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Kevin Smith movies can sometimes read as un-reviewable. Take in point “Clerks III,” which more often has the feel of a behind-the-scenes feature, a home movie, or a commemorative issue than a film that should be taken on its own and judged for creativity and intent. It’s good with its minimal creative aspirations, and it can be as personal for the fans as it is for him, a teary-eyed businessman who made movies you may love. That is its selling point: you won't get much that's new or memorable—like when you first saw " Clerks "—but you will be able to revisit the making of it.

Is "Clerks III" at least funny in its own right? Yes, at least in the warming way of seeing foul-mouthed Randal ( Jeff Anderson ) again, winding grossed-out customers up from behind the counter of the Quick Stop convenience store in New Jersey, standing with his long-time buddy Dante (Brian O’Halloran). It’s equally curious and bizarre to see Randal and Dante still at the Quick Stop, like employees frozen in carbonite since reopening the store in the last movie. But Smith's writing isn't about doing something special with this labored depiction of arrested development, he's too focused on just making it about "Clerks."

There's also a funny life change for religious Transformers fan Elias ( Trevor Fehrman ) from “Clerks II,” which this movie leans into as its best ongoing joke with various appearance changes, parallel to tedious jokes about NFTs and his silent companion, Blockchain ( Austin Zajur ). Then there are loitering drug dealers Jay ( Jason Mewes ) and Silent Bob (Smith), who now own the video store next door, and have naturally turned it into a THC shop. They have a few dim-witted moments of self-realization that made me chuckle.

“Clerks III” is a movie about the main characters of “Clerks” making a movie called “Inconvenience,” virtually remaking “Clerks” for us shot by shot. Randal suffers a heart attack (a “widow maker” with 80% chance of not winning, as Smith experienced himself) and it leads to an epiphany. Poignantly, he says “I saw the whole movie of my life flash before my eyes, and you know what? It sucked.” Randal wants to make a movie about everything he's seen at the Quick Stop, and as a former video store employee, he should know how. He hires—forces, really—Dante to become his producer, and the production will shoot inside the Quick Stop and use memories, putting the latest strain on their relationship. It’s clear when anyone reads the script as to who’s who—Dante is a “Dan T” (a funny joke), and Dante's exes are in the mix too, like Veronica ( Marilyn Ghigliotti ). Eye-rolling as much as he ever does, Dante is not amused but he goes along with it.

The George Lucas of his own View Askew Universe, Smith has created his mini blockbusters that parallel the larger business. Here, he has the same idea as successful products like “ Avengers: Endgame ” or “ Top Gun: Maverick .” But where those movies bring back familiar characters, beats, and moments for a story that could stand on its own, Smith’s approach is just to rely on every part of the making of “Clerks,” to punch it up with easter eggs, and actors that you’d only be amused to see if you remembered their two-minute bit in “Clerks.” There's no larger plot though, and the big surprises only come from cameos ( Amy Sedaris , Justin Long , and Ben Affleck are amusing in particular).

The meta storytelling of "Clerks III" gets flatter and flatter when it’s about paying tribute to Smith’s own eureka moments and filmmaking back in the '90s than what Randal as an individual character does. Sure, it’s cute that Randal's crew has a mic on a hockey stick, as the boom mic used for “Clerks” really was, or that they repeat a nauseating car sequence where the camera, in the back seat, leaps from Randal and Dante with each line while talking about not going to film school. But there are so many scenes of “Clerks III” that are so beholden to the text of “Clerks,” with actors brought back to play the same role, recreating a shot. It’s here that the movie-within-the-movie is not about Randal, but just Smith rehashing it, championing his references for existing. There are plenty of “I’m not even supposed to be here today” references, including a final one that feels like a sell-out because of the clunky and grave importance foisted upon it.

At the very least, "Clerks III" gives us more time with Anderson’s Randal, and it’s warming to see him treated as more than just the devil on Dante’s shoulder, as he is in the previous movies. Anderson gets to shape something of an arc with this character while Dante remains stuck in tedious preoccupations with relationships that have never had their desired emotional impact. And when Smith eventually brings it back to the ultimate love story—between that of Dante and Randal—it feels more about going through the motions than a grand statement about friendship.

"Clerks III" comes from the heart, but with such minimal dramatic tact. Aside from the numerous times Smith goes for the swells of recognition, he can easily let other elements do the work: a wistful ballad played out in full; O’Halloran’s wet eyes in sad scenes that hit like commercial breaks and are meant to squeeze him and us for tears; the inclusion of bracing death as the ultimate reminder that such preciousness is justified.

Familiarity with Smith's previous movies is not as crucial to enjoying “Clerks III” so much as sentimentality. And for as welcome as its sentimentality is, “Clerks III” shows Smith wanting points simply for embracing it. Sometimes it is enough, at least while the movie is unfolding (the charms faded fast for me the minute it was over). With “Clerks III,” nostalgia is its own convenience for Smith. It’s cheap and fleeting, but it is comforting.

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Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Clerks III (2022)

Rated R for pervasive language, crude sexual material, and drug content.

100 minutes

Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves

Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks

Jason Mewes as Jay

Kevin Smith as Silent Bob

Rosario Dawson as Becky

Marilyn Ghigliotti as Veronica Loughran

Trevor Fehrman as Elias Grover

Jennifer Schwalbach Smith as Emma

Austin Zajur as Brian

Scott Schiaffo as Chewlie's Rep

Justin Long as Nurse

Harley Quinn Smith as Milly

Kevin Smith

Cinematographer

Learan Kahanov
James Venable

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Clerks III Reviews

So, is Clerks III worth the 16 year wait? It was even better than I, as a longtime fan, could have ever expected

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 29, 2024

The economic anxiety that drove the first movie and remained present in the second is completely absent in the third, and not just because Dante and Randal have become their own bosses.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 20, 2024

So, yes, Clerks III is a bit of an unfunny mess, and it often highlights Smith's weaknesses as a filmmaker, but when it works, it really, really works.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 4, 2023

Smith does succeed in his apparent goal to make us longtime fans feel mournful and old -- but why did he want to make us feel that way?

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Dec 27, 2022

I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever seen a sequel that put less effort into expanding on its source material in any meaningful way.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 23, 2022

It initially appears to be even more aimless and pointless than Clerks II, but it grows in appeal as it moseys along.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 12, 2022

I'd be lying if I said "the sad stuff" doesn't work, and I'm not one of those critics who's going to downrate something if the emotions are stronger than the aesthetics when that IS the important part.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 11, 2022

Clerks III might not win Smith many new admirers, but for fans of the original -- and viewers of a certain age -- this will strike enough of a chord to leave you entertained and emotionally satisfied.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2022

You could call it “meta,” but I feel like that word deserves something more sophisticated than what’s on the screen. And yet, it works.

Full Review | Oct 25, 2022

Clerks III puts the hash in rehash. Its lukewarm reminiscences will please the faithful, but beyond that, you’re likely better off watching Smith’s earlier, stronger work.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2022

The meta aspects of the story actually serve a greater emphasis on mortality — what it means to lose people, what it means to face your own death, and how that makes you consider what you’ll end up leaving behind.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2022

By time Clerks III ends, fans of the series are going to be stunned while wanting to enjoy the entire trilogy again for the first time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 29, 2022

Kevin Smith's Deeply Personal Goodbye To The Past

Full Review | Sep 27, 2022

While the jokes are hit-and-miss, the acting is uniformly solid, and the story is very cleverly written to accommodate, not only the original characters, but footage from the original film.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 24, 2022

Smith brings us his most raw and emotional film to date whilst not forgetting his comedy roots. A must see for fans of the franchise.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2022

“Clerks III” is like watching a singalong version of a popular movie musical — you know the songs, it’s more about the experience of singing together.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2022

The film plows into the psyche of grief, but there's still plenty of goofiness in word and deed.

For ageing Gen-Xers, however, there’s an irresistible sensibility underpinning the enterprise; they can’t call it a midlife crisis if you’ve always been disgruntled and surly.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2022

A solid idea for a conclusion quickly loses its way as the film becomes less a melancholic look back at a joyous moment for realizing one’s dream through independent filmmaking and more a stale look-at-me grasp of the glory days.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 22, 2022

This is possibly the best of the 3 Clerks films and one of the best of Smith’s films. It’s nice to see him back to form and see his work give more on an emotional level.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 22, 2022

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‘Clerks III’ Review: From the Heart

Kevin Smith revisits his convenience store characters, and his life, with this sequel.

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By Glenn Kenny

These days more than ever, personal filmmaking deserves to be celebrated merely for manifesting itself. Which doesn’t mean that personal filmmaking doesn’t come in some confounding forms.

From his first feature, the very low-budget, black-and-white “Clerks” (1994) , the writer-director Kevin Smith has only ever made movies about himself. Not just himself as a person, but himself as a sensibility: quick-witted, working-class, pop-culture-obsessive wiseass Jersey boy. In “Clerks” he put it across perfectly. In the film’s second sequel, “Clerks III,” he is not nearly as deft.

Paradoxically, some of this is because of Smith’s relative maturity. A husband and a father and a heart attack survivor who is now 52, he’s got more on his mind than being a wiseass. Instead of following up the 2006 film “Clerks II” with more of that picture’s profane exuberant absurdity, he brings back Dante and Randal and Jay and Silent Bob and does some stocktaking.

The movie is bouncy at first, though the actors Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, so rawly naturalistic in the earlier movies, here seem like they’re doing bits. Still, three words characterize the first third or so of the picture: not funny enough. As in, a new character is nicknamed Blockchain. Which is funnier than that character nicknamed Podcast in the most recent “Ghostbusters” movie , but, you know.

Randal has a heart attack, and, realizing he has to make something of his life, decides to direct a movie. About, yes, working at a convenience store. Not funny enough turns to often not funny, a star-studded audition scene (Ben Affleck! Danny Trejo! Freddie Prinze Jr.!) notwithstanding.

While Smith has often broken the fourth wall in his pictures, here he uses the make-a-movie plot to go big-time meta. But his idea of meta fails to split the difference between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the French New Novel. It has more the manner of a pinball in a machine that’s about to enter tilt mode.

For instance, at one point the trench-coated Silent Bob, played as ever by Smith, breaks character and, as Smith the filmmaker, lectures Randal about the hideous color scheme of a shot he’s framing. The joke falls flat, and not just because Smith’s visual mode is rarely mistaken for that of “The Red Shoes.”

The wobbly ending combines the confounding and frequently schticky meta mode with the forced sentimentality of that Nicole Kidman AMC Theaters promo . My rooting interest in Smith notwithstanding (full disclosure: I, too, am a wiseass Jersey boy), it made me wince.

