) spend a lot of time discussing their pop-cultural interests, even in the most dire situations.

Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Anchor Bay Entertainment was a major player in the horror world, giving DVD releases to films like the Evil Dead trilogy, George A. Romero’s Dead trilogy, the Sleepaway Camp franchise, The Hills Have Eyes, The Car, Maniac, Prom Night, some of the Hellraisers, Halloweens, and much more. Then things changed, and eventually Anchor Bay got folded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment… but now Deadline reports that the Anchor Bay Entertainment label is being revived, and the revival is starting off with the releases of puppet horror film Abruptio and Dinner with Leatherface, a documentary that looks at the life, career, and legacy of original Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen!

Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz are behind the return of Anchor Bay Entertainment, and they’re planning to use the label to bring the world “genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics,...

A familiar label for horror fans is getting a resurrection. Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz are bringing back a new iteration of Anchor Bay Entertainment with the goal to curate a new library of films for distribution, projects that range from new release genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics, and remastered catalog releases.

The new launch comes with a pair of acquisition titles: puppet horror film Abruptio and documentary Dinner with Leatherface.

“We had an opportunity to take the name of a beloved genre film brand, one we feel a personal connection to, for our new company,” says Zambeck in a press release statement. “This is a new venture, unaffiliated with any previous incarnations. We aim to honor the history and spirit of the past as we look for interesting films that break the mold, and will be discovered by new generations for years to come.”

In...

Exclusive: Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz are bringing back a new Anchor Bay Entertainment with an eye on genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics, and remastered catalog releases.

“We had an opportunity to take the name of a beloved genre film brand, one we feel a personal connection to, for our new company,” says Zambeck. “This is a new venture, unaffiliated with any previous incarnations. We aim to honor the history and spirit of the past as we look for interesting films that break the mold, and will be discovered by new generations for years to come.”

In Lionsgate’s acquisition of Starz in December 2016, the studio absorbed the North American branches of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The Anchor Bay Entertainment trademark was up for acquisition so Zambeck and Katz took the opportunity to acquire it. The new Anchor Bay Entertainment doesn’t include the previous label’s library.

There was a time when Kevin Smith was regarded as being one of the definitive filmmakers of Generation X. His feature directing debut on the shoestring-budgeted 1994 indie hit "Clerks" suggested Smith not only had a firm understanding of the slacker mentality that afflicted so many people in his age bracket, but he was also shrewd enough to be critical of it. The film centers on disgruntled Quick Stop Groceries clerk Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and those in his immediate vicinity, including his equally-cynical, unmotivated best friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) and the off-beat drug dealers that loiter outside the store: loud-mouthed horny miscreant Jay (Jason Mewes) and his reserved yet secretly wise companion Silent Bob (Smith). As colorful as these characters were, they also felt like real people you could imagine Smith knew growing up on his home turf of New Jersey.

At first, Smith retained this acerbic wit and...

Program Description

Return to the Quick Stop for this hilarity-filled collection of Kevin Smith’s beloved Clerks movies. This specially designed Premium Box Collection includes a set of Clerks-themed clings that fans can use to customize their set. Clerks will be available for the suggested retail price of $129.99.

Official Synopsis

They are the overworked, underpaid, and hardly working…they are clerks! For the first time ever, all three of Kevin Smith’s Clerks films are included on Blu-rayTM + Digital in one limited-edition Premium Box Set, available exclusively on Amazon. This one-of-a-kind package is a slacker’s dream come true, featuring a 3D miniature of the iconic Quick Stop and Rst Video storefronts and a working VHS slot, for safe storage of the discs without running up pesky late fees. Also, be sure to vandalize the rental-return “wall” with the cling stickers included in the box, featuring in-world business logos and jokes from the franchise.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Ready to relive all the best moments from that nostalgic Quick Stop convenience store? We can pretty much guarantee that there won't be a better way to watch the entire "Clerks" trilogy, short of marathoning them with Kevin Smith himself. Incredibly enough, the beloved franchise was capped by last year's extremely meta "Clerks III." Following the exploits of Randal (Jeff Anderson) and Dante (Brian O'Halloran), the threequel completes the story of the two best friends and their attempts to basically make the first "Clerks" movie, based on their own experiences in the "Clerks" universe. It's hilarious, heart-warming, and oh-so-personal, as /Film's Danielle Ryan reviewed at the time.

