Last week, “Tusk,” a novel film about a man who is turned into a walrus that is equal parts horrifying and hysterical, was recently released to theaters worldwide. With such an outlandish plot and ambiguous themes, you might wonder why the world is paying this film any attention at all. It all comes down to the film’s director, Kevin Smith, both renowned and reviled in some circles, a cult classic indie director and poster child of Generation X.
Smith’s rise to fame began in 1994, at a time that changed the face of indie cinema with such films as Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” (1994) and Robert Rodriguez’s “El Mariachi” (1993). At the heart of this indie scene was also Smith’s “Clerks,” a quirky black-and-white comedy about two untrained men in their early 20s and their escapades through a day of working at a convenience store. The film was praised for its heavy use of dialogue and art house sensibilities, yet still managed to include a great deal of jokes about traditionally nerdy subject matter. What had once been a style of cinema reserved for Woody Allen flicks or pieces about bohemian artists was now being applied to unskilled shmucks that had grown up watching Star Wars and the Transformers cartoons.
“Clerks” easily marks the most important piece in Smith’s career. Its contribution to the indie scene can still be felt today. It also sparked a whole generation of fans who now saw Smith as the ideal reflection of their own lives and gave Smith a cult following of his own. At this time, Smith had a great deal of promise and the world was pining for his next piece.
Smith’s follow up, “Mallrats” (1995), marked the true nature of Smith’s films, and while not bad, “Mallrats” was panned in comparison to “Clerks.” Clashing with the minimalist nature of “Clerks,” the colorful and over-the-top “Mallrats” was as funny and quirky as its predecessor, sans the simplistic and (relatively) realistic nature of the piece. The film got such poor reviews that Smith even had to apologize for the film before its release to home video, where it finally found an enthusiastic and welcoming audience.
However, it would be Smith’s next film, “Chasing Amy,” which would solidify Smith’s spot on Hollywood’s radar. “Chasing Amy,” a film about a comic book artist who falls in love with a lesbian, is a fun and loose return to the humor of “Clerks” and ditches the colorful stunts of “Mallrats” for more serious moments and a more cohesive plot. While its views and depictions of the LGBTQ community can seem antiquated, if not downright offensive, today, the film remains genuinely funny and casts then-rising star Ben Affleck in the lead role of one of Smith’s best films.
Smith reached the height of his potential with his theological satire and my personal favorite of his films – “Dogma.” The film’s multithreaded plot involves everything from a black apostle who was written out of the bible, to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s duo piece as angels of wrath. The film has everything from deep theological discussions to brief bursts of slapstick and situational humor. Smart, funny and surprisingly touching, “Dogma” represents the best of what Smith has to offer. To top it off, George Carlin’s cameo appearances are pure gold and as a liberal Catholic myself, I found the movie, while very hyperbolic, to be in surprisingly good taste.
Since then, Smith has directed a number of critical flops, from the fan servicing “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” to the attempted serious film “Jersey Girl,” which had neither the wit nor smarts required to succeed. More recently Smith’s first attempt at politically driven psychological horror, “Red State,” yielded something neither clever nor interesting that quickly digressed into a film that makes the audience uncomfortable for its duration and never really sticks with them.
To this day, Smith is still making millions on merchandise from his first few films and his popular, even if bland, podcasts. Fans of “The Walking Dead” also might know Smith from his reality show “Comic Book Men,” a TV series that has none of the girth, charm or smarts of a typical Kevin Smith piece and all of the gimmicks and merchandising we’ve become used to in the reality TV industry.
But Smith’s influence is not to be ignored – many of his best pieces can be found on Netflix and YouTube and still hold a great deal of relevance today. While “Tusk” seems to be failing on the promise of a truly great Kevin Smith piece, “Clerks 3” is on the way, and who knows what the future may hold for this director.
Alessandro Arena-DeRosa can be reached at [email protected].
