Clerks & Chasing Amy

by Kevin Smith

Here in one volume are two screenplays by Kevin Smith, one of today's most original filmmakers. Clerks was the independent film success story of 1994, winning the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics Week Award at Cannes, and the Filmmakers' Trophy at Sundance. Set in the everyday world of a New Jersey QuickStop and its adjacent video store, the film revolves around the obsessions, love lives, and friendships of the clerks. Janet Maslin of the New York Time called it "a buoyant comedy...and exuberant display of ingenuity," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times raves, "Clerks is boisterous and irreverently funny...an example of what is best and most hopeful about the American independent film scene."

Genres: Film, Media Tie In, Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Collections, Drama

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1997

About the author

Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, director, as well as a comic book writer, author, and actor. He is also the co-founder, with Scott Mosier, of View Askew Productions and owner of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic and novelty store in Red Bank, New Jersey. He also hosts a weekly podcast with Scott Mosier known as SModcast. He is also known for participating in long, humorous Q&A Sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith.

His films are often set in his home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, they do frequently feature crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon in what is known by fans as the "View Askewniverse", named after his production company View Askew Productions. He has produced numerous films and television projects, including Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II.

Reviews

[Sean Carlin]

Good scripts, even if they come off a bit like Gen X time capsules from the mid-nineties independent-film scene. Clerks takes me back to my own days working the counter of a video store adjacent to a comic shop (I'm of the same generation), and Chasing Amy has some unusually emotionally honest things to say about male insecurity.

It was fun to revisit these stories and characters after all these years, especially on the page, where Kevin Smith's voice is at its purest, but it mostly just made me better appreciate how glad I am to have moved on from that time in my own life. It's kinda like seeing old friends from high school or college: You're happy enough to bump into them again, but not exactly looking to resume the "good old days." In the words of Clerks' Randal Graves: "Let the past be the past."

[Dan Monty]

Kevin Smith has always been one of my favorite writers. Why? He doesn't give a f@*# that's why. I love his Jay and Silent Bob stuff. Clerks had some hilarious moments, but Chasing Amy truly was written beautifully.

[James]

HOLDEN
You got a weird thing for Canadian melodrama.

BANKY
I’ve got a weird thing for girls who say “aboot.”

Je pense que les gens ne sont pas censés aimer Chasing Amy à cause du wokeisme ou quelque chose comme ça, et même si certains aspects du film n’ont pas bien veilli, en général je trouve que son exploration de la masculinité et de la sexualité est touchante et drôle. Oui, aujourd’hui ce serait fait différemment, mais pour les années 90, c’est franchement progressif.

Clerks est la partie la moins significative du livre, peut-être trop longue également, mais c’est comme écouter un podcast humoristique. C’était intéressant de lire la conclusion originale aussi.

[Ben Kenna]

Fun to see how these scripts look in print form, how the scenes are set up, even the ones that didn't make the films. I should have written a screenplay in the 90s, damn.

[Donald]

I loved the movie "Clerks" and really enjoyed reading this screenplay! And boy what a surprise the ending is in here! Wowza!
I also really liked "Chasing Amy" and ditto about reading it! Nice bonus having the 'Bluntman & Chronic' comic in here too!

[Abbas Saleem Khan]

My two favorite screenplays from the 90s. Smith's use of free-flowing dialogue is him at his best.

[Wendy Battaglia]

Clerk's speaks for itself so I'll provide color on Chasing Amy. Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy bursts with both comedic energy and sharp emotional truth. At its core, the film explores love, identity, and insecurity through the lens of two comic-book artists and a woman who straddles the line of sexual identity. What begins as a witty, familiar rom-com soon digs into the stubborn roots of jealousy, self-worth and the messiness of human connection. If the screenplay falters, it’s in the fact that it still plays with outdated tropes of sexuality and gender. Yet the willingness to confront masculine fragility and emotional growth gives it substance. Chasing Amy remains a cult gem precisely because it is both flawed and fearless. It's a snapshot of 90s indie romance that still holds emotional resonance today.

