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[ViewAskewniverse/Kevin Smith] cinema discussion: who wants to die in Canada?
cj iwakura
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
Kevin Smith's a film maker from New Jersey.
He's made a bunch of films, and a new one comes out next week!
Here's highlights from his filmography, if not all of them:
Clerks, 1994.
A day in the lives of two store clerks and their attempts to patch up their screwed up lives, both romantically and otherwise.
I assure you, they are open.
Shot entirely in black and white, Clerks is the first of Smith's View Askewniverse films, and introduces several recurring characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob.
What smells like shoe polish?
Mallrats, 1995.
The big-budget follow-up to Clerks, and part two of the affectionately dubbed 'New Jersey Trilogy'(which technically encompasses five films).
What's the best way for two shiftless college students to cope with having their relationships wrecked?
By hitting up the mall and destroying a dating game show, of course.
Also, at some point the easter bunny gets his ass handed to him.
An absolute box-office disaster, but it's deservedly become something of a cult classic since then.
Ooh, a sailboat!
Chasing Amy, 1997.
In a sense, Chasing Amy rounds out the end of the Jersey Trilogy, though it goes on for two more films anyway.
Two comic book artists are up against the potential of having their freedoms taken away from them...
by both the looming thread of an animated series adaptation, and their own misgivings about sexuality.
Smith considers this one of his more personal films, and it remains my favorite.
Also put him back on the map after the Mallrats debacle.
'Fingercuffs'?
Dogma, 1999.
Definitely responsible for causing the most drama.
Two angels get kicked out of heaven, and stir up all kinds of hell to try and win their way back in.
All kinds of religious nutcases tried to protest this film, and at one point Kevin Smith decided to help them!
Say you're from a Charlton Heston movie, and suddenly everyone's a theology scholar.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001.
The most expensive film Smith had ever made up to that point.
Caps off the Jersey 'Trilogy' by including a cameo from damn near everyone of note in the last four films.
Also of note is Ben Affleck playing no fewer than three different characters, including himself.
You the bomb in Phantoms yo!
Jersey Girl, 2004.
An undeserved black sheep of Smith's films, IMO. His first attempt at 'making a PG-13' film, detailing his experiences with raising a daughter.
You won't get much toilet humor, but you'll get a fun look at relationships and parenthood out of the deal.
What are your intentions?
Clerks 2 2006.
After burning down the Quick-Stop in a fluke coffee machine accident, Dante and Randal make their move on the fast food industry.
I'm not that big a fan of it compared to the first, but the Lord of the Rings scene is always fun.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno, 2008.
Smith's first film not set in Jersey. How can a young couple manage the bills when nothing else works?
Jump into the adult film industry by making a Star Wars parody, of course.
I wouldn't watch it again, but I thought it was funnier than Clerks 2, for whatever that's worth.
Cop Out, 2010.
This doesn't really count, since he had nothing to do with the script. Supposedly it was a necessary evil for him to get the money to do his next film, so hey.
Man has to pay the bills somehow.
Red State, 2011.
A group of insane insular church-goers kidnap a group of teens, hellbent on punishing them for their 'sins'.
Things get a little crazy.
Patriot act, bitch.
Tusk, 2014.
Inspired by a podcast of all things, one reclusive Canadian is about to take his obsession with oceanic life one step too far.
I don't want to die in Canada.
If I missed anything, feel free to let me know.
Bonus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ReoBPl4mM
He's made a bunch of films, and a new one comes out next week!
Here's highlights from his filmography, if not all of them:
Clerks, 1994.
A day in the lives of two store clerks and their attempts to patch up their screwed up lives, both romantically and otherwise.
I assure you, they are open.
Shot entirely in black and white, Clerks is the first of Smith's View Askewniverse films, and introduces several recurring characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob.
What smells like shoe polish?
Mallrats, 1995.
The big-budget follow-up to Clerks, and part two of the affectionately dubbed 'New Jersey Trilogy'(which technically encompasses five films).
What's the best way for two shiftless college students to cope with having their relationships wrecked?
By hitting up the mall and destroying a dating game show, of course.
Also, at some point the easter bunny gets his ass handed to him.
An absolute box-office disaster, but it's deservedly become something of a cult classic since then.
Ooh, a sailboat!
