Mallrats (1995)

Mommy Update:  Do I feel a little guilty lying around on my couch while most of the world is at work or school?  Yes, yes I do.  But, you guys, I have a full grown baby in my belly.  Really.  I had an ultrasound on Monday and this baby is over seven pounds.  He has chubby cheeks.  I’ve seen them.  And every time he moves, it makes me seasick.  And it hurts to walk around.  And I have to eat tiny little portions of food very frequently.  You should see me on my couch surrounded by cheese, crackers, grapes (and okay, okay, a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia).  Still, I do feel like a slacker, so what better movie to watch next then Mallrats?

Writer/Director:  Kevin Smith

The Quote I Quote Most Often:  “That kid is back on the escalator again!” ~ Brodie

Favorite Quote This Time Around:  “What kills me about you is your inability to function

on the same plane of existence as the rest of us.  Piss off.”  ~ Rene 

Blake’s Favorite Quote:  “Fly, Fat Ass, Fly!”  ~ Jay

Character I Most Identify With:  Willam – I can never see those 3D hidden pictures either.

Mallrats is the second in Kevin Smith’s “Jersey Trilogy.”  Chronologically, it takes place one day before Clerks.  It deals with different characters, but there’s some story overlap, which I enjoy.  Traditionally, the second in a trilogy is always my least favorite (that include Empire, sorry Star Wars fans), and this one is no exception.  It’s funny; I enjoy it, but it’s my least favorite of Smith’s movies.

I have learned a lot more from watching the commentary and the “Making Of” featurette on the tenth year anniversary DVD than the actual movie.  As I wrote in my review of Clerks, Smith wrote and made Clerks on his own.  It was a break-out sensation at the indi film festivals and was picked up by Miramax.  Smith had no expectations for the film and was pleasantly surprised when it did very well.

On the heels of Clerks, Mallrats was expected to be a blockbuster hit.  They made it with a studio, had a much bigger budget, got great feedback while they were making it, and then it flopped.  (It found a cult following on DVD).  Because they were given a budget by a studio, they felt obligated to take notes from the execs who had a lot of opinions about how much cursing, how much nudity, and how much plot line should go into this movie.  It seems as though Smith and Mosier took every note given to them and compromised their own ideas for the film.  For example, they regret taking out some of the profanity and they regret including some of the nudity.  For the most part, they agreed on the changes in plot and generally the editing decisions that were made.

This gives me a lot to think about as I begin to receive professional criticism on my own writing.  Criticism is good.  It can help your story become better than you could ever make it on your own.  There is, however, a point where you have to take a step back and think about the criticism being given and whether or not you agree with it.  Will changing your work make your work better or it will it compromise what you are trying to say?  Smith and Mosier talk a lot about whether or not they “sold out” on this movie.  Ultimately, they decided they learned a lot from making it, but for their third movie, they went back to making the kind of movie they wanted to make and worried less about trying to make a popular movie that would make money in the theater.  I think it’s no mistake that their first and third movies both made more money than the second – the one they tried to make into a blockbuster.  Some people can get away with making a movie or writing a book solely to make money, but it’s hard to pull off.  What you really need to do is make a story that’s honest and if it speaks to people, they will pay to hear your story.

On the featurette, Kevin Smith says, “I like the idea of a theater full of people and only four are laughing because they’re the only ones that get the joke.”  I like this, too.  I am rarely a fan of the blockbuster movies or the critically popular novels.  I like the ones that speak to those of us who hang out on the outer-circle.  The stories that appeal to the scruffy kids hanging out in comic book shops, or those of us who frequent the local coffee shop instead of the Starbucks.  When the counter culture set is your audience, you have to worry way less about what the critics say. (Jason Lee calls them “critics schmitics.”)  And at the same time, you have to be a little more patient to find the right agent or the right editor to fall in love with your book.