As big fans of Jay and Silent Bob's antics over the years, we recently brought you the news of the fancy, limited edition box set for the trilogy and now, one lucky...

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Last year, Kevin Smith brought us a new installment in the "Clerks" film series, the comedy franchise that began with a black-and-white indie gem at the Sundance Film Festival back in 1994. "Clerks III" was the filmmaker's most meta chapter of the View Askewniverse yet, and after "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," that's saying something. The film follows Randal (Jeff Anderson) wanting to do something more significant with his life, which leads him to write and direct a movie about the time he's spent with his best friend Dante (Brian O'Halloran) as a clerk at both the Quick Stop convenience store and the Mooby's fast food restaurant. Basically, it's a movie about Kevin Smith making the original "Clerks" but set within the "Clerks" cinematic universe.

But that's not all — the movie also came with a heartfelt spin because it was...

Set on August 18, 1973, director Tobe Hooper’s classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here) was released in October of 1974 – and to mark the 50th anniversary of the events of the film and the 49th anniversary of the film itself, director Michael Kallio will soon be releasing Dinner with Leatherface, a documentary that looks at the life, career, and legacy of original Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen. Dinner with Leatherface is expected to make its way out into the world this October.

Our friends at Bloody Disgusting note that “Hansen was a beloved figure in the horror community, but many fans didn’t know that he wasn’t just an actor. He was also a writer, poet, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. He continued to be involved with the horror film community through most of his life, attending horror conventions all over the world and speaking at film festivals up until his...

Bloody Disgusting has learned about a brand new documentary titled Dinner with Leatherface, which looks at the life, legacy, and career of the late horror icon Gunnar Hansen.

The release of Dinner with Leatherface is scheduled for this October to coincide with the 50th anniversary theatrical release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Gunnar Hansen is of course best known for his portrayal of the terrifying, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface in the classic horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

Directed by Michael Kallio, the documentary will feature interviews with several of Hansen’s friends and colleagues, including fellow actors Bruce Campbell, Barbara Crampton, Kane Hodder, and Brian O’Halloran. The film will also include many in-depth interviews with his co-stars from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as well as the film’s cinematographer Daniel Pearl and screenwriter Kim Henkel.

“Hansen was a beloved figure in the horror community, but many fans didn...

In collaboration with “Clerks” mastermind Kevin Smith, Logic’s newest music video for his stoner anthem “Highlife” reunites the film’s cast. The video features Logic as the star at the original New Jersey Quick Stop set.

“Clerks” (1994) follows clerks Dante and Randal’s daily debauchery at a New Jersey convenience store. “Clerks II” premiered in 2006 and “Clerks III” in 2022. All of the “Clerks” films, along with Smith’s other works such as “Mallrats” (1995), “Chasing Amy” (1997) and “Dogma” (1999), are part of his fictional universe, referred to as “View Askewniverse.”

The music video’s cast includes Smith as Silent Bob, Brian O’Halloran as Dante, Jeff Anderson as Randal, Jason Mewes as Jay, Matt Ranieri as Mooby and Ernie O’Donnell as Trainer.

Logic has long admired Kevin Smith’s work. Smith direct messaged the rapper on Instagram to join “Clerks III,” but the rapper missed the alert. Once the creators did connect,...

Stars: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Trevor Fehrman, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Smith, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Austin Zajur | Written and Directed by Kevin Smith

Following a massive heart attack, Randal enlists his friends and fellow clerks Dante, Elias, Jay, and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all.

