The Rise, Fall, and Renaissance of Kevin Smith

THE BEGINNING

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Like the rest of the world, I first became aware of Kevin Smith because of Clerks. It was 1994 and I was watching an MTV News segment where Tabitha Soren did a piece on this subversive, black-and-white independent film about two kids that work in a convenience store and have little patience for customers. I was immediately intrigued, though I knew I would have to wait to see it. I was 18 months from getting my license and, even still, it’s not like Clerks was playing at the multiplex in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania.

I don’t remember the first time I actually saw the film, but I know I loved it. In an era when blockbusters were beginning to not only become ubiquitous, but also predictable and shameless, here was a film that was different than almost anything else playing in the theaters.

The thirty-seven dicks exchange may be the funniest, but the line that stuck with me the most was when Dante explains why The Empire Strikes Back is better than Return of the Jedi: “Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader’s his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that’s what life is, a series of down endings.” For a fourteen year-old that was a disappointment to his parents and popular…