Chasing Amy, 1997.
In a sense, Chasing Amy rounds out the end of the Jersey Trilogy, though it goes on for two more films anyway.
Two comic book artists are up against the potential of having their freedoms taken away from them...
by both the looming thread of an animated series adaptation, and their own misgivings about sexuality.
Smith considers this one of his more personal films, and it remains my favorite.
Also put him back on the map after the Mallrats debacle.
'Fingercuffs'?
Dogma, 1999.
Definitely responsible for causing the most drama.
Two angels get kicked out of heaven, and stir up all kinds of hell to try and win their way back in.
All kinds of religious nutcases tried to protest this film, and at one point Kevin Smith decided to help them!
Say you're from a Charlton Heston movie, and suddenly everyone's a theology scholar.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001.
The most expensive film Smith had ever made up to that point.
Caps off the Jersey 'Trilogy' by including a cameo from damn near everyone of note in the last four films.
Also of note is Ben Affleck playing no fewer than three different characters, including himself.
You the bomb in Phantoms yo!
Jersey Girl, 2004.
An undeserved black sheep of Smith's films, IMO. His first attempt at 'making a PG-13' film, detailing his experiences with raising a daughter.
You won't get much toilet humor, but you'll get a fun look at relationships and parenthood out of the deal.
What are your intentions?
Clerks 2 2006.
After burning down the Quick-Stop in a fluke coffee machine accident, Dante and Randal make their move on the fast food industry.
I'm not that big a fan of it compared to the first, but the Lord of the Rings scene is always fun.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno, 2008.
Smith's first film not set in Jersey. How can a young couple manage the bills when nothing else works?
Jump into the adult film industry by making a Star Wars parody, of course.
I wouldn't watch it again, but I thought it was funnier than Clerks 2, for whatever that's worth.
Cop Out, 2010.
This doesn't really count, since he had nothing to do with the script. Supposedly it was a necessary evil for him to get the money to do his next film, so hey.
Man has to pay the bills somehow.
Red State, 2011.
A group of insane insular church-goers kidnap a group of teens, hellbent on punishing them for their 'sins'.
Things get a little crazy.
Patriot act, bitch.
Tusk, 2014.
Inspired by a podcast of all things, one reclusive Canadian is about to take his obsession with oceanic life one step too far.
I don't want to die in Canada.
If I missed anything, feel free to let me know.
Bonus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ReoBPl4mM 
cj iwakura on
+3
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[edit]*No Yoga Hosers, featuring the cast of Tusk and Smith and Johnny Depp's daughters (I assume from different partners, rather than the daughters of the two of them and/or the cast of Tusk) is out next year.
Mallrats has some really great jokes (and one great not joke, the "relationships are like not knowing how to spoon" monologue) but is filled with far too much dumb (and also too much plot).
Chasing Amy is god tier. It's a really, really good movie, Smith's most heartfelt and dramatically interesting (with plenty of humor, too). Definitely my favorite.
Dogma's heart is in the right place, but it's this awkward combination of high concept/low budget awkwardly combined with the awkward combination of poop joke humor and high-minded religious satire. The movie has a few good satirical ideas (Buddy Jesus, Aimee Mann) but is otherwise way, way too heavy-handed. It's like one of those Chris Rock jokes where Chris won't stop repeating the punchline with a stupid grin on his face, a metaphor chosen for the irony. I can't stress enough how terrible this movie is--I had fond memories of it until a rewatch made me realize just how awful it really is. The exception to all this (and the reason for the fond memories) is any scene with Affleck and Damon together. Their characters are emotionally rich and their story is actually compelling, and that makes them very, very watchable (unlike everything else, where cardboard cutouts are compelled through a gauntlet of exposition by empty fantasy tropes). The best scene in the movie is the boardroom scene--tense, funny, and bitingly satirical in the way that most of the rest of the movie isn't. Watch now and skip the rest:
Jersey Girl I reviewed recently in the movie thread. It's just not funny, outside of a small handful of throwaway lines. It's kinda charming at times, but it's also far too cliched to be involving on a dramatic level. I know it's supposed to be about Smith's relationship with his daughter, but it's hard to believe it was made by the guy who can't help but curse in front of small children. Maybe it's just that Smith doesn't have anything interesting to say about that relationship? Either that, or he didn't pursue that as strongly as he could have--I mean, the Smith stand-in has no wife and his primary conflict is that his career is too demanding for a family (not really the case for Smith, a successful filmmaker whose work/life balance has gotta be better on average than a top music PR man's). I'm not saying I expected anything better--I know the movie's reputation--but I saw it on the off-chance that there was something there that was worthwhile. Speaking as a fan, not really.