[Steven Logan]

Funny, thought provoking, and heart warming.

[Alyssa]

Loved both scripts. Brilliant writing that makes me laugh out loud just reading it.

[Eckerbee]

So much favorite-ness going on for these two scripts, so much of the much! It's a heavy-in-order time capsule for sure that takes me to my granny's era where I try to understand the big learn.

[zoagli]

Two great movies, and two great scripts. And with deleted scenes, too!

[John]

I don't know why I have this book. I think I originally thought I was going to read them and then that would teach me how to write screenplays, but I neglected the most important thing about writing screenplays. You actually have to have an idea for a screenplay. That would not be provided by this book, unless I want to write a movie about wise-ass clerks or lesbian Joey Lauren Adams.
Reading these reminded me about how I feel whenever I watch a Kevin Smith movie. His dialogue is really funny and smart and captures how guys talk to each other really really well. But his long emotional speeches aren't that good. Especially the ones he writes for girls. But even the ones for guys, like the one Ben Affleck delivers in the car in 'Chasing Amy', they just seem a little over-written. Rehearsed. I just don't believe that the character would be able to compose his thoughts so carefully and parse his words so neatly in such a big emotional moment. I remember thinking that in the theater too.
The other good thing about Kevin Smith is he always seems to have a great affection for his characters. You never get the sense that they are jokes to him. They seem important and worthwhile people, even when they are being childish and silly. I like that.

[Marcus J.]

Seen this film many times. The screenplay is just plain old good and clever. It fits all the rules - it's good, clever, funny, has reversals, high stakes, a major character flaw in our protagonist that causes the death of his relationship. In other words perfect Aristotle. Also he learns something and the final scene leaves open the possibility of total redemption which is really cool!!' (Unlike Kevin Smith's recent offerings 'Tusk' and 'Red State' which left me feeling a bit sick).

Chasing Amy is a great Romantic Comedy on many levels. It hits a seriousness of film making that peaked between Clerks and Dogma. I also really loved Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, but Chasing Amy has such a solid structure at its core that it gives us a more enduring story and more cohesive film as a result. There's a reason that some of the screenwriting textbooks quote Chasing Amy above the others.

All that being said I am still anticipating watching his latest, 'Yoga Hosers'. :).

[Daniel]

The absolute best part of this is the introduction by Kevin Smith. How honest he is about the entire process of starting "Clerks" was really interesting and eye-opening, the kind of thing that makes you say, if he could do it...

I especially liked the part about after getting bashed for making "Mallrats" how one movie reviewer that honestly tried to interpret and understand what Smith was doing was able to elaborate that within the overall issues with the movie, that there were elements of truth and beauty. How Smith was able to channel that feedback into "Chasing Amy" is probably the turning point of his career.

So, read this for the scripts (Clerks probably works better in your mind than it does on cheap filmstock anyway) but enjoy also the cool commentary from Kevin Smith at the beginning.

[Ezequiel Rodríguez]

Smith most solid work put out on paper. It is preceded by a short but powerful tale on how both films are linked. These are the full original scripts thus you get some additional scenes that did not make the final cut. Highly recommended if you enjoy Smith's work.

[Keon]

He's not everybody's cup of tea but Kevin Smith's mixture of pop culture and heart just makes this completely my thing. Do not approach if you hate excessive talk about star wars, sex and mixed up feelings in your twenties.

[Darin]

These are two of my favorite Kevin Smith movies. The scripts are good reads. The philosophical side is evident in Smith's dialogue. And some of the subtler ways he foreshadows future events are more noticeable in the script.

[Fishsanwitt]

stamped

[Filthy]

Yay Kevin Smith. Many things in the book, that never made it to the screen!
Fun, fun to act out!

[Bill G]

Two great screenplays from two great movies.
I liked to follow along, mark the deleted scenes, mark the lines that are different, and have a blast.