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The best: "Clerks II" (2006)
“Mature” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when describing the films of writer-director Kevin Smith. Sure enough, “Clerks II”—the sequel to Smith’s highly profitable low budget debut—is filled with adolescent digressions: from a geek culture debate pitting the “Star Wars” trilogy against Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” cycle to a John Waters-influenced donkey-show set piece.
But at its core, “Clerks II” is an honest, oddly moving, and, yes, grown-up assessment of whether Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson)—the best friends and customer-service employees from the first film—can make a rewarding life out of continued minimum-wage drudgery in New Jersey as they approach middle age. Not even the beastiality jokes overwhelm the bittersweet tone.
