Clerks (1994)

Clerks (1994) is an American black-and-white comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, marking his entry into the world of feature directing. The story revolves around Dante Hicks, a retail clerk at Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, New Jersey. On his scheduled day off, he receives an unexpected call from his boss, asking him to cover for a sick co-worker during the morning hours. Dante agrees on the condition that he can leave by noon to play a game of hockey with his buddies later on. When he arrives at the store, he discovers that the locks on the security shutters are stuck due to someone putting gum in them. In order to make it clear that they are open for business, he improvises by hanging a sheet over the shutters with ‘I ASSURE YOU; WE’RE OPEN!’ scribbled in shoe polish. As he prepares for yet another mundane day serving customers, Dante can’t help but express frustration at being there when he is ‘not even supposed to be here today’.

The initial customer, a male individual, attempts to persuade cigarette purchasers to choose Chewlies brand chewing gum instead. He uses a visual aid, displaying what he claims is a damaged lung caused by tar, which he carries in a bag. This draws a crowd around Dante’s checkout counter, who become hostile towards the man’s passionate persuasion and direct their anger towards Dante for selling cigarettes. As the situation escalates and the crowd begins throwing cigarettes at him, Dante’s girlfriend Veronica Loughran intervenes with a fire extinguisher to calm them down. She then confronts the instigator and discovers that he is actually a representative for Chewlies chewing gum, attempting to incite smokers in order to boost gum sales.