Synopsis

Dante Hicks is reluctantly called in to work at the Quick Stop on his day off, where he spends the shift dealing with difficult customers, personal distractions, and the unpredictable antics of his friend and neighboring video-store clerk, Randal. As the day grows stranger, their routine jobs become a backdrop for arguments about relationships, pop culture, death, and the frustrations of being stuck in place.

Factoids & Trivia

• Kevin Smith made the film for approximately $27,575, financing much of it through personal loans, credit cards, and the sale of his comic-book collection.

• The Quick Stop and RST Video were real stores in Leonardo, New Jersey, where Smith worked. Most of the film was shot inside the stores after business hours.

• Smith could only film at the Quick Stop overnight, so the store's permanently closed shutters were written into the story as the result of vandalism.

• The production used black-and-white 16mm film in part to avoid the unattractive green cast that fluorescent lighting could produce on color film. The shoot lasted 21 days, followed by two pickup days.

• Clerks premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it shared the Filmmakers Trophy. It later won the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics' Week Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

• The film initially received an NC-17 rating because of its explicit language. After an appeal, it was released with an R rating without cuts.

• Clerks became the first entry in Smith's interconnected View Askewniverse, introducing recurring characters and ideas that continued through several later films.

• In 2019, the Library of Congress selected Clerks for preservation in the National Film Registry, citing its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.