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Tom Ronca - 2005-05-09 10:21:08
Kevin Smith has somehow managed to carve a career out of making bad movies. While 'Clerks' showed some promise (but is by no means great), he's followed that up with a string of middling to bad features. I'm not excepting 'Chasing Amy' here, which seems like it was written by someone who heard about lesbians from reading Penthouse Forum, but never actually met any. The worst part of his success is that he now thinks he's some sort of celebrity/raconteur, and can be found on any talk show and/or press junket that's willing to put up with his annoying presence (second only to Quentin Tarantino in ability to irritate).
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Sue - 2005-05-09 13:04:39
Like John Waters, Kevin Smith makes a better celebrity/raconteur than he does a filmmaker. I must admit that I sorta liked "Dogma," though.
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Paula - 2005-05-09 13:08:30
I've only seen Clerks, which, I agree with Tom, showed some promise, and then Chasing Amy, which was OK but not great, and that's it for me, I never trusted him again.
But it's a shame, because Long Island has Hal Hartley, and NJ really needs a native son, filmically speaking.
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Sue - 2005-05-09 13:09:59
There's always Zach Braff ("Garden State")... perhaps he will continue to document NJ in film.
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Paula - 2005-05-09 13:17:48
There's always Zach Braff ("Garden State")...
Hmmm...I liked that'un, but I was disappointed by the utter lack of NJ accent in anyone in the movie! I think GS was more about suburbia/coming-home-again than it was specifically about NJ, as Smith's movies really are (albeit SOUTH Jersey, which is different).
I guess for now it's The Sopranos that'll have to suffice.
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anne - 2005-05-09 13:41:10
I, too, will fess up to kinda liking Dogma. And I am curious about Smith's upcoming appearance on Degrassi Next Generation.
Does Todd Solondz qualify as someone who makes movies about NJ? Not sure where Palindromes is set but his other films were Jersey-based.
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Paula - 2005-05-09 13:56:04
Ah, true! Did you see Palindromes, Anne?
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Baby Party - 2005-05-09 14:30:37
I'm with Tom on the Chasing Amy assessment. I always assumed Kevin Smith had an unrequited crush on a lesbian, and wrote a fantasy script in which his proxy self "gets" the girl. It was just so wildly improbable, and it did seem like Smith had never met an actual lesbian. Also, there was a ferocious amount of speechifying, much of it in Joey what's-her-name's squeaky little voice.
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Paula - 2005-05-09 14:33:04
speechifying
Then you would surely hate JG...half the movie consists of people judging and telling off the Ben Affleck character, including one endless, endless scene where he does it to himself...
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anne - 2005-05-09 15:11:49
I have not yet seen Palindromes, although it's playing two blocks from my apt. So close, and yet... Have you seen it?
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Baby Party - 2005-05-09 15:44:44
I always thought the tv show Party of Five was like that: every single scene was one character confronting and telling off another. Or taking offense at something someone said. It was a festival of huffiness!
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Baby Party - 2005-05-09 15:50:25
By the way, I remember hearing Kevin Smith say that when Jersey Girl was filmed, Ben and JLo had must met (maybe they even met on the set?), but by the time it came out a year later, they were Bennifer, and widely hated. Which was a tough break for Smith.
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Paula - 2005-05-09 17:42:50
Anne: Nope, haven't seen a Solondz (sp?) film since Dollhouse, in fact.
BP: I never understood them as a couple. They seemed so weirdly matched. Whereas the new Bennifer makes perfect sense to me.
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Tom Ronca - 2005-05-09 20:21:30
I think everyone's moved beyond this entry by now, but I just had to add one thing. It's my understanding that Smith wrote 'Chasing Amy' about Guinevere Turner - http://imdb.com/name/nm0877587/; a screenwriter and filmmaker who frequently works on projects that have a sapphic tinge to them.
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Bob - 2005-05-10 00:28:03
Tom, never underestimate some one's tendency to straggle here. I was thinking the same thing when watching "Amy" for the first time recently, and at times was tempted to expand it to "Does he know any women at all?" Also, upon hearing someone had lent it to me, Hilary, referring to Kevin Smith's tarintino-ness or whatever (not lesboeens) declared it: "The twattiest movie ever".
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Eric - 2005-05-10 17:16:34
I thought Palindromes was really good, but I don't recall if it was in Jersey or not.
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