Clerks is underrated. No, I don't mean that it's an underrated comedy or that people forget how funny it is. I mean it is underrated in its importance in film history! In 1994, Kevin Smith proved that it was possible to make a great picture with nothing more than a camera and some well-written dialogue of friends talking about every day subjects. It wasn't the first movie to do this, but it certainly opened the floodgates to so much of the Gen X proto-mumblecore comedies of the mid to late 90s. And even viewed in a vacuum, it's still very clever, funny, and crisply edited. A timeless and timely piece.
Mild list spoilers: This is the first of eight movies from 1994 (most of them appearing in the top 50). It is far and away the greatest year in film history and it blows my mind how many classics were released then.
Clerks is probably the movie that affected me personally more than any other. When I was younger I identified with Dante, then as I grew older I realized why identifying with Dante is bad ---
