Binge in the time of Corona - Kevin Smithology II

Kevin Smith made 8 good Kevin Smith movies, the essential View Askewniverse experience, which will bring some much-needed levity and calm to the quarantined. This is part two in the series, the Studio Money era, indie visions on a big corporate budget.

Dogma (1999)

Since Kevin Smith is a Catholic and wanted to have sex before he was married, he had to question the word of God, to ask, what if God is wrong? But God is infallible, its word is reality, literally: “And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) So if God’s words make the world, and God is wrong, the words have no power and the world is undone. But since a movie about a man unmaking existence because he wants to have premarital sex was a stupid premise in the year 2000, the movie is about two angels trying to get back into heaven after God cast them out, by finding a loophole in Catholic Dogma. The movie is creative, fast passed, star-studded, intelligent, vulgar in the best of ways and compassionate, dealing with the pain of faith and asking “What if God needs us as much as we need God?” My personal highlight is Alan Rickman in one of his most Rickman-ish performances as a Metatron so British that his dry wit bends reality itself. If you are still on the fence, ask yourself this, could you live with yourself without knowing the context in which Alan Rickman says: “Or you do what, exactly, hit me with that… fish?”

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

Kevin Smith’s Avengers, bringing together all previous 4 movies together (yes even Dogma, Jay refers to God as she, they stop at a Mooby, and in the after-credit scene God literally closes the book of The Askewniverse). Jay and Silent Bob go on a road trip adventure to stop a movie being made about their comic-book counterparts, Bluntman & Chronic, because of some comment section trolls trash talk. The big heavy questions are gone for a fun romp with Eliza Dushku and Shanon Elizabeth in skin-tight catsuits, Will Ferrell chasing an Oran Orangutan, The Scooby organ-harvesting gang and the best Mark Hamill “laser sword” fight after Return of the Jedi. Despite the similarity of superficiality movie is head and shoulders above Mallrats, much more visually engaging and leans into the ridiculousness, peaking with this behind the scene quote from George Carlin: “That’s important, the emotional truth of the scene, when I suck a dick.”

Clerks II (2006)

In Clerks Dante understood that his prison is one of his choices and faced the question of “What Now?” In Clerks II we get the most soul-crushing answer: more of the same. We learn that Dante’s lack of direction and Randel satisfaction with his place in life have carried them both into their 30’s at the same job until the place burns down (in case we didn’t get the Dante’s Inferno analogy the first time), and now working as fry-cooks at a Mooby’s fast-food joint. The duo is facing another tumultuous day of facing their realities and answering the call of the first movie “your real life has begun, take responsibility and make the most of them”. Smith’s unique blend of cool pop culture monologues and interpersonal drama weaved together a donkey show, a Jackson 5 dance number, a p*ssy troll, Anne Frank, Optimus Prime, and a tribute to Buffalo Bill, into a heart-warming tale of second chances and new beginnings that brings a tear to my eye every time.