Clerks III is a 2022 independent comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith. 97 minutes long and set in the View Askewniverse, it catches up with the characters of the earlier Clerks films as they approach their fifties. A surprisingly moving and bittersweet film, it is largely based on director Kevin Smith's life. It also has the unique meta plot of having characters from the film Clerks making a film of the events of Clerks. While containing the director's immature humour¹, this is by far the most poignant of the films that Kevin Smith has made to date and shows that he continues to make films that grow with his characters and the age of the audience.

Plot: Dante's Inferno

Best friends Dante and Randal still own and work at the Quick Stop Convenience Store. Their employee Elias is still a nerdy Christian. His favourite Bible verse, Jesus did no wrong, whereas we are but thieves, keeps confusing everyone who misinterprets its meaning. Both Elias and his quiet friend known as 'Blockchain' are obsessed with kites, crypto currency and NFTs². Jay and Silent Bob own the former RST Video store next door, with a very basic painted sign saying 'THC'³ covering the original old RST Video sign. There Silent Bob and Jay sell medicinal marijuana legally⁴. As their old habits die hard, they still like to lurk outside the shop and pretend to be dealing as if they are still engaging in illegal activity, as 'that's how we did it in the 90s'.

After Elias wanting to sell Buddy Christ Kites in the shop causes an argument with Randal, who is against the idea, and Elias calls on God to 'strike the heretic', Randal has a heart attack. Randal is told he is having a 'widow maker' heart attack, which has an 80% chance of death. Elias prays desperately for Randal to survive but feels ignored, saying that 'the Lord Holy Ghosts me' in this hour of need. Even though Randal survives, Elias is convinced his prayers were unanswered and he announces that he is now a born-again Satanist.

Told that Randal is likely to have depression and that the fast-food filled diet that he and Randal have shared has taken its toll on his health, Dante is determined to help Randal recover. Randal tells him that during the heart attack his life flashed before his eyes, leading him to declare: 'I wish I had a life worth saving... I never went anywhere outside Jersey. I never fell in love... I'm almost 50 and sit around doing nothing but watching movies.' When Dante responds, 'You know so much about that stuff you could make a pretty good movie', Randal decides to try and make a movie of his own life, saying that he worked in a video store for 20 years watching movies, just like Tarantino did, so this means he knows how to make movies. Randal's film, to be titled Inconvenience, would be set in a convenience store and be full of 'Convenience Stories'. This essentially involves Randal making his own film of the events of the first Clerks film about how annoying customers are.

The film being made is entirely told from Randal's perspective. He renames himself and Dante as 'Randy' and 'Dan T'. Silent Bob is hired as the cinematographer, as Jay and Silent Bob are the only people Randal knows who have actually been on movie sets - twice, in fact⁵. Dante is reluctantly charged with being the film's producer, even being forced to make painful decisions to raise the money needed for Randal to make the film. Randal is unaware, focussed solely on making the film, ignorant of the pain that he is causing others. He humiliates Veronica, Dante's ex-girlfriend, whom he had dated when he was in his early 20s. That is nothing compared to forcing Dante to relive painful memories of the sudden death of the love of his life, Becky.

Will the film be finished, or will Randal and Dante be at each other's throats before it's a wrap?

Dramatis Personæ: We Are Butt-Thieves

'Jay and Silent Bob could be characters.'
'That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.'
- Dante and Randal discussing making the film-within-a-film.

Actors and characters in Bold appear in other films in the View Askewniverse.

There are several brief celebrity cameos in the auditions scene, including Ben Affleck, Melissa Benoist, and Sarah Michelle Gellar - and Kevin Smith's mother who, after seeing the script, reacts with the words, 'Who wrote this sh*t? His mother should be ashamed'. Justin Long also appears in the hospital sequence. Rosario Dawson was only available for a day and a half due to her busy schedule making Ahsoka - Smith said he was jealous that she hadn't aged a day since Clerks II and still fitted in her original costume.

The auditions take place at the First Avenue Playhouse, which is where the auditions for Clerks were held. Brian, Jeff and the other actors cast for the first film had all stood on the same stage. Kevin Smith had since done a benefit there to raise money for the leaking roof. This was the first film Smith filmed entirely in New Jersey since Clerks and many people who were in Clerks cameoed. This included the co-owner of the Playhouse, who appears in the video renting sequence. She had told Smith that she did a well-regarded Lucille Ball⁶ impression. Smith promised that, while he didn't have a role for Lucille Ball when making Clerks, if he ever could he'd have her appear in one of his films doing a Lucille Ball impression. He kept his promise in this film.

Making Of: Dante's Purgatory

Silent Bob and Jay are the C-3PO and R2D2 of the movie - they have been here since the first movie, which was the last time they were cool, but they've been with the franchise so long they still give them cameos and put them on the lunchboxes.
- Dialogue from the film.

As the DVD sales of Kevin Smith's previous film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot were so good, independent distributor Lionsgate commissioned him to make a sequel with a budget cap of $7 million. The DVD opens with Kevin Smith directly thanking the viewer for purchasing the DVD, and reminding the audience that it is only by having bought physical media on release that it is possible to watch his earlier film Dogma now as, due to rights issues, it cannot be streamed online.

Three days before filming started, Trevor Fehrman requested that for the final scene he wanted Elias to wear a cape and carry a cane. This prompted a major last-minute wardrobe panic, as Smith felt that, for the audience to accept him dressed up in this manner at the end, he would have to take steps towards that during the course of the film, and so Elias required 20 different outfits. This fitted in with Elias' story, as he is trying to find himself and his idea of Satanism, and this revolves around finding clothing and trying to see what works.

