Whatever Happened to Kevin Smith?

I’ve seen more trailers for the movie Cop Out (directed by Kevin Smith) than any other advertisements combined- except for the black guy in the new Old Spice commercials (which are funny)- and the clips for the film make me sad. The original title for the film, A Couple of Dicks, sounds more like the Kevin Smith I remember, but then again, we’ve seen this before. Zack and Miri was originally titled Zack and Miri Make a Porno before the last three words were dripped off- possibly as part of the attempt to achieve an “R” rating instead of the NC-17 kiss of death. Anyway, based on the snippets provided by the trailer, it appears that Cop Out is your run-of-the-mill buddy-cop comedy. Smith did not write the film, but I still assume that there will be some filth in there somewhere (as the commercials seem to promise with the “too funny for TV” spots).

Has enough time passed that we can assess the early part of Smith’s career? I think so. I also think that he was about 5-8 years ahead of his time. The film that brought Smith his first semblance of success was the black-and-white Clerks. I think I wrote that I had re-watched the film recently. I had mixed feelings about it. While the dialogue and humor seem fresh for the time (and while some of it still stands up today), the threadbare budget seems even more impoverished today. Most of the action takes place in a convenience store and surrounding locales, and that’s it. There really isn’t any “acting”  to speak of, which is glaringly obvious the more I watch it. And yet the film’s (and Smith’s) influence is widespread.

The first three Smith films, Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy (his best film) contain feature the foundations of trends that would later become so common place in movies and TV shows to the point that they’ve become the norm. The “Death Star/Independent contractors” conversation seemed completely odd at the time- that an entire scene of the film should be dedicated to a conversation detailing the hypothetical consequences of actions in a fictional universe. It should be noted that the subject matter of the conversation- Star Wars- hadn’t become a mainstream love affair yet- that wouldn’t happen until Jake Lloyd and 1999. Smith is a self-acknowledged fanboy and inserted his interests (however geeky) into his films. It was kind of strange, but refreshing at the same time. Yet I remember having conversations like that all the time in college. That was Smith’s charm: he actually dared to put that stuff in the film. It is arguably Smith’s greatest contribution to modern film making and television, he made popular culture essential in his own works of fiction. You could have a passing knowledge of Star Wars and its universe, but the aforementioned conversation is more enjoyable if you know exactly what the characters are talking about. Smith’s love for Jaws manifests itself in the wedding scene in Mallrats- the main character’s last name is “Quint”- like the boat captain. For a larger scale version of what Smith was doing, see the work of Quentin Tarantino (whose work included more cult favorites than dork culture).

Those dorky, sci-fi conversations (essentially, Mallrats, his love letter to the comic book realm) his characters had his films have become cliched to the point that: 1) superhero films have become so cool, they’re mainstream, and therefore uncool and 2) prominent TV shows like The O.C. and The Big Bang Theory featured either main characters resembling those Smith lionized (the former), or are based entirely on a cast of those kind of types (the latter). Of course, it seems that Smith knows this, as he portrayed the archetype in Live Free or Die Hard as “Warlock” the nerd in his mother’s basement hogging all the neighborhood’s bandwidth, alone but surrounded by his life-sized cutouts of Boba Fett. More than any other thing he’s done, this scene highlights the shift in the perception of science fiction/comic books/nerd culture. Willis’ John McClain eyes out the Boba Fett cutout and Smith asks him “You a fan of the Fett?” Willis replies “I was always more of a Star Wars guy.” Then Smith makes fun of him. The tide has shifted. You get teased if you don’t know who Boba Fett is. He didn’t invent the stereotype- we all had some understanding of “that guy” prior to his films- but he was one of the first to make that character type prominent, and therefore popular. It can’t be a coincidence that Kevin Smith is a dead ringer for the comic book guy on The Simpsons. It is difficult to say that he was the first, but he was the most effective.

In addition to the geek archetype that he helped create, Smith indulged quite frequently in self-reference. Rick Derris appears in one of the scenes in Clerks and is developed as something of a meathead. Apparently, he was good at exactly 3 things: lifting weights, being an arrogant asshole, and bedding women. Rick Derris appears with a young woman who is most notable for being “Alyssa Jones’ sister.” Alyssa Jones would later become the female object of Ben Affeck’s affections in Chasing Amy. Though Derris only appears in that first film, he is mentioned throughout the rest of Smith’s View Askew films, and if my memory is correct, the bus company in Dogma is named Derris. These are just two of the multiple examples of the self-reference that Smith threw into his films. I suppose you could call them “in-jokes,” a little wink to the fans and audience of the films. Brian O’Hallaran appears in Clerks, Mallrats, and Dogma as different characters: Dante, Gill, and Grant- but they all have the same last name, Hicks. Ron Howard’s Arrested Development raised self-reference to an art form. Lost is 96% self-reference. While the techniques of the latter two shows are more sophisticated and subtle than those Smith included in his films, they have the same purpose and create the same effects.

