High and Low

Kevin Smith's recent blog entry explains his fascination with Linklater's Slacker and How that was the movie that inspired him to be a filmmaker. Apparently he watches it every birthday to remind him. Amazing he didn't carry on in the tradition of Linklater.

A Scanner Darkly and Clerks 2 are the most recent offerings from these two filmmakers that I've been watching closely over the last 10 years. I really enjoyed both of these movies albiet trying to reconcile the differences is almost shear lunacy.

Clerks 2: The worst movie I've ever loved.

Kevin Smith, although funny as shit, is as predictable as any other modern director. He is acutely aware of his flaws as a filmmaker yet not really interested, or even worse, capable of changing. This is fine but from a well-rounded movie goers point of view not the best situation. Kevin's knowing nods to the stupid plot contrivences (that are the wonder bread and butter of his films) doesn't in itself make them go away. It's the garbage in garbage out scenario. I saw Kevin's top ten list last year and... it's a sad, sad shit list except for the amazing Sin City. If he just watches mainstream North American movies (War of The Worlds) he will not rise above the muck.

Linklater, the more thoughtful of the two, consistantly surprises me. He can go from Tape to School of Rock (whilst making a shitload of money I might add) and then come back with Before Sunset. He is a fan of the oft maligned subtitled exotica known as the art house film. He puts that into his mainstream movies just as Tarantino does. If you're going to steal, do it from the Ozu, Godard, and Fassbinder not from the sludge merchants in LA.

When Kevin Smith takes a dip in the mainstream he drowns. Case in point: Jersey Girl. Sentimentality and cute moments don't really move a story along once you take out all the profanity and pop-culture banter. In School of Rock, Linklater had the amazing comic talent of Jack Black and the amazing writer Mike White as enabler and architect for this pre-teen flick.

Kevin is a terrible director who doesn't come up with stories that surprise you or make you think. I think Kevin should try to get someone else to interpret one of his scripts. See what happened when Rodriquez let someone co-direct one of his movies. Bam, motherfucker, he makes the best movie of his career.

Touchstones to these films:
A scanner Darkly - Alphaville, Stalker, Code 46
Clerks 2 - Meatballs, Porky's and even worse Wedding Crashers. Albiet the dialog is way better but it is constructed with the same artless abandon.

I will still read Kevin Smith's blog but I am becoming increasingly tired of his schtick. He is becoming more of a media figure than a filmmaker. We go to him for opinions and not revelations; that's why Kevin is filling in for Ebert during his recovery. I think Linklater will always be too busy making films to stop and comment on pop-culture. He prefers to keep it in-the-frame and not expound about it on his blog. Does he even have a blog? Probably not.

I still have some hope for Kevin but I think most will look at him as some one who triumphed over adversity than someone who changed the landscape of American cinema. Linklater on the other hand...