Kevin Smith and his cohorts are back for a third round at the Quick Stop and like his previous Clerks movies, this three-quel calls upon Smith’s own life experiences – namely his well-publicised heart attack – to inform the plot. However Clerks 3 is also a huge love letter to Smith’s films and his fans…

A love letter to Smith’s oeuvre in so much as he homages scenes, lines and characters from a myriad of his previous works. The cast of characters he plucked from obscurity in New Jersey all those years ago returning...

A big chunk of the magic of the "Clerks" franchise is the back-and-forth between its titular clerks, Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson). The two can bicker about almost anything, from independent contractors working on the Death Star in "Star Wars" to the logic of going to a video rental store when you work in one, and their banter is always a lot of fun. The two characters have grown over the years, but they're still arguing the day away in the trilogy-ending "Clerks III," now available to buy or rent on home video. Not only have the dorky duo starred in three "Clerks" films and a cartoon series, but they were also the stars of a short film called "The Flying Car" that debuted on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" back in 2002.

O'Halloran and Anderson sat down for an exclusive interview with /Film's Ethan Anderton,...

Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson have been in plenty of films over the years, but most people know them best as Dante Hicks and Randal Graves in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse films, in particular, his "Clerks" trilogy. Smith skyrocketed to superstardom after his 1994 breakout hit, "Clerks," which perfectly encapsulated the budding Gen X slacker culture of the 1990s. Dante is dragged into covering a shift at the Quick Stop mini-mart on his day off, putting up with the hijinks of customers, friends, random degenerates in the neighborhood, and ultra-slacker Randal, who doesn't even make an attempt to actually work at the Rst Video rental store next door. The film was a massive success, spawning two sequels, an animated series, a live-action TV pilot, and a making-of documentary.

Smith's follow-up film was another slacker comedy — the 1995 hit, "Mallrats." That movie centered on another pair of friends who show up at...

"Clerks III" arrives on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD today, bringing the emotionally charged comedy sequel home so you can enjoy a laugh and shed a tear over and over again. Inspired by writer/director Kevin Smith's real-life brush with death, the movie may be more intimate and personal than any other film in the director's career. But even beyond that, "Clerks III" acts a nostalgic reflection upon the franchise that gave Smith the legacy in pop culture that he continues to this day. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson have been there since Day 1 playing the titular workers Dante and Randal, and now they're here at what may or may not be the end for these characters. 

In honor of the home video release of "Clerks III," we had a spoiler-filled discussion with the franchise's stars to find out as much as we could about making this emotional chapter in Kevin Smith's filmography.

In Kevin Smith's 1994 breakout comedy hit "Clerks," Gen X slacker and Quick Stop employee Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and his friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) — who works at Rst Video, the video rental store next door — spend most of their days playing hockey on the Quick Stop rooftop, shooting the s*** about the pop culture they love, and, every so often, actually doing their jobs. By the time we catch up with the pair 28 years later in "Clerks III," not much has changed until, naturally, everything does.

Where 2006's "Clerks II" saw Smith turn the irreverent lens of his View Askewniverse onto the fast food industry, "Clerks III" finds him looking inward. Its story begins with Randal suffering a near-fatal heart attack, an event that inspires him to make a movie about his and Dante's lives at the Quick Stop. The film's inciting incident is, of course, based on...

Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), the reluctant leaders of the slacker generation are back with "Clerks III," a surprisingly personal film from Kevin Smith to cap off his Quick Stop trilogy. Shot on a shoestring budget in stark black and white, the original "Clerks" was part of the new school of American indie cinema during the '90s, a fully self-aware decade that wasn't afraid to hold up a pop culture mirror to comment on a new breed of kids that had zero motivation and A Lot of attitude. Smith's conversational style made "Clerks" feel like we were hanging out with our deadbeat friends, somehow having the time of our lives having deathly serious conversations about the innocent deaths of independent contractors aboard the Death Star. The sequel, aptly named "Clerks II," showed how the corporatization of America helped to destroy the rebellious spirits of Dante and Randal,...