Clerks III Rated R. It’s a Kevin Smith movie. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.

Cast & crew
User reviews

Kevin Smith, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, and Brian O'Halloran in Clerks III (2022)

Dante, Elias, and Jay and Silent Bob are enlisted by Randal after a heart attack to make a movie about the convenience store that started it all. Dante, Elias, and Jay and Silent Bob are enlisted by Randal after a heart attack to make a movie about the convenience store that started it all. Dante, Elias, and Jay and Silent Bob are enlisted by Randal after a heart attack to make a movie about the convenience store that started it all.

Kevin Smith
Brian O'Halloran
Jeff Anderson
Vincent Pereira
246 User reviews
105 Critic reviews
50 Metascore

Top cast 99+

Hockey Player
(as Michael Zapcic)

Hockey Player …

(as Ernie O'Donnell)

RST Customer

Elias' Mom
Elias' Dad

Blockchain Coltrane
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Trivia Originally, Kevin Smith announced in 2017 that Clerks 3 was off the table after a falling-out with his friend Jeff Anderson who had played Randal Graves in Clerks (1994) and Clerks II (2006) . Anderson had read the script but chose not to be involved; Smith canceled the project and made Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) instead. Two weeks before Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was released, however, Smith revealed that he had spent an entire day signing Clerks movie memorabilia together with Anderson and Jason Mewes (Jay). This reunion allowed them to patch things up, and provided him with so much inspiration that he immediately threw away the old script, and started working on a new one with ideas that Anderson was receptive to. According to Smith, it will be "a movie that concludes a saga [...] about how you're never too old to completely change your life [...] about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future."
Goofs When Dante is watching the finished film that they supposedly made recently, it was clearly just playing footage from the first two Clerks movies. And there was footage of Becky mixed in there, but she obviously couldn't have been part of making the movie since her character had died before the events of this movie.

Randal : Jay and Silent Bob are like C-3PO and R2-D2. They've been here since the first movie, which was the last time they were cool, but they've been with the franchise so long, they still give them cameos and put them on the lunch boxes.

Crazy credits During the last 3 1/2 minutes of credits, Kevin Smith is heard thanking the viewer for 'coming back to the store a third time' & reading an alternate voiceover ending written for the film.
Alternate versions The UK release was cut, this film had a compulsory cut made. A cut was required to remove a misleading non-BBFC rating symbol, in order to obtain a 15 classification. Cut made in accordance with BBFC policy. An uncut classification was not available.
Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: 2022 Catch-up Part 2 (2023)
Soundtracks Welcome to the Black Parade Performed by My Chemical Romance Written by Bob Bryar (as Robert Bryar), Frank Iero , Ray Toro (as Raymond Toro), Gerard Way , & Mikey Way (as Michael Way) Courtesy of Reprise Records By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film and TV Licensing

User reviews 246

helghast-1337
Oct 13, 2022
How long is Clerks III? Powered by Alexa
September 16, 2022 (United Kingdom)
United States
Quick Stop Groceries - 58 Leonard Avenue, Leonardo, New Jersey, USA (FIlming location)
Destro Films
Three Point Capital (TPC)
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$7,000,000 (estimated)
Sep 18, 2022

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes

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‘Clerks III’ Review: Nostalgia and Heart Make This Kevin Smith’s Best Film in Decades

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Over the past thirty years, Kevin Smith has had a wholly unique career with a filmography full of ups and downs that can be packaged into various phases. The first phase of Smith’s career gave us the View Askewniverse, an interconnected pentalogy of New Jersey stories that explored everything from a couple of guys hanging out at the mall to the potential end of existence thanks to a pair of renegade angels. The third phase of Smith’s career was a sharp right turn, as he tried his hand at horror with films like Red State and Tusk .

But in hindsight, maybe the most fascinating period of Smith’s career is the second phase that came between these two, a trilogy of films in which Smith embraced his more sentimental side. These films included Jersey Girl , an earnest and underrated look at fatherhood that Smith continues to mock to this day; Zack and Miri Make a Porno , in which Smith combined his penchant for dirty humor with a surprisingly gratifying romance; and Clerks II , Smith first return to the View Askewniverse, which took the world that he started with in 1994’s Clerks , but mixed that reminiscence of the past with an occasionally affecting story about two friends realizing they need each other. After Jersey Girl and Zack and MIri weren’t box office successes, Smith moved away from this more sentimental side of himself and packed it away, as he experimented in darker stories for almost a decade.

After his heart attack in 2018, Smith seemed ready to explore the View Askewniverse once more, but this time, by once again embracing that sentimentality. With 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot , not only did Jay ( Jason Mewes ) become a father, but Smith also reinvestigated his 1997 film Chasing Amy in a way that was both affecting and attempting to right the errors that film made decades prior. While Reboot was flawed to say the least, it seems to have kicked off Smith’s fourth phase, a way of revisiting his beloved characters with compassion and care, not necessarily returning to the well because he knows that works, but rather, Smith is furthering these stories with the heart that was often missing with these characters and stories. He tested it out before with Clerks II (particularly the wonderful third act that might be one of the best things Smith has ever done), and with Reboot , and now with Clerks III , we see the culmination of this combining of nostalgia and heart.

RELATED: The History Behind the Unaired 'Clerks' Live-Action TV Pilot

When we left Dante ( Brian O’Halloran ) and Randal ( Jeff Anderson ) at the end of Clerks II , this duo were back behind the counter at the Quick Stop, but now as owners. Dante was now engaged to Becky ( Rosario Dawson ) who had a kid on the way, while Randal was back where he had wanted to be: back with his best friend at the store where they made so many memories together.

If Clerks II was Smith exploring what Dante really wanted out of life, Clerks III becomes about Randal finally figuring out what he wants to do with the time he has left. Taking a page from Smith’s own experiences, Randal has a heart attack, and realizing how short life can be, decides he wants to make a film about his experiences at the Quick Stop over the years. With the help of Dante and Randal’s frequent punching bag Elias ( Trevor Fehrman ), Randal sets out to make his masterpiece.

As Smith’s filmography has grown and gone down some strange paths, the Clerks series has always felt like the most personal and best encapsulation of where he is in his career at any given point. Clerks , naturally, was his film, shot cheaply and fully informed by his time working at the Quick Stop convenience store. With Clerks II , Smith—as previously mentioned—found himself in a period where he seemed to really want to push himself forward, and did so here with surprisingly touching moments of friendship, and a clear desire to want to become a better filmmaker (who would’ve expected a dance sequence in Clerks II ?)

Clerks III continues this trend, as Smith not only delves into his experiences with his heart attack, but explores the joy he had making the original Clerks at the Quick Stop all those years ago. As Randal makes the film, we watch as he recreates moments from the 1994 film, complete with the original actors, and it’s one of the most joyous and charming things Smith has ever done. Smith isn’t telling the same story with a few more decades behind him, he’s exploring the glory days of his youth and showing the audience how life-changing and momentous chasing his passion was as a kid. These recreations are full of sly nods for fans of Smith and his commentaries on the filming of that indie classic, but are also charming for the newcomer for what they represent to Randal.

But even more so than the previous installments of this series, Clerks III works because of the performances from O’Halloran and Anderson. These two have basically become Smith’s version of Jesse and Celine, and it has been brilliant watching them grow together. Clerks II had these two friends admitting that they loved each other and needed each other, and we begin from that point in Clerks III , as Dante and Randal are now not just co-workers and business partners, they admittedly need each other. Dante has had a hard time since 2006, and while these reflections on these last few difficult years could’ve been too cloying and sweet for this series, Smith handles them with great control and awareness. O’Halloran is asked to shoulder much of the emotional weight here, as we see him worrying about losing his best friend and pondering the losses he’s had in his past, and he deftly pulls these moments off. Similarly, Anderson is at his all-time best, as we finally see the potential that he’s always had shining through, as he gives his all towards something. As these films have gone on, both O’Halloran and Anderson have been asked to handle more than one would’ve expected after Clerks , and both have been able to meet the challenges thrown at them time and time again.

Yet Clerks III also works so beautifully because it shows Smith embracing his strengths, his interests that have always served him well, and avoiding the pitfalls he’s made in the past. Smith’s films have often felt like a small community coming together to tell a story, and from the very beginning of decades-long friends playing hockey on the Quick Stop roof, or the usual patrons coming back to reprise the roles of themselves, that sense of community can be felt throughout Clerks III . Even the fact that Randal now lives in an apartment at the Quick Stop block of stores, above a dispensary now run by Jay and Silent Bob (Smith) even furthers that small-town community aspect of this narrative.

Smith has also cooled it down significantly when it comes to the dick and fart jokes here—which makes sense, considering these characters are almost 50 years old at this point. That type of humor has never been the strength of Smith’s work, but again, it’s the heart that has always stood out in his works, and takes the forefront in Clerks III . In Smith’s movies, you can always tell when he’s passionate about his story and characters because that intense love can be felt throughout the film. Clerks III might be the best example of this, as Smith wholeheartedly embraces the sentiment in this story, without having to always undercut these moments with humor. Clerks III is certainly still funny, but it’s the emotional core of this film that is paramount to everything else, and that’s a style that looks good on Smith.

With Reboot and now Clerks III especially, Smith has found a way to explore his fan-favorite characters once more, but in a way that makes these stories even more fascinating in hindsight and—most importantly—finds Smith once more telling personal stories through these reappraisals. In Clerks III , Smith returns to where his career began and has made one of his best films in decades, a tender and compassionate look at friendships that last no matter what, a remembrance of where Smith came from, and an appreciation for all those who helped him along the way.

Clerks III comes to theaters on September 13.

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‘Clerks III’ Review: Kevin Smith Revisits His Debut in This Wildly Self-Indulgent Yet Oddly Poignant Sequel

Though clearly a fans-only proposition, Smith's latest visit to the Quick Stop offers a meditative check-in with the director's best-loved characters.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

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

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But just when the film seems to be leaning back into the franchise’s old slice-of-life rhythm, Randal is laid low with a near-fatal heart attack. Taking stock of his life choices while recovering, he decides to finally make something of his life, and resolves to write and direct a film based on his and Dante’s experiences as convenience store clerks. Shot in black-and-white. With everyone from the Quick Stop scene playing themselves. In other words, he sets out to make the film “Clerks.”

