Kevin Smith is at his best when writing about personal experience, and as he's avoided that in his films the quality of his work has declined. There's plenty of material to mine: the heart attack, turning vegan, trying to stay relevant as he gets old, having a daughter grow up, discovering the truth of allegations about Harvey Weinstein.
The only one he goes for here is the heart attack. I think Smith came up with the concept then was trapped by it - Randall has a heart attack and decides to make a film. I get that's a sexy concept.
But it's one that quickly runs into problems. I don't think Smith knows how Randall and Dante would talk these days - he knew how they did talk but not now. He knew how to write about making a cheap film them but not now. It doesn't make sense a forty something man would make a movie about working in a store now... an autobiographical film yes. But the old guys play their roles.
He would've been better off making a film about Walt Flanagan and co now - or his life now. Or a pure nostalgia piece. Maybe he didn't want to go there.
Fun to see cameos though cannot Ralph Garman impersonate anyone other than Arnie and Al Pacino? The Smith stock company is there - wife, daughter, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Freddy Prinze and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Supergirl.
Some glimpses of a more interesting movie - like when Dante and Veronica hook up. That could've been a film. It has some emotion when Dante dies.
But like Jersey Girl this is outside Smith's comfort zone, despite it being Clerks. His comedy riffs don't work the same way. It's unsure of itself. It repeats the same arc as Clerks 2 with Randall telling Dante what Dante means to him. (Why not give Randall a romance, by the way?)
I loved Kevin Smith movies but they're just not working. If he's not willing to really put it on the line I'm not sure he should be doing it.
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