Personally, I believe Chasing Amy to be his best film (though I love Mallrats far more) because it managed to find a balance between Smith’s toilet humor, his self-referencing, and the single most important factor in any story: human relationships. Some consider Chasing Amy his most serious (in tone) of his films- even though he does season in his usual tricks. He outfitted the booth at the bar to look like the cabin of the ship in Jaws. There is a heated discussion about Darth Vader’s black visage which is “ruined” by the revelation he is an “old white guy.” There is also Banky’s duffel bag filled with “stroke books” just to remind you of the View Askew sense of humor. Mostly, though, it is a detailed portrayal of an awkward romantic relationship (the female lead is a lesbian, which obviously complicates the usual “boy meets girl” story line). It is handled well, though at times the situations seem a little forced- like Affleck’s epiphany that in order to maintain his relationships with his best friend (a guy) and his lover (the erstwhile lesbian) he has to sleep with both. Smith’s “chasing Amy” speech near the end of the film more or less sums it up: personal insecurity can be just as deadly to relationships as random circumstances, events, complications, etc. Often, only these kinds of terrible traumas and horrendous failures can help us reach that level of self-awareness. I enjoyed the movie when I was in college, but I didn’t understand it until much later. Unlike most of Smith’s other work, the universal and personal nature of this film makes it stand up.

On the other end of the spectrum is Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. It was critically panned upon its release in 2001. It ran on the budget of a major motion picture, but it was still a Kevin Smith/View Askew film. At first blush, it didn’t work. Not in 2001, anyway. Now, though? It’s the final proof that Kevin Smith was slightly ahead of his time. The film is obviously not meant to be taken seriously. It is mindless entertainment in its purest form. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) plays a character named “Cocknocker” and utters the line “Don’t fuck with a Jedi Master, son.” Beautiful. The film is a series of jokes, parodies, and satires layered upon each other. There is a blurring of reality and fiction. The guest stars with minor roles in this film include Ben Affleck (of course), Matt Damon, Carrie Fisher, Chris Rock, Sean William Scott, Jason Biggs, Will Ferrell, Ali Larter, etc. You have to hand it to Smith, he packed a lot of shit into 105 minutes.

The plot of the film revolves around the supposed production of a Bluntman and Chronic movie based on the comic created by Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) in Chasing Amy. Of course Jay and Silent Bob feel slighted that they will not stand to gain anything from the use of their likenesses, so they attempt to have the production halted. Along the way, Jay and Silent Bob meet an array of characters being played by very famous people. Hilarity ensues. Kind of. I don’t think humor (in the traditional sense) was the primary purpose of this film. I think the main purpose of the film was to make fun of Hollywood (as mentioned in the tag line) and more specifically Kevin Smith and the genre he helped create.

The film was released in 2001 and the context needs to be considered. The internet was stretching its legs out beginning to sprint. While there are a million blogs today (including this one) and host of other sites- particularly forums- with content created by “regular people,” in 2001, things of that nature were in their nascent stages and wouldn’t filter into the mainstream until later in the decade. And Smith made fun of that entire culture and its rise with the “moviepoopshoot.com” storyline. Moviepoopshoot.com was a website devoted to unmercifully discussing films. Bluntman and Chronic was massacred on-line. This subplot culminated with Jay and his hetero life-partner going door-to-door to kick people’s asses.

Smith also broke the 4th wall in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. A character in the film asks something to the effect of “who would watch a movie about Jay and Silent Bob,” at which point the two characters stare into the camera at the assumed audience. This is Smith’s tongue-in-cheek admission of the film’s utter lack of seriousness. The film-within-the film is also referred to as “one long dick and fart joke.” Which applies to the film itself. Without going into much more detail (in truth, there are far too many details to delve into), Smith made himself and his work the target of his own comedy. He made the jokes before anyone else could. He built an entire universe and sub-genre and then opened fire on it with his own ammunition. There are appearances and situations in the film that are so far-fetched, it is impossible to take the movie seriously. But that was the point. It was his final contribution, in a sense. His films since have borne only some similarities to his first few.

ESPN’s Bill Simmons tore apart Clerks 2 for several reasons, but chief among them was the following general idea: It’s okay to be a slacker in your 20s. If you’re a slacker in your 30s, you aren’t a slacker, you’re a loser. And maybe that’s what happened to Kevin Smith. Maybe he grew up. Maybe he got tired of making those kinds of films. Maybe it’s one of those Adam Sandler things: He’ll never make another Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore because he can’t. The time’s run out on that. It makes me sad. But it also makes me happy. Hopefully the kinds of projects that Smith takes on from here on out will be standard Hollywood fare. He can leave the View Askew Universe alone and never have to touch it again. Those films will be his legacy and his legacy looks pretty good- even just a few years later.