After suffering a major heart attack Randal (Jeff Anderson) decides to make a film about his life in the convenience store he co-owns with best friend Dante (Brian O’Halloran)...

Clerks III

Cert - 15, Run-time - 1 hours 40 minutes,

Director - Kevin Smith

It’s been twenty eight years since we first met Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) in the Quick Stop convenience store. Since then Dante has continuously tried to move on with his life while Randal simply hasn’t. Once in their early-20s the pair are now approaching 50 and little has come of their lives.

After Randal suffers a major heart attack he decides to make a film based on his life at the Quick Stop. He just needs to deal with the hurdles of funding, casting, script disagreements and dealing with Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), who have transformed the next-door video shop into a dubious THC store.

It’s acknowledged that this is Smith’s most personal film since perhaps the first Clerks. Inspired by his own ‘widow-maker’ heart attack a few years ago, and again his own convenience store interactions, the heart of this entry is still the friendship between Dante and Randal. While also acting as a lookback on Smith’s career.

There’s perhaps more narrative than in the previous two entries, but the interactions with customers and colleagues (Trevor Fehrman’s Elias returns from fast food chain Mooby’s) are very much still present. It helps that Smith, and the core cast, knows how to naturally write these characters into each situation and allow them to move things along. As the figures reflect they’re often forced to look forward again, or at least at the current moment.

This leads to a handful of emotional sequences. Perhaps not always clicking due to their briefness it still adds some extra detail to Dante as he grieves the loss of his partner Becky (Rosario Dawson). Whilst not the most effective moments they do lead to a fantastic rant caused by a scene-filming which parallels Dante’s feelings from years before. It’s an explosive moment, wonderfully delivered by O’Halloran; undisturbed by the occasional cut backs to the camera crew for potential gags.

In terms of the humour, while it might initially seem odd hearing references to NFTs in a Clerks film we’re soon back to the usual nerdy conversations, stoner jokes and bragging about penis size - which Randal seems more concerned about than the heart attack he’s having. Some figures may lean more towards the absurd they still gain laughs thanks to complimenting Dante and Randal’s views of everyone around them.

Clerks III looks at its characters lives as they properly face the idea of being stuck in the same place thanks to life intervening and holding them back. They’re the same figures, now both acknowledging they’re getting older instead of just one. Heartfelt from all who have stuck with these characters over three (in some cases more) films. The emotional beats might not always hit, but that doesn’t stop this from being a frequently laugh-out-loud funny return to the Quick Stop. A far from inconvenient assurance that they’re very much still open. Jamie Skinner - Five stars