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Steven Soderbergh proved that American indie film-making could cross over into the mainstream with “sex, lies and videotape” in ‘89. Two years later, Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” turned the camera on the mentally malnourished MTV generation. But it took Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” in ‘94 to put the elements together and produce a stand-alone comedy that just happens to be a credit-card budget indie film.
“Clerks” is an uplifting story of can-do film-making. Smith set it in a convienience store because he was working there. He cast people he knew from high school, played Silent Bob himself and filmed it all in grainy black and white. The final pic came in at about $22,000 – five grand less than Miramax spent on the music rights.
Proof then that talk is cheap – but what talk. Hilarious drivellings about union labour in “Return of the Jedi”, speculation about jizz moppers pay, Happy Scrappy Hero Pup, hermaphrodite porn, the now infamous 36 dicks monologue……But “Clerks” potty-mouthed humour failed to impress US censors, who slapped it with a porn-rated NC-17 before relenting. Amazingly, for such an entertaining film, hardly anything happens – it’s a daft day in the life of till jockeys and slackers who hate their jobs. And mercifully, the one bit of action – when star clerk Dante’s robbed and shot – was dropped for a more fitting ending. Instead, he simply locks up and goes home. He wasn’t even supposed to be there today.(Cam Winstanley)
Got some updates on the Dogma RC site today of all places. A couple new reviews from the Stomp Tokyo website, as well as an article about protests surrounding Dogma in a new country: Brazil. Be sure and stop over the press area of the RC site for the latest. While we’ve been slacking bigtime on the What’s New section of RC (just got to be a bit much to maintain for the past few weeks), we HAVE been adding new articles and reviews as they show up (though that’s pretty much over, at least until video release). Thanks to Buck and Jeff Stanford for the stuff.
Alright, some newsbites AND some real headlines today, too! Amazing, ain’t it?
It’s my last eve in the great Garden State for quite sometime. Tomorrow, Scott and I (and Jen and Harley) head out west to put in some intensive work on the post-production of the show. The first two episodes come back this week, and it’s time to start editing, sound mixing, scoring – all the polishing – as we prepare for a March bow. It’s looking like we’ll be L.A. based for at least three months, maybe more.
I read that piece on Another Universe (the one News Askew linked). I must honestly say that I have no idea what the author’s talking about. No one inside the ‘Mouseworks’ has seen any footage yet (let alone whole episodes). Believe me – if there was network flap, there’d be Kevin flap – as I’d be flapping my gums, crying foul, to you guys, the press, and anyone who’d listen. Fact of the matter is the network is pretty high on the show right now – which is easy to accomplish, as they’ve not seen anything. Granted, they were present for script readings, but those went pretty swell (with the exception of the grumblings of some uptight lawyer fuck with the worst mustache on the planet, who poo-pooed a Jay and Silent Bob joke from episode six after one of the readings; mercifully, he had zero creative input – nor a creative bone in his weasly body – and has since been moved away from our show anyway).
When I next check in, it’ll be from Latte’ country. Wish a brother luck as he fights to maintain ownership of his soul from the heathens in the ironically named ‘c
At that point it looks like another one of those famous cutoffs, but I think he got his point across. Good luck to the gang as they head West – Hopefully we’ll have some cool soundbites and/or shots from the series for you to check out soon. We’re dying to see some of this thing.
Again, it should be on Newsstands in a week or so, pick up a copy–hell, pick up two.
Thanks,
Ben
Oh, and just something to look forward to — We got a little inside taste of Brian Lynch‘s script for the upcoming zombie horror/comedy opus “Everybody’s Dead”. We’ll have a story on that and more next time we see ya. Thanks for popping on by.
Again, as it’s been for the past few weeks it seems (for the most part), we’ve just got a bunch of little NewsBites today. That’s it. Not what you expected from a 2-day hiatus, huh?
Our apologies for the lateness of this update, it’s not that we haven’t had the news to report, we’ve been busy the past few days and just couldn’t get to this. At any rate, our PCs didn’t get fried, we didn’t get blown up, and the world didn’t end, so it looks like News Askew is going strong as ever. Lots of new stuff to talk about today, nothing too significant as we look down the list here, but we’re sure you’ll find something of interest amidst it all.
Oh, and just a sidenote: The final “Peanuts” ran today. It’s been around ever since we can remember, a lot longer than that even, and we’d just like to bid Snoopy and the gang a fond farewell, as well as send our best wishes out to Charles Schulz and his family.
Alrighty, let’s get started:
NUGGA NOOCH! HITTIN’ THE BONG WITH DOGMA’S JASON MEWES Heads Up
Jason Mewes is a comic book hero, a toy action figure and the stoner star of the sacrilegious film comedy, Dogma.
A DAY WITH JAY
Kevin Smith wasn’t sure what to think about Jason Mewes when he first met him. Here was the hyperkinetic kid about five years younger than him, a nonstop mouth who was beginning to hang with his crowd.
Smith was a senior for Chrissakes and pretty fuckin’ funny in his own right. But this Mewes kid was a live wire, a precocious, smart-mouthed hipster barely out of the seventh grade who bopped through thier small New Jersey town to his own weird internal rhythms. He even spoke his own language – snooch to the nooch, nugga nooch, snoochie boochies – who was this kid?
Jason Mewes who, with Dogma, is now appearing in his fourth film directed by the remarkable Kevin Smith, says, “I don’t think he liked me much at first. But one morning when Kevin was working at the local community center early, I busted in first thing and started goin’ nuts, actin’ crazy, sucking off everything in sight — you know, like the flagpole and the walls and the doors. I think that’s when he started to think I was funny because we got to be good friends after that. He even got me a job at the Quick Stop.”