A Sunday evening in 2018: Kevin Smith was sweating profusely. The director had been feeling nauseous, too, but he’d put that down to the fact he was in the middle of filming two stand-up sets for a special. And then, in his dressing room at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California, he collapsed on the floor and vomited all over the tiles. At Glendale Memorial Hospital, Smith learnt he’d suffered a massive heart attack known as the “widow-maker”. Smith’s doctor put his chances of survival at 17 per cent. “I know I’m lucky,” says the 52-year-old director, down the line from Chicago. “For the last five years I’ve been meeting people who’ll say: ‘Oh, my brother had your widow-maker.’ ‘How’s he doing?’ ‘He’s dead.’ It really just comes down to chance.”

In fact, as heart attacks go, Smith’s didn’t turn out so bad.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Series: "Andor"

Where You Can Stream It: Disney+

The Pitch: You've seen "Star Wars" as a space opera, founded on "A New Hope." Here's what it looks like as a dystopian, sci-fi, prison work culture.

As the umpteenth "Andor" article on the interweb since the show's premiere, you have no reason to read this, and the recent episode title, "Nobody's Listening," has already prepared this writer for the likelihood that any further thoughts will — as the warden of Shawshank State Prison once put it — quickly up and vanish "like a fart in the wind." But I'm going to go ahead and load them up in a pneumatic tube, anyway, and send it along like a message in a bottle from a watery space prison.

One of the weirdest things about getting older are those moments when you look around and suddenly realize everybody else looks ancient too; your family, friends, and those celebrities and movie stars you grew up watching and assumed would stay young forever.

My brain still struggles to compute the fact that Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp are both almost 60. Pitt still looks great; I have no data to support this, but I'm sure millions of middle-aged men were inspired to renew their gym membership after he took his shirt off in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." On the flip side, Depp now looks like a guy who lives on a canal boat with several cats.

Belated remakes and reboots can show their age, too. "Trainspotting" was the acerbic voice of a restless generation, while the cringey retread of the "Choose Life" speech in the sequel was just like Grandpa Simpson yelling at clouds.

Kevin Smith has directed eight feature films since 2006's "Clerks II" — including "Clerks III," it so happens — but "Clerks II" might function best as the coda to his body of work. In the film, Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson), now in their early 40s, have been reduced to working at a low-price fast food joint called Mooby's to make ends meet. Dante is poised to marry his fiancée Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach) and move to Florida to run a car wash. This has Dante facing an existential crisis, as he is actually in love with his manager Becky (Rosario Dawson), with whom he had an affair. Randall, too, is thrown into an existential crisis by the impending absence of his best friend. The future doesn't look bright. The decisions these characters make in "Clerks II" will essentially come to define their adulthoods, and they are still, in many ways,...

It's interesting how the first and third "Clerks" films act as time capsules for Kevin Smith's life. 1994's "Clerks," the first movie Smith ever wrote and directed, is a comedy inspired by his time working at a convenience store. 2022's "Clerks III" similarly nods to the heart attack that nearly killed Smith in 2018. Neither one of them is what you would call a memoir, but there are clear biographical aspects to both of these films.

Then you have "Clerks II." The 2006 film more or less picks up with "Clerks" duo Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) in real-time as they transition from tedious, low-paying jobs at convenience stores to tedious, low-paying jobs at a fast food joint. Dante, however, soon finds himself at a crossroads. Will be marry his affluent fiancée Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach) and leave New Jersey to run her family's business in Florida? Or...

Filmmaker Kevin Smith started his career by making a movie with his friends, and honestly, nothing's really changed. The prolific writer and director recently released his goodbye to the View Askewniverse, "Clerks III," and pulled out all of the stops bringing his famous (and not-so-famous) friends together for one last hurrah.

There are so many cameos in "Clerks III" that it's almost difficult to determine what's a cameo and what's simply someone reprising a role from one of the other Askewniverse films, but that's honestly part of the fun. After all, this is a universe where there are at least five different men walking around looking and sounding like Ben Affleck, including a brand new one introduced in "Clerks III."

Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are back, of course, along with a few other View Askewniverse favorites that actually have too much screen-time to be "cameos," but there...