Is this all wildly self-indulgent? A bit. Does it feel like the product of a filmmaker with plenty of fresh ideas? Not really. Has Smith lost his fastball as a writer? You could certainly make that case, and the screenplay’s attempts to recapture some of the rapid-fire pop culture references and x-rated musings of the director’s heyday often land painfully wide of the mark. But there’s something strangely poignant about it all the same. This film is clearly an unusually personal one for Smith – who ripped up an early version of the screenplay and started again after suffering a frightening heart attack of his own – and the fact that so many of its key players will forever be associated with “Clerks” gives the entire affair an emotional charge that is only partially due to anything that happens to their characters. (Indeed, the sight of the old extended crew, grey beards and beer bellies in tow, climbing to the top of the Quick Stop for a rooftop hockey game speaks just as potently as anything in the dialogue.) Much like another trilogy from another defining Generation X filmmaker, regret and the passage of time have unexpectedly emerged as “Clerks’” core themes.

And as strange as it sounds, time has almost been too kind to “Clerks,” in the sense that so many of the elements that once made it so refreshing and unique are harder than ever to appreciate. The sight of grown men having hairsplitting arguments about “Star Wars” felt novel in 1994; now it’s basically the organizing principle of Reddit. Minimum-wage workers shooting no-budget vignettes about their boring customer service jobs is an entire subgenre of TikTok. And forget Dante and Randal making a movie about their lives – would a Gen Z reincarnation of Kevin Smith even seek out a film career these days, or would he jump straight into podcasting, which he would probably find just as lucrative?

“Clerks III” is not a great movie, but it does make you realize what a miracle it was that a film like “Clerks” could have ever had the impact that it did, and that it happened to arrive at perhaps the only moment in time when it could have. Sometimes life is what happens when you’re not even supposed to be there that day.

Reviewed online, September 4, 2022. Running time: 100 MIN. MPAA rating: R.

Production: A Lionsgate presentation of a Mewesings and Destro Films production in association with Three Point Capital and Bondit Media Capital of a View Askew film. Produced by Liz Destro, Jordan Monsanto. Executive producer: Seth Kleinberg.
Crew: Directed, written, edited by Kevin Smith. Camera: Learan Kahanov. Music: James L. Venable.
With: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Ferhman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Smith.

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Clerks III Review

Kevin Smith has always had a tendency for self-mythologising. Back in 1994, he shot Clerks on a wing, a prayer, and a mountain of credit card debt – turning his behind-the-counter experiences into a generation-defining slacker comedy, filmed through the night at the real-life Quick Stop shop he once worked at in New Jersey. From there, his expanding ‘View Askewniverse’ has reflected and refracted various parts of the wider Smythology: his love of comic books in Mallrats (he since opened a real comic book shop named after fictional characters Jay & Silent Bob), his wranglings with Catholicism in Dogma , and his feelings on fatherhood and passion for weed in 2019’s Jay & Silent Bob Reboot .

Clerks III is Smith at his most self-reflexive. After checking back in on Dante ( Brian O’Halloran ) and Randal ( Jeff Anderson ) in 2006’s Clerks II – taking the middle-aged pair out of Quick Stop, into a Mooby’s fast food restaurant, and eventually back to their old haunt as owners – he returns to his original shit-shooting duo once more as they approach 50. Each has always represented a facet of Smith himself – Dante bored, sorry for himself, and wishing to be anywhere else but behind a till in Jersey, Randal (a part Smith originally wrote for himself, gifted all the funniest lines) smart and sharp-tongued and obsessed with pop-cultural minutiae. This time, Randal suffers a ‘widow-maker’ heart attack that very nearly kills him – just as Smith did in 2018, mining hyper-specific details from his own brush with death – and responds to his renewed sense of mortality by deciding to make his own movie about clerks at the Quick Stop; effectively, Clerks .

It's the Kevin Smith of the past, remixed by Kevin Smith of the present.

Does Clerks III , then, represent a shameless re-treading of old ground, reliant on endless callbacks and familiar faces from previous Smith films, or is it a work of ouroborosian metatextual genius? The answer is a bit of both – it’s the Smith of the past remixed by the Smith of the present, veering between disappointing and deeply affecting from scene to scene.

Having long held out on making a threequel due to Anderson’s reluctance to return as Randal, Smith’s patience is ultimately rewarded – Anderson and O’Halloran are both excellent, slipping back into their old-couple bickering dynamic brilliantly, their chemistry totally natural, honed over decades of playing these characters. Randal still gets the funniest lines, whether praying to Conan the Barbarian’s god after suffering his heart-attack (“Are you there, Crom? It’s me, Randal”), trying to get his head around the world of cryptocurrency (“Make-pretend Matrix money”), or ruminating on his cinematic ambitions (“I see myself more like retail’s Richard Linklater”). O’Halloran too wrings laughs and pathos from the ever-pitiable Dante – particularly in (yet another) Star Wars riff as he tries to figure out what place he occupies in Randal’s screenplay (“I’m not even the Lobot?!”). His wonderful chemistry with Rosario Dawson ’s Becky from Clerks II is an undisputed highlight here – though the nature of Dawson’s role this time is a peculiar, bitter pill to swallow.

It’s in the humour department that Clerks III stumbles. While less reliant on relentless cameos than Jay & Silent Bob Reboot , it still often stops dead in its tracks to crowbar in appearances from the Smith roster. Trevor Fehrman’s Elias, great fun in Clerks II , is way too prominent here, playing on a cartoonish register at odds with the rest of proceedings, landed with a sluggish comedic riff about his shift from hardcore Christian to devil worshipper, and given his own unnecessary Silent Bob-alike sidekick in Austin Zajur’s Blockchain. The film lacks a killer pop culture rant like Clerks ’ Death Star contractors sequence, or Clerks II ’s Star Wars vs Lord Of The Rings nerd-off, and is disappointingly flat visually as well, lacking the scuzzy black-and-white aesthetic of the original or the pastel-purgatory of Clerks II . Despite being a film so intently about Clerks , it doesn’t always feel like a Clerks movie – partially due to tonal lapses into Jay & Silent Bob wacky stoner gags, and in rejecting the set-across-a-single-day formula of the previous entries.

But when it gets beyond the peripheral characters and focuses on Dante and Randal, Clerks III delivers some of Smith’s most arresting work in years. Ironically, Clerks III ’s heart is fully unblocked – and like with Clerks II ’s jail-cell meltdown and Reboot ’s mini- Chasing Amy sequel, Smith proves that when he gets emotional, he’s still really got it. For all that Smith and his players are clearly revelling in reliving the past, it gradually becomes clear that Dante is stuck circling ever-deeper pits of hell – culminating in a brilliantly-conceived re-do of Clerks ’ salsa-shark scene, O’Halloran letting loose in a beautifully brutal outpouring of rage. Marilyn Ghigliotti is equally committed in her return as Dante’s original girlfriend Veronica, while the outcome of Randal’s moviemaking attempt will be emotional kryptonite to viewers with decades-long affection for the central duo.

As the third Clerks movie, chiefly about Clerks itself, Clerks III is resolutely one for the fans – but if you’ve long bought into Kevin Smith’s sprawling self-mythology, this is a surprisingly moving new chapter in his ongoing, Alanis Morrissette-approved bible.

Movies | 06 07 2022

Clerks III Review: Kevin Smith's Deeply Personal Goodbye To The Past

Twenty-eight years after Kevin Smith made his film debut with the foul-mouthed low-budget comedy "Clerks" and 16 years after the sweet and silly sequel, "Clerks II," the director returns to the Quick Stop to bring the story full circle in "Clerks III." Clerks Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) own the convenience store that brought them together, but they aren't sure if they've achieved their dreams or just fallen into their same old routines. Then Randal has a heart attack and realizes life is too short to waste, so he wants to make a movie.

This is Smith at his most deeply personal: Randal's heart attack is clearly based on Smith's own, and the creation of his film at the Quick Stop is a metacommentary on the making of the first "Clerks." Fans in search of the mile-a-minute crass comedy of some of his earlier work, including the first "Clerks" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," might be disappointed by this deeply heartfelt dramedy that deals with some tough topics, but "Clerks III" is one of the best things Smith has ever made.

Taking stock of life

"Clerks III" is about moments when we're forced to take stock of our lives, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention my life-long appreciation of Smith and his work. "Clerks" was the movie that made me want to make movies when I was a young teen, the movie that made me think it was even within the realm of possibility. It's vulgar and it's messy, but it's a pure slice of life from an incredible storyteller. Smith himself was inspired by another director in much the same way. In his book "Tough Sh*t: Life Advice From a Fat Lazy Slob Who Did Good," Smith revealed that on the night before his 21st birthday, he and a friend went and saw Richard Linklater's "Slacker" and it changed his life. "Slacker" made him want to make his own movie, and put him on the road to making "Clerks."

If "Clerks" was Smith's "Slacker," "Clerks III" is his "Before Midnight." It's self-reflective and a little melancholy, and focuses heavily on the relationships these characters have forged over the years. Just as "Before Midnight" goes back to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," "Clerks III" returns to both of the earlier "Clerks" films with not only bright-eyed nostalgia, but the hard-earned wisdom of time.

Fewer funnies but as heartfelt as ever

Don't get me wrong — there are some great laughs to be had in "Clerks III." Just about everything in the hospital surrounding Randal's heart attack is hilarious, from the sassy surgeon played by Amy Sedaris teasing Randal about "The Mandalorian" during surgery to a pretty great prayer to Crom (the god of Conan the barbarian) from Randal on the operating table. Funny moments are peppered throughout, but mostly only to relieve some of the heaviness of the situations involved. After all, this is a story about two men facing mortality in very different ways, and it's no laughing matter. Dante's relationship with his wife Becky (Rosario Dawson) isn't what it once was, and he longs for their happy times together long before, while Randal feels like he's wasted his life and longs for a future where he feels fulfilled.

In order to make Randal's movie, the duo has to dig into the past, and that means reuniting Dante with former loves Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) and Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith) as well. Dante must reconcile his feelings about these relationships in order to help Randal, which is the relationship he clearly treasures most. Both "Clerks" movies were about Dante and Randal's deep friendship, and the other friendships they made with the weirdos they worked with. "Clerks III" lets go of the laughs and lets us see the duo as real people instead of potential punchlines.

Growing up is hard to do

"Clerks III" is sneaky. It's been marketed as a straightforward comedy, but audiences should be prepared to bring a box of tissues with them to the theater. All of Smith's flicks, save for maybe "Jay and Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie" and "Red State," have some kind of heartfelt message at their core, so the sentimentality and seriousness of "Clerks III" didn't come completely out of nowhere.

