Clerk is not exactly an unbiased documentary/biography/filmography of writer/director Kevin Smith’s life. I like Kevin Smith and listen to his podcasts and watch (and usually like) his movies so there was very little new information for me here. But a casual watcher of his flicks might get something interesting out of the movie.

It’s a friendly movie that places him on a pedestal. I don’t know if there are warts in his life in order to even make a warts ‘n all film. It does mention his business association with Harvey Weinstein and that’s about as bad as it gets (except for maybe him talking about weed and his worst movies, I suppose).

The film does cover his youth and then the production of Clerks all the way up to Jay and Silent Bob Reboot… it only misses out of a few things like the handful of DC tv shows he’s directed and the Jay and Silent Bob cartoon. But otherwise it talks pretty openly and honestly about his successes and failures in film… and his days of college tours, and, of course, his podcast empire. Though everything talked about I’ve heard him discuss in greater detail in some length podcast episode.

So… maybe worth checking out for newbies, maybe worth checking out for veterans. Newbies will learn something, vets will just be told what they probably already know. Not a bad doc though, even if (to these ears) it’s 85% things he’s talked about before.

Score: 84