SMITH, Kevin 1970-

PERSONAL: Born August 2, 1970, in Red Bank, NJ; son of Donald (a retired postal employee) and Grace Smith; married Jennifer Schwalbach, 1999; children: Harley Quinn (daughter). Education: Attended New School for Social Research (now New School University), New York, and Vancouver Film School, British Columbia, Canada.

ADDRESSES: Office—View Askew Productions, 69 Broad St., Red Bank, NJ 07701; c/o Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, 35 Broad St., Red Bank, NJ 07701.

CAREER: Director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. Worked at Quick Stop, Leonardo, NJ, c. early 1990s. Filmmaker, 1993—. Cofounded View Askew Production

Company, Red Bank, NJ, with Scott Mosier. Owner of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash (comic-book store), Red Bank, NJ.

Producer of films Drawing Flies, View Askew/Good Load Productions, 1996; and A Better Place, View Askew/Synapse, 1997. Executive producer of Vulgar, View Askew/Lions Gate, 1998; Big Helium Dog, View Askew, 1999; and, Clerks Uncensored (animated series), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 2000. Coexecutive producer of Good Will Hunting, Miramax, 1997. Also executive consultant for the film Tail Lights Fade, Vidmark/Trimark, 1999. Film appearances include (as himself) Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary; (as Silent Bob) Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Scream 3, Dimension, 2000, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; (as narrator) Starwoids, Ventura, 2001; (as Martan Ingram) Vulgar; and (as morgue attendant Jack Kirby) Daredevil, Twentieth Century-Fox, 2003. Television appearances include "Rio Ghosto," Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Network, 1998; (as himself) Independent's Day, Arts and Entertainment (A&E), 1998; (as the voice of Silent Bob) Clerks Uncensored, ABC, 2000. Also finances an entertainment gossip Web site called Movie Poop Shoot, edited by Chris Ryall, directed a music video for the group Soul Asylum, and appeared in Jay and Silent Bob's Video Stash, MTV.

AWARDS, HONORS: Young Cinema Award, Cannes Film Festival, Deauville Film Festival Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival Filmmakers Trophy, all 1994, all for Clerks; Independent Spirit Award, best screenplay, 1998, for Chasing Amy.

WRITINGS:

screenplays

(And director and producer) Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary, 1992.

(And director and producer) Clerks (also see below), View Askew/Miramax, 1994.

(And director and producer) Mallrats, View Askew/Universal, 1995.

(Uncredited writer) Overnight Delivery, Warner Bros., 1996.

(And director and producer) Chasing Amy (also see below), View Askew/Miramax, 1997.

(And director and producer) Dogma View Askew/Columbia TriStar, 1998, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(Uncredited writer) Coyote Ugly, Touchstone, 2000.

(And director) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, View Askew/Dimension, 2001.

(And director) Jersey Girl, View Askew/Miramax, 2004.

Also wrote unpublished screenplay, Superman Lives.

books

(With John Pierson) Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1996.

Clerks; and Chasing Amy: Two Screenplays, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

Daredevil (Issues 1-6), Marvel (New York, NY), 1998-99.

Jay and Silent Bob: Chasing Dogma, with an introduction by Alanis Morissette, Oni Press (Portland, OR), 1999.

Clerks: The Comic Books, illustrated by Duncan Fegredo, Oni Press (Portland, OR), 2000.

(Writer) Green Arrow: Quiver, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2002.

(Writer) Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2003.

Also author of comic books Bluntman and Chronic, Oni Press.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Set to write and direct a movie based on the comic book and television series, The Green Hornet. Also working on Fletch Won, a movie based on the series of Fletch novels by Gregory McDonald, and a feature-length film based on the Clerks animated series.

SIDELIGHTS: During his short stint at the Vancouver Film School in British Columbia, Canada, Kevin Smith and his film school partner, Scott Mosier, began working on a documentary about a transsexual. When the subject of the film disappeared, the duo created Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary, a discussion of why their film failed. In 1993, at the age of twenty-three, writer-director Smith returned to filmmaking and appeared on the movie scene when his low-budget, black-and-white film Clerks made a splash at the Sun-dance Film Festival. The film revolves around a day in the work lives of two young male store clerks in New Jersey. Dante works at a Quick Stop convenience store and Randal works at a nearby video rental store. Smith made the film in three weeks, at the Quick Stop where he had been employed since he was nineteen, and with a budget of about $27,000, which he scrounged together by maxing out credit cards and selling his prized comic-book collection. Filming took place between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m., during the Quick Stop's off hours. Since the early days of his filmmaking career, Smith has enjoyed considerable success and has formed a dedicated cult following.

