Clerks (1994)
Hello you. Make a cup of tea. Put a record on.
Put on Parklife. Not the title track, that’s too obvious. Go with End of a Century. Blur were soundtracking mid-90s malaise while Kevin Smith was scraping together credit cards and selling his comic books to make a film about two blokes who hate their jobs. Both knew the truth: existence is dull repetition, punctuated by moments of absurdity. Let’s talk about Clerks.
Pressing Play
It’s 1994. Oasis has just released Definitely Maybe. Channel 4 is airing Eurotrash long past your bedtime, and lads are discovering Loaded magazine while pretending they read it for the articles. Across the pond, Smith is filming a scrappy little movie in the convenience store where he works. It shouldn’t work. No stars, no budget, no plot. Just two blokes behind a counter, talking shit and killing time. And yet, it does.
What Makes This Film Unique
Clerks isn’t about what happens. It’s about the endless, mind-numbing conversations that fill the gaps between the things that happen. It’s a film where two guys debate Star Wars logistics, slag off customers, and contemplate whether life has already passed them by before they’ve even turned thirty. This is Waiting for Godot if Godot was an arsehole buying cigarettes.
Smith’s genius wasn’t just writing dialogue. It was capturing the rhythms of conversations you’ve already had a hundred times, in jobs you didn’t care about, with people you couldn’t be bothered to hate. The kind of mate you don’t like enough to call after you quit, but you’d still go to the pub with if you run into them. If Friends was the sanitised, aspirational version of being in your twenties, Clerks was what it actually felt like: dull, meandering, and, on rare occasions, hilarious.
Personal Connection and Relatability
If you’ve ever had a job that felt like a prison sentence with worse pay, Clerks understands. If you’ve ever looked at a colleague and thought, if I have to listen to you breathe for one more shift, I will throw myself into traffic, Clerks sees you. Dante and Randal are trapped, not just in their dead-end jobs but in their own inertia. They could leave. They won’t. They could change their lives. They can’t be arsed. You’ve been there. Maybe you’re still there.
Filmmaker’s Vision and Impact
Smith shot Clerks for $27,575—less than the catering budget of a studio film. He filmed at night in the actual shop where he worked, forcing the script to explain why the shutters stayed down. The black-and-white wasn’t an artistic statement. It was just what he could afford. Every decision in Clerks was dictated by necessity, yet that’s what makes it work. The film looks and feels cheap because it is cheap. That’s the point. This is about people who don’t aspire to anything more than the bare minimum.
It could have been even bleaker. The original ending had Dante getting shot, a final, nihilistic punchline. Smith scrapped it, realising that existential dread lingers longer when it doesn’t get a dramatic conclusion. Life doesn’t end with a bullet. It just keeps going, whether you want it to or not.
"This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers." – Randal Graves.
You’ll Like This If
You’ve ever wasted an entire shift arguing about whether Empire Strikes Back is better than Return of the Jedi.
You enjoy films that feel like you’re eavesdropping on actual conversations.
The idea of two slackers telling customers to fuck off speaks to your soul.
You Won’t Like This If
You need a film to have a plot.
You prefer your comedy without crude, existential despair.
Swearing offends you, in which case, why are you even here?
For Fans Of
If you loved Slacker (1990), you’ll appreciate Clerks. Both films reject traditional storytelling in favour of characters wandering aimlessly, talking about nothing and everything all at once.
Look Out For
The "Milk Maid," played by Kevin Smith’s mother, Grace Smith. She spends an absurd amount of time searching for the perfect milk carton, a quiet, hilarious reminder of how we all distract ourselves from the horror of existence.
Why You Should Care
Clerks matters because it makes being stuck feel seen. It doesn’t offer solutions. It doesn’t tell you to chase your dreams. It just sits in the grim reality of daily existence and says, yeah, it’s shit, but at least you’ve got someone to talk to. This is a film about wasting your life one conversation at a time. And maybe that’s all life is.
See you on down the road.
If You Like This, Try This
Mallrats (1995). More money, more gags, but the same Kevin Smith DNA. Just with less existential dread and more comic book references.
Further Reading
