The After Movie Diner on the COMIC BOOKED Podcast Episode 16
I was very honoured recently to be asked for an interview by John and Lucas for their podcast as part of the Comic Booked website
We covered a multitude of topics such as:
Our recent nomination in the TLA Cult Awards
Our Independents and Alternative oscar shows
The Godfather
Evil Dead
Bruce Campbell
CHUD
Fright Night
Sam Raimi
Drive
Clash of the Titans
Kevin Smith
and yes, of course, Billy Zane
It was a fantastic little chat, utterly surprised me to get the request but I was very happy to oblige. Please check out this, all their other podcasts and the whole website over at http://www.comicbooked.com/
You can hear and download the show here:
or on iTunes
Thanks again guys!
Red State (live at Radio City Music Hall) - 5th March 2011
I have been a fan of Kevin Smith since seeing Clerks and apart from Cop Out, which I don't feel necessarily counts, I have pretty much enjoyed, liked or loved everything he has ever been involved in and yes, that includes Jersey Girl.
There are many reasons to like the man and his work: he is funnier and cleverer than he or any of his critics give him credit for, his candid, foul mouthed honesty, he keeps his friends close, the fact he can seemingly turn his hand to anything (Film making, blog writing, shop owning, podcasting, stand up, hockey, TV & Radio show hosting and now distributing), he gets the best from the casts he works with especially Ben Affleck who is rarely better than when working with him, his films attempt to and very often achieve a balance between crude comedy and a heartfelt message without being sentimental and, after Red State he may just have shown himself to be a better writer than Quentin Tarantino.
Yes, when I hear a detractor or critic of his I can see where they are coming from but very often they have either missed the point or a simply not wired the right way to appreciate Smith's little corner of the entertainment business.
I first heard of Red State as this horror movie idea he had been kicking around for some time, it seemed odd because while he is vocal about many things, politics was not one of them and yet, to me the idea of a film that was seemingly going to go after the extreme religious right got my liberal leaning atheist saliva glands excited but then with another thought I wondered how Kevin Smith could even pull it off, not being a director known for dark, moody, horror films.
Then, I had been ferociously absorbing the myriad of podcasts on his ever expanding Smodcast network for the past couple of years. Years which certainly seemed to be a bit turbulent for Mr.Smith, I don't know how much the public are even aware of any of it or if they care but for dedicated Smod listeners like myself it has been a hectic soap opera of dashed hopes over the box office for Zack and Miri make a Porno, of Kevin Smith doing the unthinkable and directing a film he didn't write with a star who turned out to be anything but helpful and of being kicked off a plane for being too fat to fly. Then, seemingly as if his life was an inspirational film about a schlubby kid from New Jersey who made good and because an audience demands a happy ending, he bought a bus to continue touring, built an entire network of increasingly popular podcasts that included getting a theatre, a regular spot at a famous comedy venue and which are soon to become a live streaming radio station, announced that he had the funding for Red State, makes Red State with an all star cast, gets Red State into Sundance 17 years after he debuted there with Clerks, confounds, confuses and amazes people by announcing that he will distribute the film himself (why that upset anyone I have absolutely no idea, that was just plain weird) and finally on March 5th, only a few months since they started shooting the thing, Red State premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Pretty bloody incredible by all accounts and the fact that he did it without, seemingly, stepping on anyone's neck, I personally think is admirable. I honestly scratch my head when people criticise him. You can criticise his work, of course, you can debate his talent and you don't have to like his films or shows but nitpicking, bitching and moaning about the man himself and his actions when he is a fairly shining example of the American dream that everyone bangs on about and getting stuff wrong about him when he is also a completely open book who is always explaining himself clearly and eloquently, is just plain odd.
Now, during all this time, listening to the podcasts on my daily commute I have attempted to keep up with all this stuff but without finding out too many spoilers about the film itself. I have to say, with all honesty, I turned up at the theatre last night with very mixed thoughts and not knowing what to expect. I wanted to be there to have the experience and then see the Q&A but I was not expecting a brilliant film.
For me the warning bells started sounding way back when it was obvious Scott Mosier would not be involved with first Cop Out and then Red State, couple that with the fact that I had been lead to believe it wasn't at all funny, that it was Kevin Smith working outside of his usual genre and some of the reviews out of Sundance that I just glanced at (so as not to get any spoilers) seemed to be less than stella and I have to say my expectations were, by no means, high.
Well, of course, I was dead wrong, it is a fantastic film.
I don't want to give away too much at this point because I really want people to see it but basically it is a horror, action, religious satire that is both completely unlike anything Kevin Smith has ever done and yet, through the script, decidedly and obviously Kevin Smith.
Actually, scratch that, what Red State ACTUALLY is, is a brilliant independent spirited exploitation film, the kind which Tarantino and Rodriguez have been desperately trying to make these past few years and have failed miserably because they keep screaming at the audience through the films "look at how grind-house this is! look we are making ironic exploitation films, aren't we clever!" well Red State doesn't do that, it doesn't have to because it IS an exploitation flick that harks back to the amazing gritty B-Movies of the 70s instead of trying so desperately to be that. I call it an exploitation film because they were the ones that had the freedom to happily blend genres, tackle taboo subjects, could feature violence and black humour, looked different and took chances. Well that's what Red State does and a whole lot more. Yes, of course, like an exploitation movie, there are parts which are cliche but it also succeeds in being dark, disturbing, violent, exciting, unflinching and also, surprisingly, hilarious. From saying it wasn't a comedy but a horror movie what Kevin Smith does is set aside the dick and fart jokes that were Jay & Silent Bob's stock in trade and reveal himself to be very clever and even, in places, witty.
So, it centers around a small nondescript, fairly redneck town in the south where there is a family of religious extremists that are modeled on both the Westboro Baptist church (those vile hate mongers who protest the funerals of gay people) and the Branch Davidians from Waco. Three boys from the local high school, who are looking for sex in all the wrong places, answer an ad online from some dodgy website and through a series of circumstances actually end up inside the church's fortified land and in deep trouble. From there all hell breaks loose and the film takes a number of unexpected turns. I really don't want to go on because the fresher you can see the movie the so much better that it is.
Overall it has a vibe that I would pitch somewhere between the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Fargo, if you can imagine such a thing. Now, pretend those two films got in bed with the more serious parts of Dogma and you're probably half way there.
The cast in this film, which includes John Goodman, Stephen Root, Kevin Pollack, Academy Award winner Melissa Leo and the sublimely perfect Michael Parks, are, each one of them, just wonderful.
On his Red State podcasts, Kevin Smith was saying that he used to think he had to work actors like a puppet, give them line readings and instruct them what to do, especially when he was working with initial amateurs like Jason Mewes but on Red State he just took a step back and watched the monitors, trusting his professionals to bring their best game to the screen. Well whatever he did it worked, I mean you can always trust these actors, which include some of my favourite of all time, to be marvelous and this time they were fairly flawless, wringing every drop of either dopey innocence in the case of the boys, charming malevolence and brainwashed insanity from the church folk and anger and sarcasm in the case of the cops out of the well crafted words on the page. The younger cast members too are uniformly excellent and watchable, more than up to the task of keeping up with their older, more established cast mates.
To see them all up on stage last night and to hear Goodman drop 'Shut the fuck up Donny' onto the crowd was a joy.
A lot has been made about the look of the film and it would be fair to say that this is Kevin Smith's grainiest and grubbiest looking film since Clerks and I mean that in a good way, that's what they were obviously going for, the colour palette of the movie also is very interesting tonally, being filmed on what seemed to be exclusively overcast and grey days but the real revelation here is the camera shots and movement in this film. When it needs to be the camera work is frenetic and exciting, other times, when it's called for, the camera is hovering and eerie, like a fly, almost, buzzing about inside this gloomy, foreboding church trying to find some sort of light or warmth.
If I have one criticism of the film at all, it is that it almost zips along too quickly, after it finished, I personally felt I could've spent at least another 20 minutes with these characters.
In fact, in an alternative reality, an HBO style gritty TV Show about the subject would not have been a bad idea, plenty of things could be stretched out to fill a 10 show run. You've got a possible murder mystery, religious extremists, people's reactions to the antics of the church, the horny teenagers and John Goodman's agent and his relationships with the bureau, his men and his home life. Sort of like Big Love meets True Blood meets Homicide. Just a thought.
The opening build up and the 'horror' section of the film could've been expanded, the film could've been more violent and more suspenseful before the second act gets underway.
A lot of critics, especially after Sundance, who appear to critique Kevin Smith and his fans rather than the film itself, do go on and on about the changes in tone and plot that take place in the film but like I said earlier, it's an exploitation film with a heavy dose of satire, it's meant to cram a hundred unfinished ideas into it's running time and bombard the audience with different imagery, that's its genius. To call it a mess or uneven is to entirely miss the point. These are the same people who probably went on and on about the Social Network being the greatest work of cinema last year. The films structure is actually solid and while it raises more questions than it answers, the few it does answer, it does with style, wit, charm and good grace.
It all basically boils down to good writing being said by good actors with a camera pointed at them and I don't know about anyone else but I find that refreshing nowadays and when I come across it, I could watch it forever.
Lastly, to the family, friends or whatever the four muling, brain dead, arse clowns were in front of me that apparently thought Radio City Music Hall was the best place to go in New York just to drink beer and text, I hope you all suffer slow and agonising torment possibly involving some garden implements and your rectums. They didn't spoil the movie so much as not really watch it, leave half way through for beer, then come back to their seats for the start of the Q&A only to talk very loudly through it, some of which involved repeating jokes and comments to the person sitting next to them who would've heard them by themselves if these flappy-mouthed bastards had shut up for a second.
I wouldn't mind but the tickets weren't cheap, all in all I worked out the probably spent about $20 a beer and sat in their seats a grand total of an hour out of the three. I wish their drinks had sedatives in them!
Suffice to say we moved seats quickly so as to watch the Q&A in peace.
9 out of 10 strawberry flavoured communion wafers (well they are red and religious right?)
Points from The Wife 9 out of 10
SEE MY PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT
Clerks 2 - 6th January 2011
I mention this because, it's completely odd when you think that films like the American Pie series or any Judd Apatow or Todd Phillips film do ridiculously and in some cases, unfathomably well and yet, an argument could be made that, without Mr.Smith the dick and fart with a heart humour of recent, mainly male, buddy comedies would not be in vogue or even on the studios radar. It doesn't matter who he works with either because his films contain some incredibly famous, big earning stars and more recently the Zack & Miri/Seth Rogan experiment showed that even Apatow's crew could not shift more seats for a Kevin Smith film.
It's completely ok though because A) Box office should never matter if it's enough to get the artist their next project funded and B) he's in excellent company. The closest example is Woody Allen, an incredibly gifted writer, films chock full with big name famous people (even now when the quality of his films has really veered off) and the same small but loyal audience show up for the annual Woody Allen movie movie every year but with that formula, Woody has managed to make one film a year since the late 60s!
I personally like Kevin Smith films and more or less feel, from everything I have read or heard, that I would like Kevin Smith, he seems like a down to earth, funny kind of guy. I even genuinely liked Jersey Girl, which I wish he would stop attacking or using as the butt of all his self-depreciating jokes, mainly for the father and son relationship, which I am always a sucker for in films.
While his films do, of course, differ in quality and I certainly don't like them all equally, I own them all and have watched all of them multiple times, apart from Cop Out which I really tried to like but just couldn't in any way at all. Also his little View Askew empire, with the merchandise, the Q&As and history of a close group of friends all working together on several flicks appeals to all sorts of parts of the film-maker geek in me.
Now, with that all said, on to Clerks 2 which is the sequel, 12 years later to the film that started it all and made his name. There has, of course, been much debate over which one is better and is Clerks 2 a worthy sequel to the first film, well, personally, I still prefer the original Clerks but Clerks 2 is a fine sequel and, as Kevin Smith himself once said about the John McClaine character in Die Hard, I could happily watch Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran as Dante and Randall get into a new heap of trouble every year, as long as Kevin Smith kept writing and directing them.
Basically, and very quickly because I am sure everyone reading this has seen the film, the plot revolves around Dante and Randall being forced to leave Quick Stop (due to a fire) and transfer to the heady world of fast food service. Dante is engaged to be married and his wife to be has planned to drag his sorry, doughy arse down to Florida and away from Randall. At the same time, it is revealed that Dante has also had something of a fling with his attractive and sassy manager played by Rosario Dawson and so the stage is set again for more vulgar but hilarious hi-jinks, again the question of which woman Dante will end up with and the examination of the turbulent yet touching friendship at the heart of the Clerks' movies.
Now, I mentioned, briefly, earlier about the likes of Apatow and Todd Phillips films both of which, if you have read this blog, you know I like and have no problem with but their films tend to be formulaic in nature, where set pieces and improvisation take a front seat to plot or character. Most of them, then, do exactly what they say on the tin and usually have a very typical Hollywood wrap up. Where Clerks 2 is something all the more interesting and unique in that, underneath it's seemingly childish and rude veneer, it dares to have an actual plot riddled with conflict, characters that are equally crass and layered, thoughtful individuals and shows a very true male friendship which is, arguably, the true love story of the film. It is in this relationship that Clerks 2 finds all its best and most interesting moments, culminating in an excellently written scene where Randall says the things that anyone in a long term male friendship wants to say, deep down, but maybe never says.
What Clerks 2 lacks, which Clerks had in spades, is the funny and well drawn commentary on the customers, who, while they still serve as the foils to Randall's diatribes and flippant remarks, never really have a personality or a point of their own. Also, because of the introduction of Elias as Randall's new play thing and the fact that Dante spends a lot of the film with Rosario Dawson's character, the two wonderful leads are sadly divided in Clerks 2 way more than they are in Clerks where their banter with each other and the customers IS the film. Now, of course, no one wanted to see Smith just remake Clerks in a fast food setting and there is some of what I am talking about, especially in the classic porch monkey sequence but where the film is at its weakest is when these two aren't sharing the screen exclusively together.
The character of Elias, unlike Dante, is too easy a character, the stupid, naive, Lord of the Rings and Transformers loving christian, to be on the receiving end of Randall's comments and so rather than being the brash, bold, amusing character he should be, sometimes it can come off as needless bullying.
Everyone, it seems, loves Jay and Silent Bob as characters, so much so they were in everything up to Jersey Girl, had their own movie, form part of the View Askew logo and have been merchandised endlessly. I too like Jay and Silent Bob but my favourite Kevin Smith characters of all time? Dante and Randall, closely followed by Brodie. In Clerks 2, Jay and Silent Bob are sort of the weak links because, apart from the bit with Silent Bob in pig tails during the dance sequence, they don't really do or say anything particularly funny. The 'Goodbye Horses' sequence seems spectacularly random, curiously not funny and ultimately pointless for example.
This is because there's a dilemma in Clerks 2 which is that by the time the film came about Jay and Bob were big, established fan favourites and also this was to be their last film so they had to be in it and they had to be given something to do but unfortunately, apart from them loaning Dante and Randall the money to re-open the Quick Stop at the end, they don't have any other reason or point to be in this film and sort-of get in the way of the interesting story that's being told.
The last, what could be perceived as negative, comment is that in the first Clerks when some horrific thing happened, it was described in a terrifically amusing way, the coffin being knocked over at a funeral and Caitlin having sex with a dead guy in the bathroom but in Clerks 2, when it comes to the donkey show, we, more or less, see everything. Now I applaud Smith for going as far as he did, the dark little sick person inside me who laughs at such things enjoyed it immensely, it's also incredibly disturbing but outrageously funny, in a black humour type way, to watch Elias apologise to Jesus whilst excessively masturbating in public at the sight of a man having sex with a donkey but, just like in horror, there is a school of thought that says the audience can imagine something more horrific/comic than you can show them and maybe the idea of a man on donkey show was funny enough without showing it. It's just that, like I have already said, once it is underway it detracts from me watching Randall and Dante just be themselves. All that being said, however, it is a very well put together sequence, well edited and with great sound design so that when the shit starts to hit the fan, the music, the lighting, the smoke and the sound all really make you feel the chaos, confusion and also regret that Dante must be feeling.
Overall, in fact, the movie is wonderfully put together. Kevin Smith likes to routinely criticise his directing abilities and while, he is no visual wizard, he has no need to be. He does what he does and he does it well. Clerks 2 is shot well, edited well and pleasingly put together. The montage works, the dance sequence works, the donkey show is fantastically put together and the whole film has no downside, direction and cinematography wise. One small niggle was the use of Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head mainly because it had been used in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and more recently Spiderman 2, where I didn't like it and it didn't make sense either. There are so many songs in the world, it always feels odd to me when the same one is used time and time again.
There has been mention of a Clerks 3 sometime in the future, to see what Dante and Randall are up to in their 40s, although kevin Smith has also said recently that Hit Somebody, his hockey picture after Red State will be his last film. I personally would welcome a Clerks 3 and I would also, as many fans would, like to see him write more View Askiewniverse movies, not necessarily focussing on any of the characters before but set in that world with maybe walk ons from those folks, but sadly I doubt he ever will and if Clerks 2 happens to be the last one, at least it ended where it all began with Dante and Randall at the register and Jay and Silent Bob having their rightful place in the world, standing outside of Quick Stop.
7 out of 10 fly filled burgers and piss filled sodas.