Independent movies have been a thing for just about as long as movies have been a popular form of entertainment. But there was a point in the '90s when major studios realized that indie movies could also be good business, and Miramax was at the cutting edge of that movement, acquiring a string of films out of the festival circuit and turning them into hits. Miramax, founded by Bob Weinstein and the since-disgraced Harvey Weinstein (who is currently in prison), was so successful that Disney ended up buying the company in 1993.

Miramax wanted to prove that it could still do what it had always done despite being owned by the Mouse House. So, in 1994, the studio went to Sundance and went on a spending spree. Most notably, it acquired Quentin Tarantino's all-time classic "Pulp Fiction," which went on to become a gigantic hit and perhaps one of the...

With the release of Clerks III and the ninth appearance of Jay and Silent Bob, what would you like to ask its creator and star?

Actor and director Kevin Smith’s career started with an unexpected success story: 1994’s Clerks, a raunchy comedy based on the convenience store where Smith once worked, filmed for 25,000 and funded by credit cards and favours from friends.

It has since spawned nine films in what Smith calls the View Askewniverse. You’ll know Silent Bob and his friend Jay (Jason Mewes) from Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks II – and now Clerks III. In this latest, Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) from the original Clerks has survived a heart attack, and wants to make a movie with Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) about their lives at the Quick Stop.

Clerks III was originally set during a hurricane—Hurricane Sandy, to be exact. In the fallout from that cataclysmic event, we would’ve found lovable counterculture antiheroes Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) older and definitely the worse for wear after the floods swept away their Quick Stop convenience store like an act of God. From that on, things would’ve just gone downhill for the pair.

This is the concept Kevin Smith turned into the first draft of Clerks III, and the one he presented to an audience with a live-reading of the script at the First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, NJ in 2019—the same place where Smith did auditions for the original Clerks movie nearly 30 years earlier.

However, by the time of that Clerks III’s live-reading, Smith already knew it wouldn’t be the version of the story to finally make it to the big screen.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on September 15th, 2022, reviewing “Clerks III,” the third film in Kevin Smith’s New Jersey convenience story trilogy. Currently in theaters after opening on September 13th.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

When we last encountered Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), they had bought the Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey, and continue their drab lives as Clerks. Along for the ride is Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob, the weed dealers who hang out in the store’s parking lot, and the usual gang of customers and fellow travelers. When the forty-something Randal has a heart attack, he decides to stop obsessing about movies, and actually make one. So his new movie “Inconvenience” starts to film, making “Clerks III” a meta movie which is a movie that was once a movie.

“Clerks III” is currently in theaters.

Kevin Smith's latest film, "Clerks III," catches up with the characters of Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) after their brief dalliance with low-level employment at a burger joint in 2006's "Clerks II." At the end of that film, Dante and Randall found themselves directionless after spending their 40s in minimum-wage jobs. Dante left his fiancée, and the pair found themselves in jail with the perpetual stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith). Dante and Randall found that their way out of their rut was to go back. Using weed money from Jay and Silent Bob, Dante and Randall merely bought the convenience store they felt trapped in back in the original "Clerks."

It was a happy ending for Dante and Randall, but also a declaration from Smith. Staying put (critics might say stagnating) was, Smith declared, a form of triumph.

In "Clerks III," however, Dante...

Whatever criticisms might be lobbed at Clerks III — most of them valid — it is undeniably the film Kevin Smith set out to make. The director’s third visit to the Quick Stop is part reunion, part remake, part midlife crisis, and only partly funny. But there’s also a sincerity that elevates it and a vulnerability that makes it unique from the rest of his work. It’s Smith’s best film in over a decade, make of that what you will.

Smith wrote the script for this trilogy-capper after suffering a near-fatal heart attack several years back and once again pulls from real life for this latest installment, which finds convenience store owners Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) making a movie about their life experiences after Randal suffers his own “widow-maker.”

There’s a strong case to be made that this is a two-hour version of a snake eating its own tail,...

