I'm 22, about the age of the characters in the first one. I've been watching Clerks 1 and 2 pretty much my whole life. They're funny, relatable. It's a similar to why I like Eminem and Trailer Park Boys so much. It speaks to the lower middle class, dead-end feelings toward the world. I feel like I know these people in real life and had their conversations with real people. The movies are so funny because they're so accurate and relatable.
Clerks 3 was not this way. I don't mind Kevin Smith's work. I know what I'm getting into. I like the Viewaskewniverse as it is. But for two movies who's major appeal to me is its authenticity... the worst thing a sequel could be is phony. And that's exactly what Clerks 3 is.
It was enjoyable enough, especially around the middle when it's primarily just shooting the movie and serving as a meta documentary on the original movie. Elias was somewhat "Modern Family" ish, with the ridiculous over-the-top getups and premise. It really made the movie feel like a scripted comedy and not the peek into an exaggerated reality that the first two are. But then it breaks into the Dante and Randall life problems and it just feels so... fake. Even when you take it at face value, it is incredibly disheartening and depressing to know these men lived the same deadend life from 20~ to 50 without a single improvement. In Dante's case, it was a small peak and then a dive off a cliff for 20 years.
As someone who is around the age of the chars in the first movie, what am I supposed to take from this? Life sucks, and will always suck, no matter how hard you try? If you find something good it will be taken? Do nothing and you will end up on top? It is such a dark and joyless perspective. I understand the movie comes from a very real place in Kevin Smith's life. But he's also a very successful and wealthy dude who escaped the situations he depicts. Why does he turn it into a tragedy?
I also do understand I'm not the target audience (by about 20 years) but fuck you, I love these movies for my reasons and I don't like this one for them too. It really does make me feel hollow seeing what happened to someone who supposedly did alright for himself in my near exact situation. I suppose I've still got the first two to watch but if this is where they end up... Going to be hard to re-watch again that's for sure.