Movie Review: 'Clerks 3' is Funny and Genuinely Moving

Clerks 3

Directed by Kevin Smith

Written by Kevin Smith

Starring Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith

Release Date September 13th to the 18th, 2022 in theaters

Kevin Smith Clerks 3 Convenience Tour 2022 September 4th through November 14th, 2022

I cannot be objective regarding the work of Kevin Smith. I am an unabashed Smith fan. I’ve loved everything Kevin has done. Clerks was a moment in my life, the first time I really identified with characters who reminded me of slightly more witty versions of myself and my friends. The film’s foul sensibilities, outrageous dialogue, and those wonderful characters spoke to me like no movie characters’ had before.

Subsequently, Mallrats came out and I loved it to pieces. Then came Chasing Amy and it spoke to me about romance and sex in a way I didn’t think movies were capable of. I was 19 years old and only beginning to experience the possibilities of how movies can communicate with the audience. Dogma hits differently when you are first exploring the idea of faith and the absence of God in your life. It seemed as if Kevin Smith was speaking directly to me, like he was speaking with a friend.

Now, with the arrival of Clerks 3, the conversation between Kevin Smith and myself has changed. We’re in our middle age. We’re both pondering questions about our health and our future. Smith in particular has come back from a heart attack a few years ago that completely changed his life and his approach to work and family. The questions about life, death and love that were part of Kevin Smith’s real life are the questions he takes on in Clerks 3 via his dual avatars, Randall and Dante.

Clerks 3 begins by establishing the current status quo of the Clerks universe. Randall and Dante are now the owners and operators of the Kwik Stop Convenience store. Jay and Silent Bob are now legitimate business owners who operate their own legal weed shop out of the former video store next to the Kwik Stop. Dante is married, Randall is not. Their days are filled with the same inane pop culture conversations broken up by the usual customers and Randall’s unending need to mock their only employee, Elias (Trevor Fehrman), a holdover from Dante and Randall’s time working at Mooby’s in Clerks 2.

In the midst of mocking Elias’s conversion to Christianity, Randall begins to feel sick. Though he’s still able to launch a few stinging verbal jabs, Randall becomes faint and passes out. Randall has suffered a very serious heart attack. At the hospital, while Dante frets and Elias renounces his faith after believing he was responsible for Randall’s heart attack, we learn that Randall has suffered what his doctor calls a ‘Widowmaker,’ a heart attack that tends to be fatal.

Coming out of it alive, Randall’s big life change involves making a movie about life at the Kwik Stop. With Dante’s help with getting money, hiring the cast and crew, and generally doing everything behind the scenes, Randall writes a script that is familiar to those who are familiar with the original Clerks canon. The movie includes playing hockey on the roof, mocking customers, closing the store to attend a funeral, and roles for Jay and Silent Bob that will be easy for them to play.

Clerks 3 is a near perfect combination of nostalgia and the continuation of a story. Writer-director Kevin Smith has both matured and returned to his roots in the most lovely way. While we are still treated to Smith’s style of raunchy banter, it’s the surprising amount of heart and pathos in the friendship between Dante and Randall that makes Clerks 3 so wonderful. Again, I can’t speak objectively, I was destined to love Clerks 3, but that aside for a moment, Clerks 3 is earnestly emotional in a way that Smith’s work hasn’t been since his best movie, Chasing Amy.

In fact, I wasn’t prepared for the kinds of emotions that Clerks 3 elicits. The plot is filled with surprises, especially in the 3rd act, and none of it feels contrived or undermined by Smith’s brand of raunchy humor. The roller coaster of big laughs and genuine emotions along with just the right touch of pondering the meaning of life and the nature of friendship and romantic love, is what makes Clerks 3 so incredible. Kevin Smith’s still relatively recent brush with death has given him the courage to grow up in new and unexpected ways.

I adore Clerks 3. The film is wildly, outrageously, funny. Smit is unafraid of embracing nostalgia while also exploring new and deeper ideas about life. If you’re like me, a long time fan of the View Askew-niverse movies and Kevin Smith’s podcast mythos, you will love Clerks 3. You will be moved by Clerks 3 in the most unexpected way and you will laugh as much or more than you did while watching the first two Clerks films.

Clerks 3 will be going on tour this fall and winter season with director Kevin Smith. The film will be in theaters courtesy of Fathom Events from September 13th thru September 18th, 2022. Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.Blogspot.com. You can follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean and follow the archive blog at SeanattheMovies. If you like what you’ve read, consider subscribing to my work here on Vocal, leave a tip or pledge to support my writing here on Vocal at the prompts below.