Smith’s geeky comedy is as lightweight as ever, but it retains its charm in the unlikely franchise’s third outing

Having launched his wobbly, weird career with the ultra-low-budget Clerks in 1994, Kevin Smith comes back full circle with a third bite at the cherry, a more lushly produced package than the trilogy’s originator but with the same old scrappy, scattershot mix of gags about adolescent genitalia and bodily fluids, geeky pop-culture references, and natural comic timing. Like the junk food that the central characters sell in their convenience store, it’s a strangely moreish brew that you enjoy but feel faintly guilty about consuming, like nachos with cheese-flavoured sauce or a blue slushy ice drink.

Smith has dabbled in making more conventional features, done standup comedy, podcasting and owned a bricks-and-mortar comic book store, but he knows that the Clerks franchise will always be his legacy. That means...

(This post contains major spoilers for "Clerks III." Please proceed with caution.)

After establishing the View Askewniverse with "Clerks" back in 1994, Kevin Smith has explored a number of relatively deep topics with his filmography. In his own foul-mouthed, pop culture reference-filled way, he touched on sexuality, religion, race, and parenthood over the years. But he has never tackled anything more heart-wrenching (both literally and figuratively) than "Clerks III."

As the trailers reveal, tragedy strikes the Quick Stop when Randal Graves suffers a heart attack. However, that negative is turned into a positive when he decides to start making a movie instead of just watching them. However, what we learn when the film finally debuts in theaters is that this isn't the first hardship that the iconic New Jersey convenience store suffered since we last saw it in "Clerks II."

Shortly after the events of the last film, Dante Hicks' partner...

This article contains spoilers for "Clerks III."

In Kevin Smith's newest film, "Clerks III," he catches up with Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) about a decade after the events of "Clerks II." At the end of the previous chapter, Dante and Randall, after struggling through a painful span as low-paying fast-food employees, came to the conclusion that they were happiest back when they were hanging out together in the convenience store where they worked in their 20s. With a loan from Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith), Dante and Randall bought the Quick Stop outright, and hunkered down in a familiar setting. Sometimes, stagnating can be a positive thing. 

Additionally, Dante had split up with his mean-spirited fiancée, and was all set to settle down with his new fiancée Becky (Roasrio Dawson), his manager at the burger joint in "Clerks II." Becky and Dante are a good pair,...

This interview contains a major spoiler for "Clerks III," so don't read on if you haven't seen the movie.

Kevin Smith's return to the "Clerks" franchise gets more heartbreaking than any of the filmmaker's previous comedic efforts. All of his movies have had some semblance of heart, especially "Chasing Amy," but when it comes to "Clerks III," there are two different layers of emotional weight at play here. First, the film draws inspiration from Smith's own life by having Quick Stop co-owner Randal Graves suffer a near-fatal heart attack that inspires him to do something with his life, which means making his own "Clerks" movie about the convenience store shenanigans he's experienced with his partner-in-convenience, Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran). But Randal isn't the only one struggling with his place in life.

Early on in "Clerks III," we're given the shocking revelation that Dante's "Clerks II" love interest Becky, played enchantingly by Rosario Dawson,...

If you read Gold Derby’s September box office preview, you already know that there are indeed movies being released this month, but not to expect too much from many of them. Even so, there are a few films that should keep moviegoers happy until the next superhero flick, hopefully. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

This week’s biggest and widest release is Sony’s “The Woman King,” starring Oscar winner Viola Davis as Nanisca, the titular ruler of the Kingdom of Dahomey, a powerful African state during the 18th and 19th centuries that fought back slaves and rival tribes alike. Sony is releasing the movie into 3,500 theaters, with lots of room at the multiplexes for a unique style of historic war epic.

“The Woman King” teams Davis with filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood, and it offers something for Black women, who have been deeply underserved in recent months.

(The following article contains spoilers for "Clerks III." Please proceed with caution.)

When "Clerks: The Animated Series" debuted on ABC in the year 2000, fans of Kevin Smith's 1994 breakout film had many questions. The first one may have been, "Why did ABC cancel the show before airing all six episodes in their proper order?" Actually, the first question was probably, "Why did ABC agree to do a 'Clerks' show in the first place?" But at some point after that, the fanbase likely wondered if the cartoon was considered part of the View Askewniverse canon or not. Now, 22 years after Dante and Randal's stint on prime time television, they finally have an answer: Kind of.

