Clerks III Review: Dante and Randal Relive Past Glories
Clerks III follows on from writer-director Kevin Smith’s debut movie from 1994 and it’s sequel from 2006. Once again we are in the company of Randal, played by Jeff Anderson, and Dante, played by Brian O’Halloran, two life-long friends who, for as long as we’ve known them, have stood behind a shop counter unleashing comic riffs, often Star Wars related, verbally sparring with members of the public, and generally whiling away their lives without much ambition. In this third instalment the two central characters have a full-blown mid-life crisis, as Randal has a heart-attack, which leads him to try and impose meaning on his life by turning into a movie. And that movie is… a recreation of Clerks and Clerks II.
Smith’s previous two Clerks instalments were impressive exercises in minimalist comic writing and directing, made up of genuinely funny vignettes that neatly slotted together in the absence of a plot. However, Clerks III does not contain one comic riff that compares to the brilliance of those first two movies, such as Randal’s inspired discussion of the contractors who built the Death Star from Clerks, or his mopey demonstration of how the Lord of the Rings movies are a trilogy about walking from Clerks II. Yes, Randal’s Star Wars shtick has been updated to include The Mandalorion, and the new Star Wars movies, but that’s all they are, references, without a comic riff built around them.
But what Clerks III does have is emotional depth and resonance. It is widely known that Kevin Smith had a heart-attack in 2018, and was given a twenty percent chance of survival by his doctor. He has written this scene, plus nerdy quips, for his character Randal, and it is the fallout from this, and its effect on his friendship with Dante, that gives Clerks III its strongest moments. In this third iteration, Dante is a man whose loyalty is stretched to breaking point by his friend’s egotism. One can feel the years and the grievances bubbling up. He is also broken hearted and struggling with life. It must be said that O’Halloran’s performance is the heart of the film, and he deserves warm praise for going way beyond the irritable comic delivery of I and II, managing to achieve, where necessary, an intense emotional pitch. His few scenes with Rosario Dawson, who fans will remember as Becky Scott from Clerks II, are genuinely affecting.
The central conceit of the Clerks III, that Randal and Dante are making a movie of their lives as store workers, much as Smith did back in the day, stays just on the right side of self-indulgent. Certainly, long-standing fans of the franchise will be delighted to witness recreations of scenes from the first two movies, played by some of the same actors, even if these scenes go on a little too long and seem to stand in place of any actual plot. None of this is done cynically, however. It is instead done with a genuine affection for the past. The film’s final third is Kevin Smith, who had a close brush with death, looking back over his life and signature achievements; it is the principal actors looking back and re-living what must have been an extraordinary time in their lives; and it is an opportunity for film-lovers of a certain age to recall what it felt like to be young, discovering an hilarious, expletive filled, black and white indie movie back in 1994. Nostalgia is not always a dirty word.
Clerks III does not truly stand on its own in the way that that I and II did, but it does provide a fitting coda – satisfyingly, poignantly, closing the circle of this loveable trilogy. Bring on the boxset.
Clerks III is available on digital 14th November, and on DVD and Blu-ray 26th December 2022.