Clerks 2 is great, fuck the naysayers. I hope we get Clerks 3 eventually.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno didn't really do much of anything for me. I don't remember it much and I have no urge to see it again. At the time it struck me as Smith trying to ape more of a Judd Apatow style, with grim results.
Red State isn't a good movie, but it's a super interesting movie. Like virtually all bilateral movies (From Dusk Til Dawn, Doomsday, The Cabin, etc), it suffers tremendously from having a good set-up that's discarded and a decent second half with no foundation. It doesn't help that the second half is more interesting (depicting a heated, Waco-style standoff) and the first half is better executed (a gay-panic horror film). It's that last element that I found more compelling than anything, since it's the first horror movie I've seen that directly takes on homophobia in that way. Red State is also resolutely about something (sometimes a problem for Smith), but it's not something that's super emotional (as the last line eloquently puts it, it's about telling an asshole to shut the fuck up), which is probably why the second half of the movie is so cold and clinical (even while it's going for visceral, followed by poignant). In sum total, though, Red State looks like and is written like nothing else Smith had done to date; even though it's a failure of a movie, it's a fascinating failure of a movie, the chrysalis from which Smith presumably emerged into a new phase in his artistic career.
Tusk I am super excited for.
Smiths I have yet to see:
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Cop Out
that TV hockey thing, I forget what it's called
You really have to see all the four prior films to appreciate Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. It has something from all four. You get to see aftermaths to Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, kind of.
Cop Out was legitimately bad. It had its moments, but when the guy who played Stifler is the highlight of your movie, something is wrong.
If he had written it, I bet it would've been a lot better.
As for Jersey Girl, it could be because I worked on a Sweeney Todd production(and it's my favorite play ever), but a lot of it really struck a chord with me.
Liv Tyler's great, too.
"Seven years?"
I'm not good with horror, and even less with body horror, but something about Tusk just gives me a classic witty Smith vibe, so I'm hyped.
Mallrats is weird because I actually like it way better than Clerks, in part because it's less raunchy and mostly because of Jason Lee just owning that role and movie. It's also the 80s teen comedy brought into the 90s - and the stark realization that commercial films trying to look indie just weren't going to work. There is very little authentic with that movie from an indie vibe but it's really the warning shot that "nerd" stuff was going to go mainstream in the next twenty years...
I have only seen one movie that ever tried to duplicate Mallrats' weirdly quick fire verbal comedy style, a movie called Noobz on netflix that shares Jason Mewes as an actor. There is one specific scene set in a gas station where a Jason Lee-looking main character gives a speech that - for one brief moment - captures everything I love in Mallrats. The actor is also the writer of the movie, and I would bet 100 dollars that he was a Mallrats fan.
Clerks 2 is my favorite of the movies though- I think he captured the characters perfectly at that stage in their lives. I think it's got the best "heart" of his ViewAskew universe movies and still more universal then Clerks 1 which was specifically "this is how my life is when I made this movie" and more "this is kind'a a theme about growing up". My only real problem is that Rosario Dawson is clearly much better acting then anyone else in the movie and it shows at time.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is Mallrats without adult supervision, it was just so crazily out there as a concept. I think it's probably the funniest of his movies though it's so broad I am not sure it earns it. stupid can be funny and this movie proves it.
Zack and Miri is great because it realizes Judd Apatow movies are actually dramas masquerading as comedies in the trailers. This is what those movies would be if they didn't have a dramatic arc center. I actually think this is one of Seth Rogan's best movies... and I also think it's one of the better opening sequences of the bunch. It captures what it's like to be in the winter with no real money and having to drag your ass to work in the freezing cold with your roommate. Of all the movies, I actually find this one the most watchable.
And the fact that Dante just happily threw away his engagement on a moment's notice? It was like he hadn't matured at all in the past ten years, as if the events of the first film didn't change him at all. Seemed like Veronica and Caitlin all over again, but at least Rosario Dawson's character wasn't a lunatic.