After the events of the show weren't referenced in the 2006 sequel "Clerks II," Smith has finally acknowledged the ongoing adventures of New Jersey's favorite clerks in his movies thanks to "Clerks III." In the...

Clerks III Review — Clerks III (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Austin Zajur, Lisa Hampton, Scott Schiaffo, Dave Ferrier, Aj Wilkerson, Ben Affleck, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Long and [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Clerks III (2022): Kevin Smith Ends a Trilogy with Heartfelt Sincerity and Many Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Scenes...

Joseph Gatt as Ram Kady in co-directors Samuel Gonzalez Jr., Bridget Smith, and Michael Lombardi’s The Retaliators. Photo: Better Noise Films If you take a gander at the evocative one sheet for Bridget Smith and Samuel Gonzalez Jr.’s The Retaliators and wonder what subgenre of horror the film is appropriating,...

When costume designer Allison Pearce signed on for “Clerks III,” everything she needed to know on the research front was there in black and white — literally.

“I knew going in this would be a very research-heavy project,” she recalled. “In ‘Clerks III,’ there’s this portion of the script where there is a movie-within-a-movie. It’s all realizing things that happened in [‘Clerks’], so we recreated it. All of it was based on this research I did and screenshots of a VHS tape we were looking at.”

The final chapter in writer-director Kevin Smith’s trilogy following the low-stakes retail misadventures of Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) and the two well-traveled pot dealers who loiter outside their workplaces is the first time Pearce and the filmmaker have collaborated. To get a comprehensive grasp on the clothing in Smith’s catalog, she rewatched every single entry in his View Askewniverse and beyond.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That may be the overriding theme of Clerks III, the third, and perhaps final, entry in writer-director Kevin Smith’s Quick Stop convenience story trilogy that has been the anchor for nearly his entire canon of films.

While certain life-shaking events have taken place in the 16 years since Smith made Clerks II—events which we won’t reveal here—the new movie gets the most mileage out of familiar situations and characters in the orbit of the Quick Stop, the fictional New Jersey store based on Smith’s own early work history at a convenience store before he became a filmmaker.

Yet while the film retains much of the often coarse, crude humor of many of Smith’s earlier View Askewniverse movies, and while his filmmaking style still usually hinges on long, static shots of people just standing around and talking,...

Brian OÕHalloran as Dante and Jeff Anderson as Randal in Clerks III. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

Alright you slackers, Labor Day’s in the rearview mirror. Time to “hit the bricks” and get back to work. If your first thought is “Aw, no”, “Ugh!”, or…something we can’t repeat here, then this film might resonate with you. At least that’s what a New Jersey-born filmmaker hopes, since that notion “put him on the map” nearly thirty years ago. And if your earlier response included the “salty talk”, then all the better. Hard to imagine that in 1994 Kevin Smith fashioned a script of his retail drudgery and unleashed Clerks on the world. Soon he was the darling of TV talk shows, getting offers from the major studios, and even flexed his “acting chops” (plus the grungy lil’ black and white was another jewel in the “indie cred crown” of Miramax Studios…...

While she did make a relatively brief appearance in 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, as a completely different character, Kevin Smith’s Clerks III marks Rosario Dawson’s first major return to Smith’s View Askewniverse since her character Becky Scott debuted in Clerks II back in 2006.

By the end of that film, the sexually liberated, commitment-averse Becky had become pregnant with the child of Clerks mainstay Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and accepted his sudden proposal of marriage. But the thing about happy endings is they only work if you stop the story at a certain point. Hence why Dawson tells Den of Geek that she was surprised when she read the script for the new movie and learned that Dante and Becky’s journey veers in quite a different direction (which we won’t reveal here).

“He didn’t tell me,” Dawson recalls. “I had to read it [and] experience it for myself.