Clerks: 10th Anniversary Edition

Shot in grainy black and white, Kevin Smith's low-budget directorial debut explores the difficult relationships between young people, and while it may not be John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), whatever Clerks (1994) lacks in subtlety it makes up for in laughs. Celebrating the film's 10th anniversary, Miramax has released a three-disc boxed set that includes both the original 92-minute theatrical cut and the 104-minute rough cut (which looks rather horrible and doesn't contain much beyond a drastically different ending). Brian O'Halloran stars as Dante, a convenience store clerk who agrees to work on his day off, only to find himself caught up in the shift from hell, complete with a $500 fine for selling cigarettes to a four-year old and a girlfriend having sex with a dead man in a dark bathroom. Writer/director Smith's potty-mouth script dances with cool, funky rhythms, especially from Dante's more laidback companions: video store jockey Randal (Jeff Anderson--no relation to me) and slackers/drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith, respectively). Yes, Dante's relationship problems provide the movie with its emotional anchor, but it's the clever talk--including the monologues about Return of the Jedi--that really hooks us. DVD extras include commentary tracks for both versions, the new 90-minute "making-of" documentary "The Snowball Effect" (with outtakes from the doc totaling an additional 45 minutes), a trivia track, "Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary" (a short about Smith's first attempt at filmmaking), an animated "lost scene" that was never shot, the 2001 short film "The Flying Car" (starring Anderson and O'Halloran), Soul Asylum's "Can't Even Tell" music video, audition tapes, a 10th anniversary Q&A, still photos, Smith's journal, articles and reviews, and a 24-page collector's booklet. Highly recommended. (J.M. Anderson)