Tuesday

Would you be as surprised as I was to learn that Clerks came out in 1994? And was thus made in 1993? Perhaps I was astonished by my own ignorance, because I only became aware of and watched this film probably in 1999-2000, and it felt contemporary then. Anyway, I watched it again last night for perhaps the first time in about five years. Undoubtedly the dialogue and the characterisation is great. The black and white felt claustrophobic and oppressive, though - even if this was the intended effect. The main appeal of the movie, really, is the character Randal - like Han Solo in Star Wars, you're not really interested in Luke, or Dante Hicks here. Randal is a character who doesn't change, although our perceptions of him may change by the end. Since I last saw this movie I've worked as a clerk, and met people who have worked their whole adult lives as clerks, so there was an extra level of enjoyment, and meaning, for me here. Otherwise, the direction is quite amateur, and seemed deliberately to draw attention to this fact, as if for novelty. The sentiments at the end are rather naive and simplistic, but I'd still say this is a good movie, alive with the force of the generation it was produced by and parodies.