Just as the first "Clerks" inspired me as a young creative to let my freak flag fly, and the second "Clerks" taught me about how we make our own family after we've outgrown the one of our childhood, "Clerks III" reminded me that while the past shapes us, we should never let it overshadow the present. The movie begins with My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade," and the lyrics are practically the film's thesis statement. Life is hard, but we "carry on."

Smith's latest isn't an easy watch, but neither is growing older. "Clerks III" is the director at his most mature and emotionally resonant. It would have been easy to make "Clerks III" an easy nostalgia-fest with lots of throwbacks, but instead Smith opted for something more. It's a big swing that might not work for frat boys looking to laugh at dick and fart jokes, but that's what "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back" is for, after all. "Clerks III" brings things full circle at the Quick Stop in many ways, and it feels like a definitive ending to the saga he started.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

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Clerks III review, or how Kevin Smith made me cry

At no point in the lead-up to seeing Clerks III did I expect filmmaker Kevin Smith’s latest movie to take me on an emotional journey that would leave me wistfully pondering the last 27 years of my life. And yet, halfway through the film, there I was, wiping tears from my eyes between all the dick jokes and celebrity cameos.

All together now

Right in the feels, wherever you go, there you are.

The conclusion of a trilogy that began with 1994’s Clerks and resides within the larger, loosely connected View Askewniverse, Clerks III feels like Smith’s most personal, profound project so far. Not only does it manage to recapture much of what made Clerks resonate with a generation of film audiences more than two decades earlier, but it does so with a surprisingly heartfelt assessment of the myriad experiences — both funny and tragic — that can make those years fly by.

Clerks III finds the trilogy’s co-stars, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, reprising their roles as slacker pals Dante and Randal, respectively. After Clerks II concluded with them buying the convenience store and video-rental shop they worked at in the first film, the pair now find themselves falling back into the same old routine with the same quirky customers and snarky conversations about movies, TV, and life.

That routine is upended when Randal suffers a heart attack, and his near-death experience prompts him to finally make a movie of his own instead of obsessively discussing other people’s films. He convinces Dante to help him, and the pair set out to make a movie about his life — one that becomes increasingly familiar (to the audience, at least) as it morphs into, well … Clerks .

Once Randal decides to cast Dante and himself in the lead roles, the film-within-a-film brings back many of the original Clerks cast members to recreate the roles they played in the 1994 film, while also squeezing in cameos from Ben Affleck, Justin Long, and other cast members from Smith’s prior projects.

All of that self-referential material delivers a nice callback to Clerks and Smith’s oeuvre that’s entertaining on its own, but it plays second fiddle to the film’s surprisingly powerful dramatic arc.

Although Clerks III delivers plenty of the irreverent, low-brow humor and biting commentary that Smith’s films do so well, it also provides some impressive moments of raw, real emotion.

Throughout the Clerks films, Dante’s narrative has always been a parade of awkward, unfortunate decisions — generally due to his own insecurities or Randal’s destructive influence — but Clerks III has him dealing with genuine, heartbreaking tragedy on top of the usual trials and tribulations. O’Halloran’s character began as a stand-in for Smith himself, who made Clerks as a somewhat autobiographical account of his own experiences working at a New Jersey convenience store (his film was originally called Inconvenience — a title the Clerks III characters ridicule in another recurring in-joke). O’Halloran made the character his own through his performances in Clerks and Clerks II , but Clerks III swings the art-imitating-life pendulum back to Smith, who had his own medical emergency in recent years.

Clerks III feels like a journey through Smith’s own, life-changing ordeal and a snapshot of how such an experience can bring your own mortality and the sum of your life into sharper focus — for you and those closest to you. Conveying that sort of existential crisis is no easy ask of any actor, but the pair handle it amazingly well, with Anderson exploring it through Randal’s cynical narcissism and O’Halloran through Dante’s rampant insecurity.

The film asks even more of O’Halloran, though, as Clerks III finds Dante already struggling to cope with a horrible tragedy before he faces the possibility of losing Randal, too. O’Halloran rises to the occasion and delivers what could arguably be one of the strongest performances by any actor in Smith’s films to date, wringing every ounce of pathos from Dante’s emotional journey. In doing so, O’Halloran and Smith transform a private ordeal into something achingly familiar, and let Dante channel the regrets, doubts, and frustrations we all keep bottled up in one way or another.

How much you find yourself relating to the journey Dante, Randal, and the Clerks characters take over the course of all three films will certainly vary, perhaps depending on where you are in your own life. It could also depend on where you were at various points, too.

I was working at a video store in a strip mall in Rotterdam, N.Y., in the mid-1990s when Clerks was first released. I certainly wasn’t alone in feeling like Smith’s film encapsulated the life I knew — right down to the weekly street hockey games we played in a parking lot. But that was the magic of the moment in time Smith captured in Clerks : It made a wide swath of people who felt disconnected in one way or another feel seen and connected in unexpected ways.

And like Smith and the Clerks characters, we’ve all been through a lot in the last few decades. Joys, tragedies, hopes, and regrets have a way of piling up, and change is inevitable, no matter how hard we resist it. Clerks wraps things up for its saga’s characters with a satisfying blend of self-awareness and narrative thread-tying, but it does something even more impressive by letting the story go where it needs to go in order for fans of the original film to connect with those characters again.

I certainly didn’t expect to be wiping my eyes when the credits rolled on Clerks III , but I’m happy it happened, because it means Dante and Randal’s story is ending in a place just as personal and familiar as where it began.

Written and directed by Kevin Smith and released by Lionsgate and Fathom Events, Clerks III is available in theaters September 13-18.

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These lines, which awkwardly strain to recapture the tone of modern dating language, clunkily stick out like a sore thumb in Persuasion. At their best, they reek of misguided desperation. At their worst, they feel like failed attempts to cleverly update a novel written by one of history’s most seminal and observant voices. Beyond its frequent uses of modern slang, Persuasion also employs a Fleabag-esque fourth-wall-breaking narrative structure that feels tailor-made to appeal to all the viewers out there who will go into it looking for snarky new eye-rolling gifs to use on Twitter.

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Clerks III Review: Kevin Smith Closes Up Shop with Grace

With Clerks III, writer-director Kevin Smith wraps up the story of his favorite convenience store workers on a familiar, and poignant, note.

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Dante and Randal behind the counter in Clerks III

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, there are enough narrative developments, as well as an overall sense of melancholy, to give Clerks III more than a dollop of, dare we say, gravitas.

As the film opens, Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) are still ensconced at the Quick Stop, having reopened it at the end of Clerks II while Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are in charge of RST Video next door (it’s now a weed dispensary). But when Randal suffers a heart attack it leads him to reconsider his life and priorities. He decides that he’ll become a filmmaker, writing and directing a movie about his and Dante’s experiences and lives at the Quick Stop.

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Dante is put in charge of raising money for the film, auditions are held to play all the lead roles, and as filming begins, it soon becomes apparent that what Randal has written is actually the in-universe version of the original Clerks , right down to it being shot in black and white and inside the store. It’s an amusing conceit which brings Smith’s entire universe full circle.

The usual shenanigans ensue, as a parade of actors/characters from the previous Clerks films—Becky ( Rosario Dawson ), Elias (Trevor Fehrman), Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), etc.—show up for dutiful reprisals of their roles while the list of cameos include Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, and Fred Armisen, among others.

At this point, you’re either with Smith and his aesthetic or not (although even he says he lost some hardcore fans over his massively panned 2016 horror comedy, Yoga Hosers ), and his catch-as-catch-can, casual approach to shooting and assembling a motion picture is either permanently endearing or endlessly irritating.

Either way, the first movie remains both his best and a genuinely funny cult classic in indie cinema , and Clerks III does manage to coast on the affection and familiarity folks have for that classic, as well as his core band of characters and performers. It also builds on that (as much as it can given Smith’s limitations as a writer and director) by channeling some of the terror he must have felt when he thought he might not make it through the night more than four years ago.

No one would accuse any of this cast of being truly top-shelf actors, but O’Halloran, Graves, Mewes, and Smith himself all inhabit their roles comfortably while Dawson and Fehrman bring the earthiness and wackiness that made them stand out in Clerks II .

The fact that no one is trying to hide their age in the movie also adds to its underlying poignancy. One has always gotten the sense that Smith just likes to get his friends together and have fun, and say what you will about his output, that feeling always seems to come through in his View Askewniverse films, even as it might get harder to put the band back together.

In the end, it makes for a surprisingly emotional finale (and it does seem like one) to the Clerks saga. You may find yourself genuinely moved by some of the more unexpected developments, some raw moments from both O’Halloran and Graves, and the sense that this one is exceptionally personal to Smith himself. Nearly three decades after the original arrived, that may be all we need.

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Clerks III is in theaters this week in a limited engagement.

3.5 out of 5

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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Clerks iii review: kevin smith’s nostalgia well dry off new jersey coast.

Kevin Smith toys with death in Clerks III as a shortcut to bring emotion to a film that otherwise has no meaningful hook.

Filmmaker and geek extraordinaire Kevin Smith seemingly left his View Askewniverse world of interlinked films behind with 2006’s Clerks II , and with unexpectedly poignant closure. But after a decade spent in the wilderness of low-budget comedy-horror, Smith revived this fictional universe of terminally stunted geeks with 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot , and Clerks III continues to find him plumbing the personal well of nostalgia.

At first, though, there’s a promising new angle from which Smith approaches the material. The filmmaker suffered a massive heart attack in 2018 that he was fortunate to survive, an event that informs Clerks III right out of the gate when Randal (Jeff Anderson) has a coronary. It’s an experience that leaves Randal honestly and soberly contemplating that he is a 50-year-old man still stuck referencing the same movies that he loved as a teenager and young adult. Driven suddenly to make art rather than simply consume it, Randal commits to writing and directing a movie that very quickly starts to sound an awful lot like Clerks .

This isn’t the first time that Smith has effectively told his own story as an aspiring filmmaker, having filtered his experience through the prism of adult movies in 2008’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno . Here, however, he merely replicates his much-told story of making his 1994 breakthrough feature, which takes the form of an endless series of winking allusions to factoids like Clerks ’s $25,000 budget amid a tedious restaging of that film’s story beats. Smith doesn’t dig into any of this recycled material for new laughs, merely prioritizing the hollow pleasure of recognition when actors pause for effect after each obvious callback.

It doesn’t help matters that Clerks even looks better than its latest sequel, as that film’s minimalist aesthetic, while amateurish, effectively reflected its depiction of menial labor and its characters’ misplaced presumptions of having some kind of artistic spirit. Clerks III , meanwhile, is all flat, faded colors captured with a camera that cannot hold a shot for more than a few seconds before darting off to adopt another equally uninteresting angle.

