This summer, Kevin Smith made news for his reaction to various critics and his policies about who got to see CLERKS 2 before it was screened and who didn’t. I’m still not sure if I was never invited to see the movie because I was intentionally excluded or if it was because I moved right around the time it screened, and I just didn’t get my invite. Whatever the case, I think it’s always sort of a losing game when you do that as a filmmaker, because there are always going to be people who don’t like what you do. The more of a voice you have, the more I think you’ll ultimately divide audiences. And I think the happiest artists are the guys who have figured that out, and however much Smith still seems determined to answer his critics online, he appears to have learned the lesson where it really matters, in his filmmaking.

If you want to see just how far Smith has come as a filmmaker, I don’t think you should compare CLERKS 2 to the original CLERKS. Instead, I think you should compare it to JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, which is pretty much the exact opposite of this in terms of maturity. J&SBSB is a goof from start to finish, so absurd and ridiculous that it has no more consequence than a Cheech & Chong movie. And that was by design, I’m sure. With CLERKS 2, Smith has made a film that looks like a dick joke on the surface, but it’s got something else on its mind, something that lends unexpected poignancy to these characters. It works because it is 100% confident in tone, a sign of just how much control Smith has as a filmmaker.

I want to take a moment to pay a direct compliment to the work of Dave Klein, Smith’s cinematographer on the film. He shot CLERKS, MALLRATS, and CHASING AMY for Smith previously, and I’ve never particularly thought much of his work. Here, though, I think the look that he and Smith came up with for the film is clean and crisp and colorful, and I think it’s a big part of what works about the film. For once, I think the style works completely in a Kevin Smith film, and anyone attacking him visually does so out of habit, not because of the film itself.

I know a lot of guys like Randall and Dante. I’ve kept track of some of my high school friends and lost track of others, and what is fairly clear in looking at them as a group is that no one ever really does what you think they’re going to do. People confound your expectations. There are guys who just disappeared who you thought were going to be huge successes, and there are guys who pulled their shit together who looked like catastrophes then. And then there are the guys who haven’t changed at all. Those are the guys who sort of amaze me. They’re like the mosquitos in JURASSIC PARK, frozen in amber. And the idea of using these characters, so familiar to Smith’s fans by this point, to get at something real about those guys... that’s the quietly great idea that makes CLERKS 2 more than just a sequel. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but this is Smith’s version of Truffaut’s Antoine Doniel films, a step back into someone’s lives a full decade later. The only other American filmmaker who has done anything like this with a “sequel” in recent memory is Richard Linklater with the BEFORE SUNRISE/BEFORE SUNSET films.

Time has had its way with these characters and with these actors, and Kevin has written with the real-life experience of a decade informing all the humor. This world feels lived in because, for Smith, it has been. He’s spend a full decade now with this View Askewniverse in play in his head, and his enormous affection for the characters is evident in every moment of the film. How much you’re going to enjoy this film is directly proportional to how much you share that affection. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I prefer this to the original CLERKS, and that I think it’s Smith’s best film.

The 2-disc widescreen edition is just plain nice. I’ve listened to two of the three commentary tracks. The first one I played was with Smith, Scott Mosier, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Jason Mewes, Brian O’Halloran, and Jennifer Schwalbach. It’s a typically rambunctious room, and the ball-busting is epic. Schwalbach certainly has no problem calling Smith out on things, and no one seems to have a problem calling Mewes out on everything. Ferhman feels like a natural part of the group, and they haze him a bit during the commentary. Rosario Dawson is sorely missed, but it’s obvious everyone in the cast was smitten with her. Mewes goes on at length about watching her nude scenes in ALEXANDER while masturbating, and how proud he was to tell Dawson about that particular viewing.

The second commentary I played is the one with Smith, Mosier, and Dave Klein, and it’s a far more technically-oriented commentary track. If you want something that will actually offer some educational value for aspiring filmmakers, this is the one. I haven’t played the unused podcast commentary, originally recorded to be downloaded and played by viewers in the theater, but I’m sure I will.

Disc two features the 90-minute behind-the-scenes documentary “Back To The Well,” and it’s a solidly-produced piece that completely conveys the enthusiasm that they all had for the picture. I love how honest Anderson is about all the reasons he didn’t want to have anything to do with a CLERKS sequel, and he basically speaks everything that every fan must have thought at some point when they heard about the idea. There’s just as much history playing out in the subtext of this documentary as there is in the movie itself, and it really captures the emotional rollercoaster that is the making of any film in a very tangible way.

All of the production diary entries that were shown online are included on the disc, and then there’s also a hefty blooper reel that is just as profane and funny as you’d expect. In particular, watch for Rosario Dawson's adorable addiction to squeaking out "Moobys!" just before or just after a take.

All told, this is one of the nicest discs that The Weinstein Company’s put out since they’ve started publishing their titles through Genius Products, and I think Smith’s fans are going to be particularly pleased.

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles