Movie Review: Clerks Ⅲ

How many times can you go back to the well before it is completely dry? With Kevin Smith, it's always once more.

I remember watching the original Clerks about a hundred years ago at university. It was a cheap a daring movie then - and remains a mainstay of what you can do if you give a bored kid a camera.

Kevin Smith's movies are uneven. He writes an amazing script - but give him a cast of stars and a bazillion dollars and he falters. Give him a bunch of mates and slightly too little money and he soars. Clerks 3 is perfect. If you were the target demographic when the first movie came out - and you feel like you haven't aged a day - then the new Clerks is just right for you.

It's about male friendship and the unbearable weight of your expectations for life. How we look back on life and what we remember. Whether we can find old friends and pick up where we once left off.

If I were being cynical, I'd say it over-exploits nostalgia and gives us an unnecessary dose of wish-fulfilment. But isn't that what life's like when you meet up with friends? You reminisce about what was and imagine what could have been. Smith writes a script which seems to effortlessly invoke every emotion he requires of the audience, while making them roar with laughter at its intertextuality.

Is this movie going to win any Oscars or awards? Nah. I doubt it'll even make its money back. But that's not what this movie is here for. It's to remind you that you used to be twenty-something and, no matter what it feels like today, it's never too late to stop giving up on your dreams.