#4: Clerks 2

Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson and Rosario Dawson
Free from his dead-end job (and lodged in a new one), Dante begins to break free of his rut, planning to move away and get married, but Randal - always the more hostile of the two - starts to become overwhelmed by his own rancor.

I read this interview with Kevin Smith recently where he's asked who would he be more of, Dante or Randal. He states in the first one he identifies with Dante - the guy stuck in a dead-end job always wanting more but failing to "shit or get off the pot". And it was the Randal character who he wanted to be. But when he wrote Clerks 2, the view kinda shifts. Though Dante is the one who is closer to Smith as in he is thinking about family, marriage etc (though still failing the "shit or get off the pot" mentality), it is Randal whom he relates to more. The frustration of when did everything change, when did the status quo change? Why do I feel so left out, why do I feel so behind the times and shit?

When Clerks 2 came out, I was pretty much expecting the same repetoire of dirty jokes (with a splash of inter-species erotica) plus his usual point of view on pop culture but with current references - and it had all that. But, and dare I say, it also had heart. It had a bigger task to perform - showing growth in both the characters (particularly the former "trusty comic-relief sidekick" Randal) and the writer/director, Smith himself. It needed to follow up on a cult hit film without necessarily being a cult hit film. Clerks 2 won't be remembered the way Clerks was and is, but it was the appropriate sequel - beginning in Smith's budget black and white and ending with it.