I believe that, technically, Vulgar is a part of the ViewAskewniverse, though it wasn't directed, just produced, by Smith.
The titular character, Vulgar The Clown, is the View Askew mascot!
It was written and directed by Bryan Johnson, otherwise known as the bearded dude from comic book men, also Steve Dave.
Do not watch it. This is a bad movie, just thought it should be mentioned.
the "live" song that plays when
it just works for me
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
Ironically it was one of the tamer scenes of the sort ever filmed because of the actress' limitations.
SmodCast is second best (as long as Smosier is there).
odd, I don't recall those last to panels having speech bubbles...
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
The parody episode that hits Last Starfighter, Bad News Bears and Temple of Doom all at once puts most parody episodes of anything else to shame. I don't think I saw anything close to that until Community had it's classic set
I don't have much to say about any of the flicks that won't already have been said except that I really do like Mallrats. It's his most straightforward movie-type-movie which is fun to see from him and I'm a big Jason Lee fan (in Smith movies anyway, I haven't followed his career beyond). It strikes a perfect chord with me that is distinct from the rest of Smith's films, most of which feel very similar (which is not a negative, just a difference)
I don't know that I could pick a favorite tbh. But again Smith himself is someone I find incredibly entertaining, insightful, and inspiring.
great thread!
Something about it just sits well with me. Everything from the dialogue (especially the dialogue) to the delivery to the stink palm to Walt Flannigan's dog.
"Have you ever considered hosting your own talk show?"
"yeah"
also, probably has the best soundtrack outside of a Wes Anderson or Cameron Crowe film or Tank Girl.
Yep, they're great. Especially the Dora segment. He's a great storyteller.
Mallrats gets a little more enjoyable everytime I watch it.
"He was just getting on?"
"Maybe he was getting off."
Also, I should go back and watch Dogma. I've seen it many times, and always found it highly enjoyable despite a lot of the stupid toilet humor.
This cannot be stressed enough. It is especially horrifying when you go into it expecting something comedic similar to Smith's other works up to that point.
I do agree the Damon/Affleck duo are the highlight of the movie. I should probably re-examine it after 15 years of life to see how it's aged.
"What gear are you in?"
"Geeeear?"
"Man, you are really making that last."
"Waste not, want not."
It's just him and his long time producer Scott Smosier just shooting the breeze, riffing on things and making each other laugh. Sometimes he includes other long time friends.
It does hit a few rough patchs, first with the failure of Zack and Miri, then with the Southwest too fat to fly thing, and then with him railing and becoming bitter agaisnt critics. Also the episodes without Smosier are usually not as good.
Still, it's a fantastic podcast when it works. The clone conversation with Walter just continues to kill me every listen.
And then the ending occurred. We both had WTF faces for quite a bit of time afterward.
I've kinda grown away from Kevin Smith's movies and other various projects the last few years, but the commentary for Mallrats is still one of my favorite, funniest commentary tracks. Both Smith and Ben Affleck are hilarious (Affleck was a big surprise to me, since at the time before I first heard the commentary I thought the guy was kind of a stiff).
It even had the alternate camera angles that showed the people talking during the commentary on the DVD. They really were the only people to utilize all the technology at their disposal that I can remember.
He was going to do a podcast commentary track for zack and mirri, you go in a second time with his commentary and listen to it instead of the movie. Then he fell into super depression at the opening weekend numbers and he didnt surface from for like two weeks. I probably would have seen it again if he had done it.
I returned, and found that the dude has mellowed out somewhat. And while Tusk and Yoga Hosers aren't necessarily the things I would normally seen, it's nice to hear the guy excited about making movies again.
I was under the impression it was the studio/pfoducers/distributors that took issue with the title
You say he mellowed out on the smodcast? I might start trying to listen again. I agree he started going to a real bad place.
He (well, he, and Miramax hiring lawyer Alan Dershowitz) also got Clerks successfully appealed from an NC-17 to an R.
From what I heard (I think from a Making Of on the DVD?), Zack and Miri's appeal benefited from a recent change in the appeals process where filmmakers were allowed to cite precedence in past films. The big point of contention was Jeff Anderson getting splattered with shit, and they cited a scene in the R-Rated version of Trainspotting where something sorta similar happens.