Clerks II Stop-n-Start Screening at Smodcastle

Kevin Smith’s Smodcastle, located in the Atlantic Highlands of New Jersey, is a time capsule. When the rough nature of filmgoing combined with the stress of COVID in 2020 threatened the theater with closure, Smith bought it. The very same theater that young Kevin sat in with his father as a boy and with his friends as a teen is now preserved as a non-profit theater showing the latest releases as well as hosting film festivals, special screenings, and charity events. This past Sunday, February 1st, Smith and Dante himself, Brian O’Halloran, hosted a sold-out 20th anniversary showing of the 2006 comedy sequel Clerks II. This $69-per-seat event (get it?) wasn’t just a screening, however.

This was not my first visit to Smodcastle, I should say. I’d already seen Coming to America with Kevin Smith in attendance hosting a Q & A afterward back in 2023. In 2024 I attended the third annual Smodcastle Film Festival to support a documentary I was in. Then last year I saw Cop Out with Tracy Morgan and Kevin Smith in attendance and Smith hosted a Q & A afterward. I knew what I was getting into. My wife, however, did not.

As the ticket disclaimer warned, “Every Smodcastle show at which Kevin appears runs very, very long. The night usually starts 15 to 30 minutes late, then kicks off with a fundraising auction to support the theater (which includes rare one-of-a-kind props, mementos and signed items). Post-auction, there’s an intro to begin the main program, followed by a Q&A/Group Discussion after the movie ends. We suggest you plan your night accordingly.”

Preceded by an auction of memorabilia and experiences (where the starting bid was invariably 37), the film was presented with Kevin and Brian onstage wielding the power to pause the film whenever they wanted to dive into a behind-the-scenes story about either what had just occurred onscreen or was about to unfold. As they spoke, hands in the audience sprung into the air as viewers were able to ask questions to dive deeper into each anecdote.

Poignantly, before the film started Kevin Smith told a story about losing his mother just two months ago. Due to the nature of her deteriorating state in the hospital, she was unable to ingest liquids, despite overwhelming thirst. He was able to occasionally run a small sponge with water over her lips but nothing more. As her body temperature rose, the hospital placed ice bags all over her body to drive her fever down, but when he returned the next day, he was told she ripped the bags and drank the water within over the course of the night, so she had to be fitted with a cooling blanket. This blanket would kick on and cool her body down when her temperature rose too high, as measured by a rectal thermometer. In her final effort to make her son laugh, she held his hand and said “Oh Tiger, I haven’t had anything this big in my butt since your dad died.” Then she was gone.

Kevin Smith’s humor is like that: he revels in finding humor through the darkness, and speaking on the creation of Clerks II, he notes it as being a turning point for his characters and himself as a filmmaker. He noted that star Jeff Anderson, who plays Randal in the Clerks films, was reluctant to participate in a sequel, noting that the original Clerks couldn’t and shouldn’t be remade. It wasn’t until Smith showed Anderson a scene with Rosario Dawson and Brian O’Halloran, which was filmed on the first day of photography, that showed a modicum of growth and a hint of depth for the beleaguered clerk, that Anderson jumped fully aboard.

Clerks II is a story about stagnation, perpetual childhood, and a clock that moves relentlessly in only one direction. Kicked from the womb of the Quick Stop by the force of a fire, Dante and Randal find employment at Mooby’s, the fast-food arm of the idolatrous empire presented in Dogma. Picking up a year into their employment there, the setting of the film is Dante’s last day as he is set to drive to Florida the next morning with his fiancée to start a new life. Far away from New Jersey and the crippling ball-and-chain that is his friendship with Randal Graves. His fiancée Emma is portrayed by Smith’s real-life wife Jennifer Schwalbach. Also new to the cast are co-worker Elias, played by Trevor Fehrman, and boss Becky, played by Rosario Dawson. 

Returning are Anderson, O’Halloran, Smith, Jason Mewes as Jay, and a bevy of familiar faces in cameos. Along with Kevin’s wife, his daughter Harley and his mother Grace make appearances, as well as Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Weisman, and Wanda Sykes. We were encouraged to applaud loudly whenever a new character was introduced on the screen and were even directed during a scene where Schwalbach flashes her bra to exhibit over-the-top reactions, which Smith filmed to earn brownie points with his wife.

Smith told stories about some of the casting, particularly Elias and Becky. Elias was written based on a kid who frequented the View Askewniverse booths at WizardCon and San Diego Comic Con. That individual was actually offered the role directly but was far too shy to accept. Fehrman was suggested after he had recently worked on a film written and directed by Jeff Anderson called Now You Know. When asked if Rosario Dawson was the only actress considered for Becky, Smith admitted that he’d met with two other actresses before she came aboard.

The first actress he met with at a restaurant in Los Angeles where she admitted she’d been a huge fan of the other View Askewniverse films. Shortly after the meeting, though, she was cast in a film by a notoriously secretive director and couldn’t commit to Clerks II. That film was Lady in the Water by M Night Shyamalan, and the actress was Bryce Dallas Howard.

The other actress was a rising star who had just captured the attention of studios for her work in the independent film Moonlight Mile. While she was interested, she wasn’t sure if the pilot she’d just shot would go to series, which might get in the way. That pilot did go to series, however, and ended up running for, as Kevin put it, “100 seasons.” That actress that got away was Ellen Pompeo of “Grey’s Anatomy” fame.

Kevin sighed as he said “I hate to say this, but we have Harvey [Weinstein] to thank for getting Rosario. She wanted Tarantino’s Death Proof and he said she’d have to do this picture to get it. I felt bad thinking of it that way but once she read the script she was on board, just to see how we’d pull off the donkey show.”

Smith talks about filming in California, the sharp rise of montage in this film versus its prequel, the $10,000 they had to pay the state of New York for the use of a Heart Logo, and points out his childhood home when it appears on screen. The full-moon audience had a lot of questions about music licensing costs, which wore thin quickly, but the best revelation was Smith’s original plan for Clerks III.

This dark tale would open with the Quick Stop destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, prompting Randal to abandon “real” life and line up outside a cineplex a year before the announced release of a Ranger Danger film. A cult-like community sprouts up around him, of which he becomes an honorary mayor,  and he is visited by Dante along with his daughter Leia. The end of the film sees two masked men enter the packed showing and start shooting, prompting Dante to throw himself in front of the bullets and die saving his daughter. He also said that Jay and Silent Bob would assault one of the attackers, stomping him to death in a scene that he admitted went on “a bit too long.”

For a film that was scheduled to begin screening at 3pm and let out at 7:30pm, seeing Clerks II with Kevin Smith and Brian O’Halloran in a packed house with a rapt audience and celebrated interaction felt too brief for this fan. Some in attendance were seeing the film for the first time, and I envy them this deeply immersive experience. This sort of thing happens pretty regularly at the Smodcastle, with a Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back screening taking place this past January 3rd and the next one being a screening of Smith’s much-maligned Yoga Hosers with Kevin and daughter/star Harley Quinn Smith on Sunday, May 3rd.

If you love movies (the good, bad, and the ugly) and can make it out there, I can guarantee you’ll have a good time. You’ll laugh, learn something new, and help Kevin Smith realize a personal dream in his lifetime: selling out a single showing of Yoga Hosers in a theater.

Check out all that’s going at the theater at smodcastlecinemas.com.

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What’s your favorite Kevin Smith film?