Revisionist Movie Review : Mallrats (1995)
The legacy of American director Kevin Smith is unique, to say the least. He is beloved for the View Askewniverse films from 1994 to 2006 and reviled for everything else. Either his creativity got the yips or the world moved past him, because his latest film Jay & Bob Reboot was devoid of Smith’s trademark wit, charm and heart. Which one is it? I decided to rewatch my favorite film of his Mallrats in order to wrap my head around this phenomenon.
Mallrats tells the story of Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) and T.S Quint (Jeremy London), two young men who get dumped by their respective girlfriends in the opening scenes of the movie. The former convinces his friend to get out of their respective heads and spend the day together at the mall. That was something you did before the internet was a thing. You went places and you expected interesting thing to happen. Most times it worked like magic.
Without surprise, Mallrats didn’t age one bit for me. I’ve seen this movie close to a hundred times it only seems to get better. There are reasons for that: 1) I grew up in that era and understand it pretty well 2) the loud and unpredictable Brodie Bruce is the one character in movie history who resembles me the most and most important 3) the characters evolve into a given context and narrative. They don’t just tell jokes for the sake of filling dead air.
Mallrats wouldn’t be this good without Kevin Smith’s absurd sense of humor, but it would’ve been good. Same goes for Clerks, Clerks 2 and Chasing Amy. They were movies about the first generation with nothing better to do than chase the happily ever after and not being able to attain it. In Mallrats’ case, it’s a story about two couples learning how to sacrifice and fight for one another. It’s one of the few movies I know about actually being in a couple.
Beyond that, everybody is coming into their own in this movie. Trish (Renée Humphrey) is leaning to use her power over men for good, Gwen (Joey Lauren Adams) is overcoming her own desires for the well-being of her ex, Willam (Ethan Suplee) is learning to let go of what he can’t control, etc. Whether they’re freaks of girls next door, the support cast embodies what the movie is about: leaving your comfort zone to grow as a person.
That’s how I believe Kevin Smith lost sight of what made him good. He got so popular, so fast and built such a cult audience around his persona and sense of humor, he became insulated from the upbringing that shaped that sense of humor. He’s basically trying to make ramen with milk instead of water. He’s a celebrity now and no one relates to what he’s been living. I guess it is tragic if you consider not being special anymore to be tragic.
No, the world did not pass Kevin Smith by. Mallrats is still great twenty-five years later, but I suspect it will become less and less pertinent over time, because it is set in a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Where internet was only an exotic novelty and that you had too much time that belonged to you. If you haven’t lived through it, it’s difficult to understand what it was so much fun being bored. Sometimes it wasn’t, but most times it was a fucking blast.
9.2/10