Thus marked the birth of Jay and Silent Bob. Who are Jay and Silent Bob? Oh, you cultural illiterate!
In 1994, Kevin Smith made his directorial debut with the surprise commercial hit, Clerks, winning awards at the Sundance Film Festival and at Cannes. He went on to write and direct Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. In all four films, Mewes and Smith have played the same two characters. Mewes plays the endearingly crude motormouth stoner/dealer Jay and Smith plays his silent enforcer, Bob.
In the first three films, the duo performed in cameo roles but in Dogma, Smith has made Jay and Bob pivotal characters who callaborate with Linda Fiorentino to narrowly avert a nasty end to the universe. In this clever and wickedly whimsical film, which boasts names like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Selma Hayek, George Carlin, and Chris Rock, it is Jason Mewes who scores big laughs — and he readily admits that he’s playing a character largely based on his own exploits.
“I guess Kevin remembers a lot of that stuff. It’s my sense of humor, I guess, how I say things. A lot of things I said when I was younger. Like I’d get in people’s faces and yell snooooooch. I still say snooch. And I’d call the girls sluts. Not in a bad way. You know, I’m like walkin’ in the road and see some girls and say ‘Hey, sluts!’ ” He cautions, ” I try to be more polite now.”
Now before Jason gets slapped silly by any of our outraged femal readers, think back to your high school years and try to remember this dude: the captivatingly rude comedian, the steadfast rebel whose world has been comically touched by cannabis. That’s Jason.
“I’m not sure what I represent,” Mewes muses. “A lot of people say I’m just like their friend — so cool, so funny –just like like ‘em. Everybody has a friend who seems to be just like me.”
He says he got put into a “bad” school. “I just couldn’t sit still. You know, I like I talked a lot and didn’t listen and shit. If I had to go to the bathroom and said I couldn’t go until the end of the period, I’d just get up and go anyway.”
Whatever his appeal is, there is little doubt that the character of Jay is instantly recognizable by a generation of high school graduates, a direct descendant of great film stoners like Jeff Spicoli played by Sean Penn in Fast Time At Ridgemont High. However, Kevin Smith has imbued Jay with longevity. Not only have Jay and Silent Bob appeared in all four of his films, Smith has turned the pair into a successfull comic book series and licenses their images on T-shirts and hats. He even launched Jay and Silent Bob action figures. Jay’s version comes with a bong and bud accessories and features a push button to make Jay say some of his famous lines from the movies. Things like “Nugga nooch!”
The headquarters for Jay and Silent Bob is naturally, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a sleek, well-stocked comic book supermarket in Red Bank, NJ When Mewes walks the streets here, he’s a major celebrity. “When’s your next movie?” he’s asked repeatedly. A girl from a passing car shouts out; “I love you so much!”
For his part, Mewes is stunningly natural, without pretense, and is happiest cruising the local haunts. He was raised by in nearby Highlands and grew up like many kids do in small towns. “It’s not the suburbs. It’s not the ghetto either. It’s just kind of mediocre,” explains Jason. “You know, everybody grows up together. You find a central place to hang out. We had a beach and that was cool. We’d go to the woods and ride motorcycles, go to malls and try to pick up girls.”
Of course, Mewes was probably the star then, too. He has always had an uncanny knack for fracturing language and remolding it into his own vernacular. But what does this shit mean? Snooch to the nooch?
“It means anything you want it to mean whenever you want it to. If I say I want to snooch you, then it can mean whatever I want it to. Nugga nooch and snoochie bootchie are different versions of the same thing.”
It’s all so much clearer.
Whatever the definition, Mewes has been able to parlay his unique persona into appearences in Nike commercials and his own show on MTV, Jay and Silent Bob’s Video Stash. But Mewes isn’t living the hollywood lifestyle yet. ” I don’t take care of my money very good. I get money and the first thing I do is buy toys and comic books,” he confesses.
His ideal would be to have an apartment in Hollywood and have a nice house around here because he loves New Jersey. He also supports and lives with his ailing mother, and in actuality, leads a pretty quite life.
Is there anything that annoyes him?
“Nah, not really.” He thinks a moment and blurts out: “Yeah, Seventies Bush!”
Huh?
“You know, when it’s all bouffanted out and it’s like a powder puff? I can’t stand that.”
It’s when your totally at ease with him, that Mewes unleashes his freshly stoned observations. You wonder whether you’re being put on. He slyly checks the reaction to his commentary.
“Nah. Just kiddin’. I dont know. Nothing really bothers me too much.”
“I like to be home when I’m not working. I like to be around here. I got my programs pretty much down to a tee. During the weekdays I watch Quincy, M.D. at nine, The Equalizer at ten, Murder she wrote at eleven, twelve is Simon and Simon. Then I watch some Web TV for maybe an hour, maybe read some comic books. I hang out with my mom, maybe see some friends. I stay pretty much laid back.”
Now 25, Mewes looks at his present life and realizes that he’s gotten very lucky. “When I was growing up, I’d look at everybody and wonder what I was gonna do. You know, I’d see the mailman leave his house and come back every day after work or the construction foreman and I guess I thought, well, someday I’m gonna have to do that too — find a job that will buy me some forty- or fifty- thousand dollar house and just work like everybody else. I used to think, like everybody else. I used to think, like I don’t have any choice and figured that it was just going to be this way. It didn’t sound right.”
“Luckily,” he says, “this happened.”