Despite taking place in the same convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, as the original film, Clerks III loses the claustrophobia of the setting and with it the inherent tension that gave Clerks its lived-in sense of place. Smith, as his mainstay character Silent Bob, even offers a compelling analysis of his debut film’s aesthetic choices, which only calls attention to the meaningless flatness of his work here. Smith has long wielded his self-deprecation as a defense mechanism against charges of technical incompetence , among other things, but at this point his problem is one of creative stasis and how it’s seeing outright regression.

The characters of this film feel more like their 1994 selves than their more reflective 2006 iterations, albeit saddled with Smith’s now-tired dramatic tropes. As the writer-director did in 2004’s Jersey Girl , he gives the protagonist a dead wife, revealing in the first scene that Dante’s (Brian O’Halloran) partner, Becky (Rosario Dawson), died in the intervening years. Dawson shows up for a number of dream sequences to revive the unexpected chemistry she had with O’Halloran in Clerks II , so Becky’s absence in the real world exists for the sole purpose of saddling him with grief that’s only detectable when he directly references it.

Dante’s loss also gives Smith the justification to arrive at an awfully familiar conclusion, in which the infinitesimally more mature character finally unloads on their friend for being oblivious to their own selfishness, leading to a moment of reflection and reconciliation. Once upon a time, this gimmick achieved touching results, but it’s so played out in this film that even the harsh denouement that follows it feels trite. Smith toys with death here not as an attempt to reckon with mortality but as a shortcut to bring emotion to a film that otherwise has no meaningful hook. The blunt coda has nothing on the simple profundity of Clerks II ’s underlying message of finding peace and purpose in accepting that sometimes temporary dead-end jobs become the permanent career you kept hoping you’d find.

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Jake Cole is an Atlanta-based film critic whose work has appeared in MTV News and Little White Lies . He is a member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle and the Online Film Critics Society.

34 Comments

Tell me you like superficial bullish without telling me you like superficial bullish. How do you have a job?

Spoiler much??

Smith is just a Hollywood hack and shill now. Everything he does will be influenced by that fact. He won’t do anything that would risk him getting pushed out now that he’s on the inside. Any geek cred he had is long gone.

It seems you were more concerned with using your vocabulary than actually giving a review of this film. You may also be a bit jaded.

That’s every film critic though. Rather than actually reviewing movies, they’re more concerned with making readers think that they’re geniuses. Go read the “top critic” reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and you’ll never want to stop vomiting from the sheer pretension.

The review wasn’t that hard to read guys lol. This person perfectly summarized Kevin’s career nowadays as J&SB Reboot proved: “Smith doesn’t dig into any of this recycled material for new laughs, merely prioritizing the hollow pleasure of recognition when actors pause for effect after each obvious callback.” I attended his reboot road show and was thoroughly annoyed with my fellow fans for the thunderous applause the provided every time a familiar face essentially parodied a 20-year old scene from a former film. Kevin doesn’t trust himself to be creative and doesn’t seem to have anything left to say. His movies are starting to feel like a “not much, you?” response to the question, “what’s up?” Not sure I’m willing to spend $ to see this one.

Not a fan of Kevin Smith anymore but you write like someone who just learned what a thesaurus is.

This review stinks of wanting to be pompous and smug for the sole purpose of being so. It offered no real insight or thought into the actual film, merely came Off as someone who enjoys reading themselves have an opinion for the sake of self importance. This so called critic seems more So impotent when it comes to rising anyones curiosity of their actual insight rather than offering any take that is thought provoking, or hell even informative. In other words the critic comes off like a child who has dog piss taste and only possesses pedantic hot takes.

Said the person who used the words “impotent” and “pedantic” when criticizing someone for their extensive vocabulary. WHILE REVIEWING A KEVIN SMITH MOVIE. Fuck. Get a real hobby.

Dude, its super easy, just don’t watch it, but I’ll bet your one of the Howard Stern non fans that Will watch it just to rag on it right? Why don’t you make a movie and show the world how creative you are instead of Trashing one you haven’t even seen yet? NEVER reading anything from Slant again if this is the trash talk they publish. Blocked. And learn to laugh dude, you’ll live longer. Nuff said.

He became a Democrat..no way in HELL is he going to betray them by doing anything slightly creative, entertaining or original. Serve up the pablum and send in the checks. Just like the other sheep. At least he didn’t turn all the characters gay.

Does everything have to be about politics? Your WHOLR personality?

I have not enjoyed a lot of kevin smith’s newer projects. However…

I saw this movie with him at the Keswick this week, and I found it to be amazing. If you enjoy classic smith films, you’ll love this. I think it was one of the best written, and we’ll produced of his career. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…you’ll go home wanted to see it again

Agreed. Except for the wanting to see it again. To be clear, I very much do, but I left the movie feeling just emotionally drained. So, it’ll be awhile before I think I can handle that again. Which is a good thing.

I like reviews.

It’s pretty simple. Kevin Smith is just retelling the same stories from a different perspective. He’s not hiding it. He admitted it by doing Reboot It’s his form of art, so it’s subjective. I, however, enjoy it. His form of humor is not for everyone it seems.

Blah review.

This sounds like it was written by someone who is still butthurt about He-Man

Thanks for the spoiler, you ****ing hack.

The spoilers were REALLY unnecessary, especially without a warning.

Wow! What a spiteful, little twatwaffle. Sounds like Kevin ate your last twinky. Whatever your deal is with Kevin Smith is, for your own well being, let it go. It must be hard to go through life that miserable.

This reviewers parents obviously never hugged him.

Screw you dude, you will never understand the true genius of Kevin Smith. How this movie was for thise he loves around him, and to the fans that fell in love with a silly vlack and white movie that spoke to us. I am from New Jersey and I get alot of the inside jokes, and word play. Yet, to see those who aren’t from New Jersey that love him are truly inspiring to see. He speaks to us nobodies in the mundane life that beats us down. How true friendships are made, and how they evolve into something you will never understand. Shove your review, and I’m glad you could care less about the movie because I could care less about you and your dribble of a review.

Love this!!!

If you really believe what you wrote (and it’s the writing of a 3rd grader), you don’t understand what Clerks is about. It makes a time for its viewers, first as 20 somethings in our first, crappy job. Then, as 30 somethings with a slightly less crappy job, falling in love, having kids. And, now 3, where the loyal viewers are the age where heart attacks and death start getting personal. Go back to watching Parker Lewis Can’t Lose reruns.

I’m saying this as the kind of Kevin Smith/Askewniverse fan who LITERALLY has dogs named Dante and Randal and had massive birthday parties to celebrate turning 37 (not 40)…Clerks III was fun because of the callbacks, the nostalgia, and the cameos. I walked out of the theater at the end (stay past the credits…Kevin tells stories during the credits and there’s a “behind the scenes” short after). I was really looking forward to seeing ONE of those two happy and succeeding like Kevin has, and I was ultimately disappointed in the outcome. It felt like a cop out. Bad choice of words…

I already saw it and I felt it was well done. I haven’t seen a Kevin Smith movie since Clerks2 but I enjoy his work. From my perspective, I saw a more grown up version of Clerks1.

It wasn’t win an award good, but have any of his movies ever been? It did add a layer of two to his usual style and felt more grown up to me. But it was also extremely meta, if you haven’t seen Clerks before you won’t get a lot of it.

Overall definitely worth seeing if you like Kevin Smith. Brian O’Halloran deserves accolades for his raw performance as Dante, and he deserves to be mentioned.

To each their own… But, I’d guess you really don’t have a real connection to the first two movies. If you did, this move would have carried more weight. It wasn’t nostalgia for the sake of it re: Hocus Pocus 2. It wasn’t the best sequel 10+ years later recently re: Maverick. Yet, layers apon layers the dialogue most likely appealed to anyone that was a huge fan of the proceeding films

I really believe the cleverness and genius of this film was lost on you, but I don’t hate you for it. However, don’t hate me when I say this film has me in tears. It has me laughing.. It had me feeling my age and get gave me hope.

This was a fitting end.

Please excuse the typos. Haha

I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t like Jay & Silent Bob The ReBoot. It wasn’t very good. But Clerks 3 was good. Yes the camera work isn’t Spielberg quality so the hell what? You don’t watch a Kevin Smith film for the f***ing camera work or lighting. You watch it for the laughs the silly and sometimes insane humor gives you. You watch it for the surprising moments of emotion.

This isn’t a film made for critics who think they know what a good film is and critique the god**** camera angles. This was a film for those of us who grew up watching Clerks, Clerks 2, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and all the Viewaskew films. It was a fill with a touching and great ending that puts the perfect bow on the story of Dante and Randall.

Folks ignore this ridiculous review. In fact never trust this guy for a review of anything. If you like classic Kevin Smith films you’ll enjoy Clerks 3.

Do all the Kevin Smith drones have a discord somewhere that posts links to bad reviews of this lousy film? It’s like a swarm of petty nerds childishly attacking the guy who dared to not like a bombing film.

Clerks III feels like Smith’s most personal movie so far. It recaptures much of what made Clerks resonate with a generation of film audiences 27 years ago in a surprisingly heartfelt assessment of the myriad experiences — both funny and tragic.

The move is a journey through Smith’s own, life-changing ordeal and a snapshot of how such an experience can bring your own mortality and the sum of your life into sharper focus.

And like Smith and the Clerks characters, we’ve all been through a lot in the last few decades. Happiness, losses, hopes, and regrets have a way of piling up, and change is inevitable, no matter how hard we resist it. Clerks wraps things up perfectly with a satisfying blend of self-awareness and narrative thread-tying, but it does something even more impressive by letting the story go where it needs to go in order for fans of the original movie to connect with those characters again.

Sure, it’s comedically uneven and definitely resolutely one for the fans for many reasons, including that the original ending to Clerks where Dante was supposed to die – but if you’ve long bought into Kevin Smith’s sprawling self-mythology, this is a surprisingly moving chapter to end the saga.

The amount of whiny Kevin Smith fanboys in this comment section is bizarre. The film was incredibly bad. It was not funny or witty or insightful. Just lame and depressing.

If you liked the previous films, this is just a boring repetition of jokes and anecdotes you had already heard, told by people in their 50s. Then a character you like dying. If you didn’t like the previous films this is an utter pile of unwatchable dogsssshite.

Clerks 3 is the Terminator: Dark Fate of Smith’s filmography, annihilating the achievement of Clerks 2 as sourly and unimaginatively as Dark Fate rendered Terminator 2 pointless.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 2 Reviews
Kids Say 1 Review

Common Sense Media Review

Touching Kevin Smith threequel has very strong language.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 17+?

