Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you.
Overview
Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.3/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.83/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 70
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Kevin Smith
Production
View Askew Productions, Miramax
Cast
Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Scott Schiaffo, Al Berkowitz, Walt Flanagan, Ed Hapstak, Lee Bendick, David Klein, Pattijean Csik, Ken Clark, Donna Jeanne, Virginia Smith, Betsy Broussard, Ernest O'Donnell, Kimberly Loughran
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential
Curator Review
Verdict
A scrappy, foul-mouthed indie comedy that turns dead-end retail misery into something sharp, funny, and surprisingly affectionate. Its lo-fi energy, talky rhythms, and outsider perspective make it a landmark of 1990s independent film, especially if you like character-driven hangout movies with a cynical streak.
Best for
fans of indie comedies and microbudget filmmaking
viewers who enjoy workplace humor and retail satire
people who like dialogue-heavy, low-stakes hangout movies
audiences interested in 1990s cult cinema
Skip if
you need polished pacing or big visual style
you dislike crude, juvenile, or highly profane humor
you want a tightly plotted story with clear dramatic stakes
you’re impatient with long conversations and aimless detours
Overview
Clerks is the kind of debut that feels like it was smuggled out of real life. Shot in black and white and built almost entirely around conversations, it captures the boredom, resentment, and absurd comedy of dead-end work with a specificity that still lands decades later. The jokes are crude, but the movie’s real strength is how observant it is about drifting through your twenties while pretending you’re not stuck.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the chemistry between its two leads and the sense that every customer interaction is a tiny battle. The film is messy, uneven, and proudly juvenile in places, but that looseness is part of its charm. It helped define a whole strain of indie comedy: talky, cheap, self-aware, and weirdly sincere about friendship and frustration.
Bottom line
If you’ve ever worked retail, hung around a convenience store, or spent too much time with friends who think sarcasm counts as a worldview, this will probably feel instantly familiar. It’s less about plot than attitude, and that attitude has been hugely influential.
Top Letterboxd reviews
vi (3.5★) · 4760 likes
"MY GIRLFRIEND SUCKED THIRTY SEVEN DICKS"
"in a row?"
Jaxi (5★) · 2595 likes
this movie is lucky it's so damn good because the generation of film boys it inspired have been terrorizing my gender for years
Dylan Gorzen (4.5★) · 1956 likes
Randall and Dante are like Kevin Smith's version of Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show
Bryan Espitia (3.5★) · 1535 likes
Any contractor working on that Death Star knew the risk involved. If they got killed, it’s their own fault.
cookie (4★) · 1285 likes
my crush on randal.... proof of my mental illness........