Filming took place entirely in New Jersey, with the Mooby's that appears in a scene really a pizza shop nearby. The original Mooby's building used in Clerks II had been in California and had been demolished to make way for flats. Even the funeral home seen in Clerks appears. As the plot involves essentially recreating the events of making Clerks it incorporates footage from Smith's first film. Yet in a key scene in which Dante is re-enacting an argument scene from Clerks, when Dante is performing his lines the scene is in black and white - this is effectively contrasted with when he starts talking to Randal directly and arguing for real, when we see his emotion in bright colour.

Smith has called this film the best work he has done to date, and by far the most moving. His aim was to make the film poignant, and for the events of the first hour to be strong enough to have earned the last half hour. He has also said that the film once again is authentic. Clerks had been an authentic experience as he was filming where he worked and filled the film with the events he encountered. This was followed by Clerks II, a story that, while funny, was all made up, with Smith imagining what happened next. Clerks III felt authentic again, as again it was based on events in his life - not just the making of Clerks and that filmmaking experience, but he has also owned his own comic shop for over 25 years. Similarly, Randal has the same type of heart attack that Smith had experienced. There had been a proposed Clerks III script written in 2013, yet Smith has said that he is glad that he did not make that film. Some elements ended up in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot but the most important surviving element was Elias' obsession with kites.

Austin Zajur was Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith's boyfriend, and during lockdown participated in Smith's lockdown series named Son In Lockdown. Following this, Smith wrote him into Clerks III. Only in rehearsals was it decided to make Blockchain an all-but silent character as he didn't have any funny lines. The last scene has Harley as Millie checking the best before dates of oat milk, in a nod to how the first two films had Smith's mother checking the use by dates of cow's milk but that time has moved on. The credits end with the dedication 'In memory of Lisa - we miss you Caitlin', after Lisa Spoonauer who had played Caitlin Bree in Clerks; she had passed away in 2017 during a battle with cancer.

Review: Dante's Paradiso

People think of 'Clerks' as a Black and White movie and they're right, but to me whenever I watch 'Clerks' I see it in colour because I lived that life.
- Kevin Smith

If you are a fan of Kevin Smith films, then this is the perfect film for you. While there are plenty of jokes that can be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the other films in the series, it works best for those who have grown up with these characters since the 1990s. The film is rude and contains sexual references, and does not pass the Bechdel Test.

The film rewards repeat viewing, with virtually every scene containing numerous references to earlier films by Kevin Smith. It begins at the Quick Stop Grocery store, but this time in colour. Dante arrives and discovers gum on the shop's lock, but this time it isn't an issue. The shop has numerous signs for brands and products seen in earlier films, with many spoof and suggestive marketing taglines, that can be spotted by the eagle-eyed. These include Nail Cigarettes (as cigarettes are nicknamed 'coffin nails'), Chewlies gum, advertised as 'the chewing gum which prevents cruddy lung', related products including Chewlies Gum Suckers with the motto 'Suck me off to make me gum', fast food restaurant chain Mooby's own-brand breakfast cereal, and even posters for the Ride Me app and Hater Totz seen in the previous film. Other nods to the past are more blatant, as the film opens with a game of hockey played on the shop roof. A spoof film poster shows Smith's friend Matt Damon as Jesus Bourne in The Bourne Nativity.

Once again the film features discussions about Star Wars, and it includes two actresses seen in The Mandalorian and other Disney+ spin-off series. Everyone asks Randal if he is making a 'porno', a reference to Smith's similarly themed film Zac and Miri Make A Porno, which is not fully part of the View Askewniverse. Some of the jokes may not be understood by younger viewers - for example Jay jokes about watching a VHS porn film by holding it 'up to the light', which is only funny if you know that VHS tape is magnetic tape and, unlike film, does not contain stills or pictures.

Numerous references in the film are based on how the original Clerks film was made, for example a hockey stick with a microphone taped to it being used as a boom. Also when Jay is unable to say the important right line, Silent Bob delivers it - just as Smith ended up saying the final line Mewes had had. The film recreates a scene in which Jay refuses to dance while people watch, feeling self-conscious, despite Mewes naturally constantly dancing. Another conversation with Mewes at the time of Clerks inspired dialogue between Jay and Randal in which Jay says that his dialogue 'does not sound like me at all' and that 'I do not talk like this, man', despite Randal (who is based on Smith in real life) insisting that his dialogue is 'all the stuff I've personally heard you say around here'. In Clerks O'Halloran accidentally missed out a minor word in a key scene, so Clerks III has a scene all about Dante missing the word 'and' from one of his speeches.

The film also addresses many of the comments and criticisms that Smith had received since making his first film. For instance, there is a line asking, 'Why do the girls go for Dan T when Randy is funnier?' Randal is told that the film has a lack of diversity; his script is criticised for referring to a boyfriend as an 'Asian design major'. He is told, 'calling someone an Asian design major feels racist'. Randal explains this by saying: 'The guy literally majored in Asian Design - he was a passionate student of Asian design. It just so happens he himself was coincidentally Asian.' Surprisingly Silent Bob, played by Smith himself, has the most to say to address criticisms of the first film. When discussing filming in the Quick Stop, Silent Bob argues:

Any filmmaker worth their salt would know that the colours in this place are ghastly. The only way to deal with them is to neutralise them by going black and white, which will also act as a commentary on the soulless nature of commerce, while subliminally giving the audience the impression that they're watching our heroes from the perspective of an imaginary store security cam.