Constant strong language: "f--k," "motherf----r," "bulls--t," "s--t," "s--t-face

Characters die; others experience death and mourning. Character has a heart atta

Characters have sex in a car; it rocks back and forth (nothing graphic shown). S

Main character gets falling-down drunk. Characters smoke a giant-sized joint and

Any Positive Content?

Movie is mainly about getting a new lease on life after a near-death experience,

These aren't admirable characters, but they try hard to get by, especially Dante

One character jokes about the lack of diversity in this movie, and they're not w

Constant strong language: "f--k," "motherf----r," "bulls--t," "s--t," "s--t-faced," "bitch," "t-ts," "ass," "a--hole," "s--thole," "d--k hole," "crack whore," "suck d--k," "ass-to-mouth," "goddamn," "d--k," "clit," "hell," "hand job," "puds," "butt," "thank Christ," "for God's sake," "screw you," "damn." Middle-finger gestures.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Characters die; others experience death and mourning. Character has a heart attack, panics, has operation in hospital. Another character has a heart attack. Shouting and arguing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Characters have sex in a car; it rocks back and forth (nothing graphic shown). Strong, frequent, sex-related dialogue and innuendo. Sexual gestures. T-shirt with sexually charged pun ("suck me off and make me gum"). Reference to porno movie and strip club. Sex toy seen.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Main character gets falling-down drunk. Characters smoke a giant-sized joint and buy drugs. A surgeon says "I wish I wasn't so hung over!" After an operation, a character is on fentanyl. Reference to a death by a drunk driver.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie is mainly about getting a new lease on life after a near-death experience, and about friendship that includes fighting, talking, and making up. Death is at hand, and loss and grief are experienced.

Positive Role Models

These aren't admirable characters, but they try hard to get by, especially Dante. He shows up to work, complains a little, but does what he needs to do. Randal has always been more problematic, but this is the movie in which he seems to finally grow up. Supporting characters go through crises of faith.

Diverse Representations

One character jokes about the lack of diversity in this movie, and they're not wrong. A woman of color (played by Rosario Dawson) appears in a few scenes as a ghost. A couple of other women and actors of color are in the supporting cast or background.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Clerks III is the sequel to Kevin Smith 's 1994 and 2006 movies. The main characters are now nearing 50 and facing mortality; after a heart attack, one decides to make a movie about working at the Quick Stop. It's only sporadically funny, but it still feels genuine. Language is a big issue, with constant use of just about every word under the sun ("f--k," "s--t," "t-ts," "a--hole," and many more), plus strong, frequent sex-related dialogue and sexual innuendo. Scenes also show sexual gestures, a sex toy, and a couple having sex in a car (the car rocks back and forth, but nothing else is seen). Characters experience death and mourning and have heart attacks, and there's shouting and arguing. A character gets falling-down drunk, some smoke a comically large joint, drugs are sold, and there's a reference to someone dying because of a drunk driver. Some silly, potentially offensive religious images (such as "Christ Kites") are on view. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Clerks 3 ... Just like 1 and 2

What's the story.

In CLERKS III, Dante ( Brian O'Halloran ) and Randal ( Jeff Anderson ) are well past 40 and have resurrected the Quick Stop, now co-owners as well as clerks. The adjacent video store has now become a THC shop, run by none other than Jay ( Jason Mewes ) and Silent Bob ( Kevin Smith ). Dante mourns the death of his true love, Becky ( Rosario Dawson ), while Randal takes delight in riding new employee Elias (Trevor Fehrman), their former co-worker from Mooby's. During an argument, Elias prays for God to smite Randal, and, lo and behold, Randal has a heart attack. After making a miraculous recovery, Randal decides to finally do something with his life and sets out to make a movie about the Quick Stop. But as the production gets underway, egos clash and tempers flare, and things eventually come to a head.

Is It Any Good?

Writer-director Smith returns to his signature characters with more gravity and gratitude for this threequel, and even though goopy sensitivity isn't his forte, it offers warmth and smiles. Clerks III goes meta, re-creating some of the famous scenes from the original 1994 Clerks with Silent Bob acting as DP and explaining why the movie must be shot in black and white. It requires some serious suspension of disbelief, as there's no way that the actors (all around 50 in real life) could be mistaken for their 20-year-old selves. It also requires at least some knowledge of Clerks II (2006), a lightweight lark compared to this one, which introduced Becky and Elias.

Weepy moments like hospital scenes and graveside visits are a little out of Smith's wheelhouse -- as evidenced by his infamous Jersey Girl -- and they're flat, draggy spots in a movie that seems like it wants to be funnier. But even though its laughs are fewer and farther between than its predecessors', Clerks III seems like a genuine offering from Smith, rather than a cash-in sequel. His voice is by now very familiar, and it has a grateful tone here. He truly appreciates these characters and understands how they've contributed to his life. This is his love letter to them and to the fans who made them iconic. When we hear his voice speaking over the closing credits (a bold choice), it somehow feels like exactly the right thing to do.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Clerks III 's depiction of sex . What values are depicted? Why do the characters refer to sex so frequently in their dialogue? What are they trying to say?

How does the movie handle death? Does it feel like a real experience, coupled with real emotions? Why, or why not?

How are drugs and alcohol depicted? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

How does the movie compare to the other two entries in the series? How have the characters grown or changed over the years?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 13, 2022
On DVD or streaming : December 6, 2022
Cast : Brian O'Halloran , Jeff Anderson , Rosario Dawson
Director : Kevin Smith
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Indigenous actors, Latino actors
Studios : Lionsgate , Fathom Events
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Friendship
Run time : 100 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : pervasive language, crude sexual material, and drug content
Last updated : March 6, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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AV Undercover

Kevin Smith's Clerks III cashes in on nostalgia—at a dispiriting cost

Smith returns to his askewniverse with an all-too-familiar story about growing older that does a disservice to its characters and, in turn, the audience.

There’s a watchable 90-minute movie hidden in the almost two-hour runtime of Clerks III . It’s too bad writer-director Kevin Smith doesn’t possess the clarity of vision he once had to refine ideas well enough to let his narrative do the talking. Instead, he explains over the end credits what this film should’ve been: a tribute to those who inspired what has become a trilogy. Had he made this third chapter in the Quick-Stop Groceries “saga” a self-reflexive exploration of his beloved, acerbic clerks negotiating an angst-riddled world that’s risen up to not only meet but reward their snarky standards, we’d all be the better for it. Instead, he delivers a sad-sack iteration that fails to deliver emotionally earned closure to characters who should triumph over their tribulations.

Sixteen years after Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and his sardonic bestie Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) bought and restored their former workplace, the duo remains behind the counter serving up unwanted sass to their quirky clientele. Local burnouts Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) continue to be a lingering presence, hanging outside the mini-mart. On the surface, life has seemingly stayed the same, yet they’ve all experienced significant gains and losses. Randal turned his bankrupt video rental store into a successful weed dispensary, but Dante’s been dealt an unlucky hand, failing to heal his anguish over the sudden, accidental deaths of his wife Becky (Rosario Dawson) and young daughter. His friendship with Randal has persevered, but it’s about to be put through its greatest test.

Randal, after intensely bickering with Bible-thumping, NFT-dealing employee Elias (Trevor Fehrman), collapses on the floor of the store. He’s in the throes of a heart attack, sending Elias into a flurry of worried prayer and leaving Dante vulnerable due to his previous trauma of losing loved ones. The emergency, live-saving stent put into Randal’s heart gives him an epiphany: instead of being an observer of movies, he’s going to make one about his life. Hijinks and some hilarity ensue as he writes, casts and films what becomes the movie we know as Clerks .

Series continuity is observed only when convenient for Smith. The refurbished store’s financial woes don’t quite line up with the ending of Clerks II (where perpetual slackers Jay and Silent Bob saved the day), a choice orchestrated primarily to bring back his constant collaborator and real-life wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, playing Dante’s bitchy ex-fiancé, Emma. While he recycles Dante’s perpetual struggle of feeling stagnant and frustrated, he betrays the character’s essence, surprisingly not allowing his aggrieved creation to grow as he has continually done so in the past. It’s depressing.

Worse, Smith regurgitates similar third-act beats from the film’s 2006 predecessor, which not only feels redundant, but highlights a desperate need for overarching commentary in the meta-context of the franchise. Randal’s tasked to relearn the same exact lesson about his friendship with Dante as before, this time with less finesse. It’s a watered-down redux of their friction in both Clerks and Clerks II, whose narrative poignancy gets undercut by unfunny jokes and gags. Meanwhile, “fridging” the franchise’s lead female to give a male character an arc feels like an especially wrong-headed and insincere move.

While the filmmaker stocks the picture with callbacks and references in his patented style (don’t worry, there’s even more dialogue about obscure Star Wars characters), actually funny jokes are few and far between. A revolving door of cameos from Sarah Michelle Gellar, Melissa Benoist, and Ben Affleck, amongst others, perks up the proceedings, offering a respite from a second act plateau of energy. He also relies heavily on soundtrack cues, including My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome To The Black Parade,” Jefferson Starship’s “Find Your Way Back,” and John Gorka’s “I’m From New Jersey,” to augment his phony emotional catharses.

Smith’s insights into aging and nostalgia mask a noticeable, dispiriting inability to engage with their finer points, something he’s done previously. It’s admirable that he keeps these guys relegated to their Jersey bubble, but we’re living in an era full of Dantes and Randals, and by now they feel cliché, not comforting. Though Smith and his collaborators seem eager to reunite us thoughtfully with these surly Gen-Xers during their respective midlife crises, their efforts could use a lot more polish. Ultimately, the absence of any meaningful sentiment about grief or personal growth (or anything else) makes the story’s maddening, rote familiarity feel especially lazy—which is why Clerks III lives up to the legacy of its uninspired characters in all of the wrong ways.

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Clerks III (United States, 2022)

The original Clerks was a trailblazing mid-1990s indie comedy whose love of profanity and pop culture references made it an unlikely art house success story while jump-starting the career of writer/director Kevin Smith. Although Clerks remains amusing if watched nearly three decades after its 1994 debut, many of the jokes are tame, others have lost their humor (some as a result of shifting cultural norms), and the movie as a whole no longer seems as transgressive as it once did. The unnecessary 2006 sequel, Clerks II , has fared even worse, although the scenes with Rosario Dawson still hold together (testimony to Dawson’s acting talent). Clerks III squares the “unnecessary” aspect, dragging out a “universe” that was growing stale by the time that Smith exhumed Jay and Silent Bob for Mallrats . Smith will argue that he has brought a newfound maturity to Clerks III , imbuing the screenplay with revelations resulting from the near-fatal heart attack he suffered in 2018, but a Clerks movie (featuring a bunch of one-dimensional actors) doesn’t seem like the best vehicle for ruminations about mortality…especially amidst a flotilla of dated and unfunny humor.

