Clerks II

The Quick Stop burns down and twelve years later Dante and Randal are behind a counter at a fast food chain. Kevin Smith builds the sequel on aging: these men still tell the same jokes, but they are thirty-five now, and it plays as sad rather than funny. The formal choice is neat. The opening and closing Quick Stop scenes are black and white in tribute to the first film, while the rest is colour with the saturation pulled down so the two halves hold together. Rosario Dawson's casting has a story. Smith wanted his wife for the part and Harvey Weinstein objected. After other actresses passed, Dawson accepted, and she later said the donkey show scene in the script was what settled it. Smith expected an NC-17 and considered going out unrated, then submitted it anyway and got an R with no cuts. It drew an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes in 2006 and grossed 26.9 million dollars worldwide on a 5 million budget. Who it is for: people who loved the first film and like comedies that describe a thirties crisis in obscenities. Who it is not for: viewers with a line. This film crosses it deliberately and repeatedly.