You’ve got to love writer–director Kevin Smith. Despite being 54 years old and having turned his lifestyle around having survived a widow maker heart attack (he includes a knowing line from his screen mum, ‘ You need bacon to build big strong hearts’) he still has fond memories of his teen years which he plunders to semi autobiographical effect in The 4.30 Movie.
Set in the mid eighties Smith’s alter ego here is Brian (Austin Zajur) a junior high school student with a crush on fellow student Melody (Siena Agudong) and he is on the phone to her anxiously trying to get her on a date with him and like all teen boys at that age is ecstatic and almost in disbelief when she agrees.
This being suburban New Jersey there’s little to do except go to the local multiplex owned and run by a despotic manager Mike played with relish by Ken Cheung in the sort of role , and lets be fair the only type of role, he plays best. It’s a constant battle between Brian and his two friends the clownish nerd and ginger mullet enthusiast Belly (Reed Northup) and the arrogant cocksure Bunny ( Nicholas Cirillo) and their M.O. is to pay to see the PG films and sneak into the higher rated films. Much like the fake trailers in Tarantino / Rodriguez grindhouse double bill Smith has a load of fun making his own fake trailers of truly awful B movies which here include the deliriously sleazy ‘Sister Sugar Walls’ and the gonzo horror ‘Booties’.
But Brian ‘s date with Melody is to see a new release on its opening day and it is his friends notably Bunny who are only too keen to given him advice that’s so obviously wrong yet at the age you’ll believe any advice to get to the next base.
Into the cast Smith has got many of his old regulars to pop up in cameos that takes in his Clerks cast Jeff Anderson & Brian O Halloran, his own wife and daughter Jennifer Schwalbach and Harley Quinn Smith as well as the Jason’s Mewes, Biggs and Lee amongst others
For Smith The 4.30 Movie is a return to a kind of comfort zone where the dialogue is everything much like his earliest films notably Clerks. So the dialogue is often lewd, there’s meditations on life lessons to be taken from movies, Star wars riffs, teenage slacker dreams & aspirations and yet there are really sweet moments with his two leads and a reminder that being a teen in the 1980’s were simpler and arguably happier times before the advent of destructive social media. Smith can still channel his 1980’s teen years to often hilarious and all too recognisable effect and The 4.30 Movie is his latest in an oeuvre he’s made his own and is highly enjoyable.
….and stay for a mid credit scene too!
related feature : Tiswas presenter Sally James talks about the infamous guests….. and the one they almost killed!
related feature : Clerks III – BLU-RAY / DVD
Here’s The 4.30 Movie trailer….
THE 4:30 MOVIE is in limited cinemas from 13th September and will be available on digital platforms from 21st October 2024
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