Clerks III once again catches up with long-time buddies Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), who appear to be stuck in the same rut as nearly 30 years ago. Dante’s one chance at happiness – marriage to his former boss Becky (Rosario Dawson) – died with her. Her ghost occasionally appears to haunt him; those scenes are the film’s most moving and hint that perhaps, over the years, O’Halloran has developed some degree of acting aptitude. Meanwhile, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are still hanging around selling weed. However, since recreational marijuana use is now legal in New Jersey, they’re doing it from a shop (the old video store where Randal worked in 1994) rather than in clandestine exchanges. After Randal suffers a heart attack, he decides to create a video record of his life by making a movie. When Randal’s portrayal of Dante appears insensitive, it puts a strain on the friendship.

Clerks III has something serious to say. As is true of many people who have had a near brush with death, Smith wants to find a way to use film to express some of his newfound perspective. Marrying such an existential subject with the coarse rambunctiousness of the Clerks universe creates a dissonance. Clerks III is the polar opposite of Clerks . The first movie had an infectious charm in the way it found joy in the most unlikely of places. Clerks III , despite offering messages about friendship and the meaning of life, is a downer. In fact, it’s a double-downer. Not only are the scenes between Dante and (dead) Becky wrenching but the denouement isn’t something the epilogue can rescue.

I’m not sure what Smith intended with Clerks III but I found it neither enlightening nor humorous. The characters have never been sufficiently real (as a result of the way they have been written and the amateurish performances that have brought them to life) for this left-turn into drama to work. And the script tries too hard to be funny (rarely succeeding). Looking back to the original ending of Clerks , where Dante was killed in a convenience store robbery, I find myself wishing that Smith had gone with his original instincts. That would have spared us two subpar sequels, each of which was worse than its predecessor.

Comments Add Comment

Princess Bride, The (1987)
City Lights (1931)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Feast (2006)
Dumb and Dumberer (2003)
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
(There are no more better movies of Brian O’Halloran)
(There are no more worst movies of Brian O’Halloran)
Clerks (1994)
Clerks II (2006)
(There are no more better movies of Jeff Anderson)
Clerks II (Re-Review) (2006)
(There are no more worst movies of Jeff Anderson)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Mallrats (1995)
(There are no more worst movies of Jason Mewes)

Clerks 3 Review: A Little Cheap But Very Sweet

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Cinematic universes are strange things. You're technically able to enjoy any individual film in the MCU, for instance, but who would honestly love the 21st installment in that franchise without seeing any of the others? Avengers: Endgame would probably seem like a cough syrup fever dream without seeing roughly 20 other films before it.

Similarly, Clerks 3 is dull, confusing, and very stupid if you haven't seen the previous two Clerks films or know much about Kevin Smith's filmography and personal life. Conversely, if the View Askewniverse means anything to you, then Clerks 3 will be a surprisingly emotional, touching reunion with friends.

Kevin Smith and the Clerks Saga

Jay and Silent Bob in the movie Clerks 3

The Clerks saga hasn't just been about the friendship between Dante and Randal, two working-class employees (and now owners) of a Quik Stop convenience store; it's also been about Smith himself, personally and as a filmmaker. Few directors have a fan base that extends from their films and to the very person behind them, and Smith might top the list.

Clerks , Smith's debut and a defining moment in American independent film , was a quirky, grainy black and white flick with a budget earned from Smith's comic book collection, maxed-out credit cards, insurance money from a flooded car, and a $3,000 loan from his parents. Smith worked at the Quik Stop during the day, and his employer let him film there at night after 10:30 pm, meaning that Smith slept about an hour a day for the three-week production. The result was a cultural phenomenon, winning awards at Cannes, featuring on many critics' top-ten lists, and ultimately being preserved by the Library of Congress. The organic dialogue, dark humor, and genuine friendship between Dante (played by Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (played by Jeff Anderson) were not just funny but endearing.

12 years later and six films later, Smith brought the characters back for Clerks 2 , which found Dante and Randal working at a fast-food restaurant after the Quik Stop burned down. There, Dante is considering leaving for Florida with his fiancée but falls in love with Becky Scott (played by Rosario Dawson), who becomes pregnant after their one-night stand. In the end, Randal and Dante buy and re-open the Quik Stop.

Clerks 2 found Smith in a unique phase of his career, one where he'd grown sentimental. He was married and had a daughter, and subsequently made three films that were surprisingly sweet — the overly sentimental and cheesy Jersey Girl and two films which combined his crude humor with tender affection to great success ( Clerks 2 and the great 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno ). Since then, Smith has experimented with action comedy ( Cop Out ) and horror ( Tusk, Red State ), and the sweetness soured with some pretty dark, weird stuff. Then Smith had a 'widow-maker' heart attack and almost died, which is where Clerks 3 comes in.

Clerks 3 is Sweet and Surprisingly Emotional

Almost three decades after Smith began his filmmaking career, Clerks 3 finds him nostalgic and taking (film) stock of his life. It's the most meta movie he's ever made, and that's saying something from a man who directed Jay and Silent Bob Reboot . The film finds Dante and Randal working as their own bosses at the Quik Stop, but not exactly happier than they were in 1994. Now in their 50s, an age where the term 'best friend' seems a little lame, the two men are generally stuck in a rut, and Clerks 3 begins the same way. It's awkward and almost cringe-inducing, the jokes not really landing, and the formerly funny character of Elias (played by Trevor Fehrman) becoming cartoonish and just uninspired.

The film excels, however, when it embraces emotion. Dante is a pretty tragic figure here; Becky and his daughter have both died sometime in the past decade, and he's unhappy at the Quik Stop where Randal dragged him back to at the end of Clerks 2 . Sure, he talks to his ghost wife (and Dawson is as typically charming here as ever) about all the people she has sex with in heaven, but his depression runs deep, the iconic "I'm not even supposed to be here today" phrase of Clerks turning into something more like, "I don't even want to be here today or any other day."

Related: Exclusive: Rosario Dawson Discusses the Surprising Way She Returns to Clerks 3

Randal, meanwhile, has a near-fatal heart attack , which is when Clerks 3 starts to become interesting. While recovering, Randal decides to make a movie about his and Dante's life, and the rest of the film chronicles their attempt, with familiar faces from the Clerks films reprising their roles (not to mention some other great cameos). Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) assist in the production, and Bob becomes the seasoned cameraman, shooting the film in black and white. Like a cinematic ouroboros, Clerks 3 is about the making of Clerks , eating the nourishing tail of this odd trilogy.

Clerks 3 is About the Making of Clerks 1

Rosario Dawson as Becky Scott with Dante in Clerks 3

For fans of Clerks and Smith alike, the rest of Clerks 3 is a delightful series of inside jokes and fun winks to the audience, who are essentially given front-row seats to the making of Clerks through the perspective of its own characters. As the movie within a movie is filmed, everyone comes together and gets some time to shine, but Dante and Randal's characters in particular are satisfyingly fleshed out. The result is a film that's a loving ode to independent filmmaking itself, and a touching tribute to Smith's fans.

There are countless clever references to Smith's life and the making of Clerks , and even its infamous cut ending, and none of these would be enjoyable without an audience that's already invested in all these things. It's Smith preaching to the choir, but it's a fiery sermon and one with an unexpectedly moving, beautiful ending that wraps everything up in an intelligent way, merging the Clerks universe with Smith's life. It's fitting that these films would ultimately merge with their behind-the-scenes reality, since Clerks , a film so heavily engaged with pop culture, has become a part of the cultural zeitgeist itself (quite literally, with the Library of Congress calling it "culturally significant").

Clerks 3 Looks Cheap But is Emotionally Rich

Shoplift sign in the Quik Stop in Clerks 3

On an aesthetic level, Clerks 3 honestly does feel cheap, which is surprising considering the $7 million budget. The comedy is filmed with an unusual flatness, only exacerbating the weakness of some jokes. The soundtrack is trite, be it bland pop-punk songs or emotional filler music. Learan Kahanov's cinematography is bright and colorful but feels anonymous, lacking any of the bold, fun distinction of David Klein's great work in Clerks and Clerks 2 , and if it wasn't for the dialogue, it feels like Clerks 3 could've been directed by anyone.

On some levels, maybe this is a back-to-basics decision, creating the most simple-looking film Smith could after years of experimentation; maybe Smith had a heart attack and decided to go back to the beginning, which is appropriate for the subject of Clerks 3 . In that sense, the flatness of the film's style could very well be a reflection of the indie film Randal is trying to make (certain blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments may allude to the fact that what we're watching is the movie they're making, though that's an interpretive stretch).

At the end of the day, Clerks 3 feels like the kind of awkward and weepy but essentially heartwarming reunion old friends might have after missing each other for a dozen years. The conversation is initially dull and uncomfortably bad in places and yet pops with the occasional laugh-out-loud line that reminds you why the friendship existed in the first place. The amateurish stumbles of Clerks 3 don't detract from the actual honesty and beauty of the film's second half, and if you're any kind of Kevin Smith fan, you'll be deeply touched by the end.

Lionsgate, in partnership with Fathom Events, will be releasing Clerks 3 exclusively in theaters from September 13th - 18th.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Clerks III’ on VOD, Kevin Smith’s Return to the Convenience Store That Birthed Him

Where to stream:.

Kevin Smith

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Masters Of The Universe: Revolution’ on Netflix, The Next Chapter In Kevin Smith’s Smart Update Of 1980s Cartoon Hero He-Man

New movies on demand: 'clerks iii,' 'spirit halloween: the movie,' + more, 'clerks iii' star rosario dawson has heard those 'daredevil' rumors, but she's not going to spill the beans like tom holland, kevin smith returns in 'clerks 3' trailer featuring new ben affleck cameo, same quick stop.

Voted Most Likely to Prompt One to Google “Is Weed Legal In New Jersey?”, Clerks III finds filmmaker and Gen X renaissance man Kevin Smith returning to his roots by making a movie that’s essentially about him making his first movie. His characters in 1994’s Clerks – convenience-store guy Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and video-store guy Randal (Jeff Anderson) – were essentially analogues of his own goofy experiences as a retail counterboy, and in their latest saga they pick up the helm again when they decide, well, to make a movie about their goofy experiences as retail counterboys. Oh, and after Randal has a life-threatening heart attack, mirroring the one that Smith endured in 2018; so many parallels and inspirations. So is the third Clerks go-round a profoundly ouroborosian narrative or navel-gazing self-indulgence?

