Film

Clerks

Name: Clerks
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1994
Cast: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes

Kevin Smith made this for less than $30,000, shot in black and white in the actual New Jersey store he worked days and filmed nights in, and it still holds up as one of the great deadpan hangout comedies. Nothing much happens — customers get abused, exes get discussed, hockey gets played on a roof — but the dialogue crackles and the misanthropy is oddly tender underneath. For anyone who's ever worked retail and hated every customer who walked in.

TMDb rating

7.4

If you liked this

Slacker1990

Richard Linklater's plotless wander through Austin's underemployed and overthinking is the spiritual older cousin of Clerks — same DIY spirit, same conviction that talk is enough.

But There's genuinely no plot at all, just conversation after conversation. Some viewers find that liberating, others find it exhausting.

Office Space1999

Mike Judge's cubicle satire shares the DNA — smart, underpaid people trapped in soul-killing jobs, funnier and angrier the closer it hits home.

But It's slicker and more mainstream than Clerks, with a studio polish that some prefer the scrappier original didn't have.

Dazed and Confused1993

Another hangout movie built entirely on voices and vibe rather than plot, this one warmer and more nostalgic, following a pack of Texas teens on the last day of school in 1976.

But Bigger ensemble, sunnier tone — if you liked Clerks for its bile, this might feel too sweet.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Il Posto1961no page yet

Both films are really about the same thing: dead-end entry-level work and the small, absurd rituals people invent to survive it. Il Posto got there decades earlier, in a completely different register — melancholic instead of profane, silence instead of one-liners.

An Italian film about a teenager landing his first office job, shot with the same patient attention to the small humiliations of low-level work — quiet, funny in a wince-inducing way, and genuinely moving.

But Subtitled, slow, and utterly without Smith's rapid-fire dialogue — this is what the same subject looks like with all the jokes removed.

Chasing Amy1997no page yet

Kevin Smith's own follow-up, sharper and more emotionally serious, proving the guy who wrote all those dick jokes could also write heartbreak.

But Tonal whiplash — comic book shop banter one minute, genuine relationship devastation the next, and not everyone wants both in one sitting.

Mallrats1995no page yet

Same View Askewniverse, same Jay and Silent Bob, but broader, dumber, and shot on an actual budget — a fun companion piece if you want more of that world.

But Widely considered the weak link in Smith's early run; the wit that made Clerks sing gets buried under slapstick here.

Reality Bites1994no page yet

The defining Gen X ennui comedy, all about aimless twentysomethings who know they're smarter than the jobs available to them.

But More love triangle than hangout comedy, and its politics-of-selling-out plot has aged into a specific, dated kind of earnestness.

Empire Records1995no page yet

A whole cast of underpaid record store clerks getting through one chaotic day — pure retail-comedy comfort food with a killer soundtrack.

But It bombed for a reason: broader, sappier, and far less biting than Smith's script ever gets.

Waiting...2005no page yet

Swap the counter for a restaurant kitchen and you get the same low-budget, foul-mouthed, workplace-hell energy, just gross-out where Clerks is dry.

But Cruder and less clever — this is Clerks with the wit dialed down and the gross-out humor turned way up.

Swingers1996no page yet

Same scrappy indie confidence, same conviction that watching underemployed guys talk each other's ears off is enough to build a movie around.

But It's more about male bravado and dating theatrics than workplace tedium — a slightly different itch, however similar the budget.

Diner1982

Clerks didn't invent the movie made almost entirely of guys talking — Diner did it over a decade earlier with the same faith that overlapping banter is plot enough. Same engine, earlier era, gentler heart.

Barry Levinson's group of Baltimore guys talking in circles at an all-night diner basically invented the hangout-dialogue movie that Clerks would later run with, and it's every bit as quotable.

But More wistful and melancholic than Clerks' cheerful nihilism — this is about growing up and losing your friends, not sticking it to customers.

Trainspotting1996

Both are about young people who feel smarter than the lives available to them and respond with corrosive humor instead of ambition. Trainspotting takes that same voice and drags it somewhere genuinely bleak.

Same generation of smart, underemployed people going nowhere, but pushed into genuinely dark territory — heroin instead of comic books, addiction instead of ex-girlfriend drama — with kinetic, unforgettable style.

But There's no getting around it: this is a much heavier, more disturbing watch, with real stakes and real damage where Clerks stays safely comic.