When Kevin Smith made “Clerks” in 1994, he was only 23 and ignorant of the ways of filmmaking. Smith was inspired to make a movie by Richard Linklater’s “Slacker,” figuring he could write a fun screenplay based on the way he and his friend conversed. Made for only $27,575, “Clerks” was about witty but directionless twentysomethings as they struggled through their romantic angst while trapped at their dead-end jobs. “Clerks” struck a nerve with Gen-Xers, introducing a certain type of pop culture chatter that hadn’t really been heard in movies before. It was a huge hit.
Smith returned in 1995 with “Mallrats,” another single-day movie about twentysomethings wrestling with their romances and emotional immaturity. His 1997 film “Chasing Amy” was an unconventional romance about a straight man who falls in love with a lesbian, and how the lesbian may be developing feelings for him in exchange. Ultimately, however, the straight man’s sexual insecurity causes their relationship to implode. Smith clearly had a lot to say about love and dating, working through his own immaturity.
Smith made a few more movies, but by 2006, it seemed that the filmmaker had run out of things to say. “Clerks II” presented Smith’s fans with a new thesis: stagnation is okay. “Clerks II” saw the return of the original Clerks, and they slowly came to the realization that being feckless and directionless convenience store workers was actually the most satisfying time of their lives. The film ends with them buying their old convenience store and owning their youth. Smith was announcing that he knew he had peaked in the past, and that he was okay with that.
Smith spoke with EW recently, and he said that he wants a clip from “Clerks II” to be played at his funeral. He was that fond of the movie. But, with an impishly naughty wink, Smith noted that one should not play the final emotional scenes of “Clerks II,” but a scene wherein a leather-daddy sex worker commits lewd acts with a donkey.
At my funeral, watch a donkey show
To put the donkey show into perspective: “Clerks II” sees Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and his crass buddy Randall (Jeff Anderson) taking jobs at a low-end burger joint called Mooby’s after their convenience store burns down. They have been working there for a year, and Dante is getting restless. He’s in his mid-30s and wants to quit minimum wage life and move to Florida with his fiancée, Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach).
When Randall learns Dante is going to leave town, he is distraught but decides to make his final shift memorable. He hires a live animal sex act called Kinky Kelly and the Sexy Stud, hoping that Dante can enjoy watching a woman commit bestiality before he leaves. The show involves blacking out the windows, setting up fancy lighting, and going to town. Randall is shocked when he learns that Kinky Kelly is the donkey, and the Sexy Stud (Zak Knutson) is a male human. Undeterred, the show continues apace.
Smith said he wanted the donkey show to be played at his funeral. Partly because it would be pointedly inappropriate, but mostly because he was proud of the way he lit and edited that scene. Smith said:
“The whole scene is bathed in this beautiful bluish purple light that we stole from Spike Lee’s movie ’25th Hour’ — honestly, one of the most beautifully lit sets I’ve ever had in a movie. […] We show Zak, the sexy stud, go toward the back of the donkey and then we pan up the donkey, tastefully. And just as we’re leaving Zak’s crotch, you see him stick his hand into his pants and s***. And as we come up to his face he goes like this, and he spits. He hocks this massive loogie into his hand and half of it goes between his two fingers into the purple light and s*** like that.”
It’s all so revoltingly beautiful.
Kinky Kelly and the Sexy Stud
It should be noted that Smith is typically more focused on writing and character than he is on visuals. His films tend to look bland and flat, with little in the way of flair or style. Which is fine, especially when the focus of the movie is two characters chatting. For the donkey show, however, Smith became ambitious. It was the first time he felt he captured a certain kind of visual beauty. It just happened to be a scene that involved the sexual abuse of an animal.
Smith, ever the provocateur, was happy to be cheeky about “Clerks II,” knowing that the scene was offensive, but also knowing it was emblematic of everything he could do as a director. The filthy subject matter, the crisp, flippant dialogue, and the actual visual panache make the donkey show scene from “Clerks II,” at least to Smith, the peak of his career. The filmmaker pleaded with the Academy:
“Academy, please use that clip when I die. […] That says so much about my work. That shot would not exist in a mainstream motion picture — yes, probably in some animal porn or some snuff film — but it would never exist in a movie that played in an AMC, in a multiplex, were it not for Kevin Smith.”
And well done. There is something to be said for playfully pushing the envelope and pissing off the squares.
Since “Clerks II,” Smith has turned mostly to various genre exercises, with only his 2011 film “Red State” feeling like a personal statement. For the most part, Smith has begun making movies because he likes hanging out with his buddies and shooting zero-budget trifles like, say, “Yoga Hosers.” He may not have anything on his mind anymore, but Smith is definitely having fun.