CLERKS III : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The Quick Stop still stands and the shutter locks are still jammed up with gum, much to Dante’s chagrin. But they’re his jammed-up locks, as he and Randal now own the place. Next door, RST Video has been converted into a cannabis dispensary owned by serial stoners Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith), but they still partake in shifty-eyed transactions out front on the sidewalk because old habits die hard. Dante and Randal still close up shop to play hockey on the roof, and everyone still appreciates the mellifluous sounds of King Diamond. You know what they say – the more things change, the more likely you are to parrot a cliche.

As Dante and Randal’s uberChristian employee Elias (Trevor Fehrman) and his buddy Blockchain Coltrane (Austin Zajur) tout their NFT-Jesus-kites endeavor and convert to Satanism, some legit Life Shit happens to them: Randal lands in the hospital thanks to a major cardiac event, and while he’s worrying about the doctors seeing his abnormally small penis as they go up through the groin to put stents in his blocked artery, Dante flashes back to when his fiance Becky (Rosario Dawson) and their unborn child died after they were hit by a drunk driver. So life for them hasn’t been all Star Wars arguments and stocking the milk cooler – although it’s pretty funny that Amy Sedaris plays Randal’s doctor, and she admits to not knowing a damn thing about The Mandalorian . Get it? Because Amy Sedaris actually stars in The Mandalorian ? This is what you call “metatextuality.”

Thankfully, the text scrawled on a sheet hanging outside the Quick Stop soon reads I ASSURE YOU, HE’S ALIVE. But Randal isn’t necessarily the same man anymore. Brushes with death tend to make a person reflect on themselves and their legacy. So he decides to make a movie called Inconvenience , about all the goofy, mundane quasi-adventures and conversations he and Dante have experienced at the Quick Stop over the years, pushing a reluctant Dante to be the producer. After unfruitful cast auditions (cue a bunch of celebs in cameos reiterating “I wasn’t even supposed to BE here today!”), they decide to play themselves, as “Dan T.” and “Randy,” with Silent Bob as their somewhat pretentious cinematographer. And so they go on a nostalgia trip, filming scenes with the Salsa Shark and Dante’s ugly sweater and the weird guy with the eggs and Jay and Silent Bob dancing, you know, all the stuff you remember so well because you watched Clerks a couple dozen times in the mid-’90s.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Clerks . Clerks III reminds me of Clerks , a whole hell of a lot. Almost to the point where I wish I’d rewatched Clerks again instead. However, it doesn’t remind me of Clerks II , because most everything about Clerks II was forgettable.

Performance Worth Watching: You won’t be surprised to learn that Sedaris steals her scenes with the crisp comic timing of an old pro among relative amateurs.

Memorable Dialogue: Justin Long, not a walrus this time, drops in to play Randal’s nurse: “As the wife says after Dateline every single week, ‘Take off your pants.’”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: You can’t question the earnestness of Smith’s sentimentality. He had a heart attack and now he wears that patched-up heart on his sleeve. That and Clerks III ’s blend of remixed and reenacted greatest-hits moments, Smith’s signature crude-talk dialogue and a bevy of easter eggs undoubtedly will please his faithful fans. His fans, who’ve not only supported him through nine View Askewniverse movies and the unconventional road-show distribution and presentation of the last couple ( Clerks III and 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot ). His fans, whose devotion made reality series Comic Book Men last seven seasons. Seven seasons . Do not underestimate the power of this entertainment franchise’s devoted fans, for they will make sure something as annoying as Comic Book Men lasts way longer than it should.

As for the rest of us, well, Clerks III is rougher sledding. I speak as someone who grew weary of – grew out of? – sight gags featuring baseball-bat-sized marijuana cigarettes, deep dives into the latest Lucasfilm property and jokes that were becoming increasingly self-referentially niche (but not the King Diamond references. King Diamond references are forever gold!). This universality of Clerks – its retail-hell comedy, its pop-cultural hyper-awareness, its bootstrap cheapness and underdog status – makes it a key piece of 1990s film culture. Smith tried broadening his point-of-view with poorly received movies like Jersey Girl and Cop Out , and found his sensibilities ill-fitting with mainstream Hollywood.

So he turns inward with stuff like Clerks III , playing to his base. He surely feels the need to acknowledge the level of devotion he’s inspired for nigh-on 30 years, reflecting on the ravages of age that everyone inevitably suffers, even those in a state of perpetual dick-joke arrested development like Dante and Randal. Feeling vulnerable really isn’t part of the tapestry of youth, but here are these two lifer clerks, contemplating mortality. And the twist is, the young Smith made Clerks to prove himself, and it became the legacy he’s now drafting on, while middle-aged Randal wants to make Inconvenience so he can leave something behind besides an elbow-dent in the cash-register counter – and as a paean to his lifelong bro-love for Dante.

Smith’s reasons for making Clerks III are sound. As for his execution, well – the Star Wars /Lobot bit is funny, Long and Sedaris make the most of their bit parts, Dawson’s easygoing presence makes scenes between Dante and her character’s ghost go down easier than they should and “NFT Jesus kites” is a fine bit of throwaway satire. Otherwise, the comedy is more miss than hit, the break-up-and-make-up dramatic arc is tired, Jay and Silent Bob’s antics are wearisome, the speech-reaction shot-speech-reaction shot direction is clunky and the cast, amiable as ever but as limited in their range as ever, struggles to sell the heavier emotional moments. Only Smith’s fans will feel the need to be apologists for this stuff.

Will you stream or skip Kevin Smith's #ClerksIII on VOD? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) October 21, 2022

Our Call: SKIP IT. Clerks III puts the hash in rehash. Its lukewarm reminiscences will please the faithful, but beyond that, you’re likely better off watching Smith’s earlier, stronger work.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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COMMENTS

Clerks III movie review & film summary (2022)
They have a few dim-witted moments of self-realization that made me chuckle. "Clerks III" is a movie about the main characters of "Clerks" making a movie called "Inconvenience," virtually remaking "Clerks" for us shot by shot. Randal suffers a heart attack (a "widow maker" with 80% chance of not winning, as Smith experienced ...
Clerks III
Clerks III. After suffering a massive heart attack, Randal enlists friends and fellow clerks Dante, Elias, Jay and Silent Bob to help him make a movie about life at the Quick Stop. Rent Clerks III ...
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So, yes, Clerks III is a bit of an unfunny mess, and it often highlights Smith's weaknesses as a filmmaker, but when it works, it really, really works. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 4 ...
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In the film's second sequel, "Clerks III," he is not nearly as deft. Paradoxically, some of this is because of Smith's relative maturity. A husband and a father and a heart attack survivor ...
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Kevin Smith treats Clerks III with impactful personal reflection, finding a way to spin remake angles without selling out or sacrificing his signature sense of pop-culture crudeness.
'Clerks III' Review: Kevin Smith's Trilogy Topper is for Devotees Only
Release date: September 13 (Lionsgate) Cast: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Ferhman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Smith. Director-Screenwriter: Kevin Smith. Rated R ...
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Clerks III: Directed by Kevin Smith. With Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Vincent Pereira, Mike Zapcic. Dante, Elias, and Jay and Silent Bob are enlisted by Randal after a heart attack to make a movie about the convenience store that started it all.
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Clerks III is Smith at his most self-reflexive. After checking back in on Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) in 2006's Clerks II - taking the middle-aged pair out of Quick ...
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The movie begins with My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade," and the lyrics are practically the film's thesis statement. Life is hard, but we "carry on." Smith's latest isn't an easy ...
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Clerks III (2022 Movie) Official Trailer - Kevin Smith. I certainly didn't expect to be wiping my eyes when the credits rolled on Clerks III, but I'm happy it happened, because it means Dante ...
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Clerks III is in theaters this week in a limited engagement. Ad. Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Clerks Comedy Kevin Smith. Written by. Don Kaye. With Clerks III, writer-director Kevin Smith wraps up the ...
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Sep 13, 2022. Clerks III is far from a perfect film. Absolutely drenched in masturbatory nostalgia and teeming with timely Marvel references, it milks the last drop of creative potential these nearly 30-year-old characters are capable of providing. Yet, somehow, these marked setbacks don't completely bog the film down.
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Review: Kevin Smith's Nostalgia Well Dry Off New Jersey Coast. Kevin Smith toys with death in Clerks III as a shortcut to bring emotion to a film that otherwise has no meaningful hook. Filmmaker and geek extraordinaire Kevin Smith seemingly left his View Askewniverse world of interlinked films behind with 2006's Clerks II, and with ...
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Review by Michael O'Sullivan. September 8, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1 star) Like Dante and Randal, the slacker protagonists of the movie "Clerks" — who, as the sequel "Clerks III" opens ...
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Parents Need to Know. Parents need to know that Clerks III is the sequel to Kevin Smith's 1994 and 2006 movies. The main characters are now nearing 50 and facing mortality; after a heart attack, one decides to make a movie about working at the Quick Stop. It's only sporadically funny, but it still feels genuine. Language is a big….
Clerks III
Clerks III is a 2022 American black comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Kevin Smith and starring Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson and Smith. It serves as a sequel to the 1994 and 2006 Clerks films, and is the ninth overall feature film set in the View Askewniverse.In the film, Randal Graves, after surviving a massive ...
Kevin Smith's Clerks III cashes in on nostalgia—at a dispiriting cost
There's a watchable 90-minute movie hidden in the almost two-hour runtime of Clerks III.It's too bad writer-director Kevin Smith doesn't possess the clarity of vision he once had to refine ...
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The original Clerks was a trailblazing mid-1990s indie comedy whose love of profanity and pop culture references made it an unlikely art house success story while jump-starting the career of writer/director Kevin Smith. Although Clerks remains amusing if watched nearly three decades after its 1994 debut, many of the jokes are tame, others have lost their humor (some as a result of shifting ...
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Kevin Smith is back with a new Clerks movie nearly 30 years after his debut, and Clerks 3 finds him surprisingly sentimental and emotional. ... Clerks 3 Review: A Little Cheap But Very Sweet ...
'Clerks III' Streaming Movie Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Otherwise, the comedy is more miss than hit, the break-up-and-make-up dramatic arc is tired, Jay and Silent Bob's antics are wearisome, the speech-reaction shot-speech-reaction shot direction is ...