Dante is called in to work his off day as a clerk at a tiny convenience New Jersey store. His friend Randal is even worst than him at his work as the video store clerk next door. Dante finds out his ex is getting married, and his present girlfriend has given BJs to 36 guys (37 if you include him). Meanwhile there is Jay and Silent Bob selling weed outside his store.

This is Kevin Smith's first film. It's an indie classic. There is a lot interesting and some funny dialog. I will never forget Snowball. The quality is very good considering it's a true indie. It's not what is considered indie today. These are all newcomers and unknowns. The acting is amateurish but effective. At least, they are good enough to do understandable fast talking. The black and white probably hides a lot of flaws. The characters are unique and original. It's a very promising first film.

Humanity is filled with spoiled jerks who utilize the cliché "The customer is always right" to take advantage and get more than what they are paying for, all the while going out of their way to belittle those forced to wait on them. For every jerk, there's two weirdo's, and for every one of them, there's somebody who insists on trying to tell you how to do your job better. Having done a variety of customer service jobs years ago, I've had my share of strange and experiences, and I had to move on simply to avoid further destroying my faith in humanity.

This independent black comedy has received a huge cult following, and in watching it for the first time since I left that cow pasture, oops I mean field, I am reminded of the reason I turned to dancing the paper shuffle rather than serving a demonic humanity. This gives the best of the worst, focusing on a convenience store with passing reference to the video store next door. I have personal experience from working in the now defunct video store industry, and those scenes are particularly delicious to me, especially a scene where the clerk orders a children's video in addition to more than a dozen nasty sounding porno movies as the young mother stands by in shock, holding her baby daughter.

The cast of unknowns do their best to slam both sides of the counter. Thr humor can get a little blue at times, but there is a subtleness in the filth that brings on some genuine snorts of laughter. This goes out of its way to show how stupid the most obnoxious of customers can be. The clerks aren't that brainy either, although a lot of their responses to ridiculous requests are pretty smart. I don't care for deliberate rudeness, but sometimes customers go out of their way to get a confrontation started. Gum company representatives try to get smokers to quit, shell shocked guidance counselors go out of their way to find the perfect dozen eggs, and overly sensitive whiny cry babies get offended over the silliest things. Deliberately dumb inquiries just make you roll your eyes, but oh boy, how true this screenplay is.

This is filled with so many memorable sequences, the highlight being an old man who purchases dirty magazines then asks to use the restroom in the convenience store. A spontaneous hockey game interrupts the boredom of serving the locals. If this movie teaches me one thing, its how not to act when I go into a store. Fortunately, many of my local stores have added automated checkout machines which I prefer over the phony cheeriness of clerks today which in New York City makes me feel like I've stepped into an alternate universe.

On his day off, the clerk of a convenience store Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) is summoned by his boss to be the substitute for his coworker that is ill. He is worried since he has a hockey game. Along the day, his friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) that works in a video store on the next door stays most of the time with Dante. He is visited by his girlfriend Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) that discloses intimacy to him; he learns that his former girlfriend Caitlin Bree (Lisa Spoonauer); he gives a break and plays the hockey game with Randal; he goes with Randal to a wake. Meanwhile the drug dealers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) sells drugs on the sidewalk.

In 1994, the low-budget "Clerks" is a milestone to the career of Kevin Smith. Divided in nineteen chapters in black-and white, using a few locations and with unknown cast, the witty "Clerks" is a very funny comedy even twenty-two years after its release. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Balconista" (The Clerk")