Just saw Clerks II. Me & the rest of the audience at the packed theater in Silver Spring, MD (!sharktown! there is a huge shark on top of the Discovery Channel building right now, Shark Week promo) enjoyed the movie a lot. There are 3 kinds of Kevin Smith movies: the comedies, the drama (Chasing Amy), and the one I was not interested in seeing (Jersey Girl). Of the comedies, Clerks II is the best, and the original Clerks comes in at a close second. Cinematography in Clerks II was the best, if I recall correctly, out of all the Smith flicks. Tonally, this movie feels right. There is more sadness in this one than in the original Clerks. There is also one of the wildest climax (end of Act II?) scenes ever in this movie, involving confession of important secrets, the police, the fire fighters, a donkey and a half naked man in leather. Whereas his peers (of sorts) Jarmusch, Hartley, & Linklater staked their claims to a certain kind of storytelling & kept getting it right more than half the time film after film, Smith offered up a promising combination in Clerks and then did not return to improve on his debut until this current film, Clerks II. Congrats to Smith & the rest of the team. Go check out the flick for yourself, lemme know what you thought.
* If the YouTube link above does not open easily, click here to go view the video - https://youtu.be/HSWiCrkbV6o?si=c9gNuHu2-J4ir1uZ * Film screens 2/14 night in DC - all info and tix here - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bittersweet-qa-with-director-steve-martini-cast-valentines-rom-com-tickets-1215654026919