Clerks: Critic Reviews

A buoyant, bleakly funny comedy chronicling a day's worth of activity at two adjoining stores.

Amateurishly acted, clumsily edited and slapped together out of what looks like surveillance camera footage, the thing bumps along not so much on talent as on audacity.

A collegiate and post-collegiate laugh fest.

Clerks is so utterly authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation.

At 24, Smith also knows something about casting. Using a mixture of stage actors and novices, he's found the right ensemble tone to make Clerks seem as spontaneous as it needs to be.

A hoot one moment, a hiss the next, the film is about as even as a city road after a hard winter. But the script's sheer vigour sees us through.

The film looks no more expensive than it was; some of the acting (by local nonprofessionals) is spectacularly amateurish; the story is a series of anecdotes about hockey, shopping and loving the one you're with. But it's worth loitering in this shop.

There's no denying the raw and energetic feel Smith created with a memorable script, great characters and a genuine sense of Gen X angst.

an exemplar of what can happen when the stars align and someone's home movie can help foment a revolution

Clerks remains a defining debut, a symbolic shot into the darkened domain of legitimate moviemaking.

...the film's inherent deficiencies are generally overshadowed by the distinctly earnest vibe.

Smith dogpiles absurdity and obscenity on top of each other. The dullness of the dead-end jobs is brightened by bizarre bits--a fat guy asking for softer toilet paper, drops dead on the toilet.

Kevin Smith actually pulled it off.

It comes from bad stock, curses like a longshoreman and doesn't bring a gift. Nevertheless, it's the life of the party.

It's not John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), but what Kevin Smith's Clerks, lacks in subtlety it makes up for in laughs

Cheap, touching, and downright nasty, Kevin Smith's first feature still remains the ultimate cinematic tribute to slackers.

...it is the ability to identify with the characters that makes the story so universal. I mean, we've all known people like these who have annoyed us all our lives.

Smith's dialogue sounded groundbreakingly realistic at the time -- wore out its welcome eventually, but the initial blast was gleeful and significant.

A wonderfully funny film debut; from the outset Kevin Smith takes us into his askewed world, and we love it. And I wasn't even supposed to be at work today.