Critics had much to say about Clerks upon its release. "Smith's chatty, affectionate salute to brainy guys in brainless jobs exhibits a deadpan mastery of verbal comedy timing any veteran director might envy," commented David Ansen in Newsweek, adding that Smith has "a fine ear for his characters' needling small talk, lovers' snits, smutty harangues and whiny obsessions." "Their talk is pretty filthy, but that's verisimilitude for you," remarked Entertainment Weekly reviewer Glenn Kenny, "and Smith never tries to wrest laughs from vulgarity alone." "It was unpretentious and funny…. The humor in Clerks is kind of dopey, in an innocent, adolescent sort of way," commented Witold Rybczynski in Saturday Night. Writing in Film Comment, Donald Lyons judged that "the boredom of a dull job is brilliantly evoked—brilliantly, because the evocation is never itself boring but is mainly visible in the eccentric behaviors it births and witnesses." "Clerks is smart enough to be about not Kevin Smith, budding filmmaker, but Kevin Smith, dead-end clerk. It takes the actual rhythms of a long day's job seriously, while not taking its heroes or itself without irony," he continued. "The key to Clerks' charm is that Smith obviously doesn't feel obligated to speak for his generation," maintained Kenny. "He seems content merely to write about characters he knows well. His clerks aren't constantly arguing about music or spouting arcane '70s references—they talk about their lives." Lyons commented that while Clerks is "beautifully acted," "the look of its black-and-white plainness never rises above Snapple-and-Drake's-donuts junkiness. Smith should learn that film, even in B&W, can be visually nourishing." Yet he concluded, "The thing is a joy." Likewise, Kenny decided that while Clerks is "hardly a feast for the eyes … it's a feat nonetheless."

With Mallrats Smith moved from independent writer-director to studio writer-director. This time, instead of a New Jersey convenience store, the action takes place in a mediocre New Jersey shopping mall. There two young men, Brodie and T.S., hang out, chase girls, and make jokes in what appear to be random scenes. Mallrats did not come close to enjoying the success of Clerks. "Filmmaker Kevin Smith's most notable achievement is to have proved that pop-culture inside jokes are now enough of a shared language that they can appeal to a mass audience," noted Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly. Like Clerks, Mallrats has lots of dialog and little action. "Plot be darned; it's the texture, coarse but colorful, that counts—the pungent bustle of the action and Smith's wackily convoluted dialogue," enthused Richard Corliss of Time. "The humor is gross-out but inoffensive, since it's rooted in whimsy, not malice. Smith finesses the sophomore jinx with sophomoric high jinks." According to Tucker, "whenever you're not chuckling, Mallrats leaves you wondering at the emotional emptiness of suburban youth culture, as well as at the complexity of it."

Smith's Chasing Amy is a romantic comedy about a comic-book artist, played by Ben Affleck, who falls in love with a lesbian artist, played by Joey Lauren Adams. Rob Edelman summarized it in the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, writing, "As their stories unfold, Chasing Amy becomes a knowing examination of what it means to fall in love, and the sexual and emotional baggage that men and women bring to relationships in our modern era." Chasing Amy garnered wildly differing reviews. Although John Simon in the National Review praised the work for "a certain brio and some funny lines," he felt that Smith should not have cast his then girlfriend in the lead. "Although Smith deserves some credit for ingenuity, he doesn't have the skill to maintain a pleasurable sense of anticipation for an entire movie," observed Terrence Rafferty in the New Yorker. "What's disappointing about Chasing Amy is that Smith abandons his good comic premise halfway through the picture." Rafferty added, "The movie spends its first hour or so flirting ostentatiously with political incorrectness, then abruptly reverses field and runs away from the more controversial implications of its sexual comedy." On the other hand, Ansen found much to like. Remarking that "Smith startles us with raw emotional honesty," Ansen added, "Ultimately this funny, surprisingly moving love story is a devastating critique of the hetero male ego…. Who would have expected that Smith could write a female part with such passion and insight? … But whether discussing comics, cunnilingus or their deepest feelings, all of Smith's vibrant characters seduce us with their blunt and heartfelt eloquence."

Following Chasing Amy, Smith wrote and directed Dogma which, according to a writer for Authors and Artists for Young Adults, is meant "to poke some fun at the trappings of the Catholic church." The story focuses on a pair of angels named Bartleby and Loki who are banished from Heaven. The two are hatching a scheme to get back in, but their plan would end the world in the process. Enter the thirteenth apostle (omitted from the Bible because he was black), a celestial muse (in the form of a stripper), and an abortion clinic worker and lapsed Catholic (who also happens to be a descendant of Jesus), as the ragtag team picked to stop the apocalyptic plan. Because of its controversial religion-focused plot, Dogma received mixed reviews from critics. Some lambasted Smith, calling him a heretic, but according to a writer for Newsmakers 2000, Smith maintained "that the film grew out of a crisis of faith but helped him get back in touch with it." A U.S. Catholic reviewer, however, remarked, "This film contains as much sex and violence as found in the whole Bible and as much vulgarity as Chaucer."

A common thread uniting Smith's first four movies is a set of drugged-out slackers, one of whom spends his time pontificating on sex and drugs, while the other remains virtually silent. These characters, Jay (played by Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (played by Smith himself), snuck their way into each of Smith's earlier films. In Chasing Amy, the duo becomes the basis for the main character's comic-book series, Bluntman and Chronic. In the star-studded Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith has the duo working their way to Hollywood to stop the production of a film based on Bluntman and Chronic, for which the two buddies are receiving no credit and no money. Jay and Silent Bob get tangled in many hilarious episodes along the way, but eventually land their slice of the pie. Eric Monder noted in Film Journal International, "From the title sequence onward, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back constitutes a big in-joke for Kevin Smith about all his preoccupations: Star Wars, sex, comic strips, sex, his own films, sex, pop culture and … did I mention sex?" Monder continued, "Smith's work is as uneven as ever, but unlike in the past, the director gleefully surrenders any pretense toward making a 'good' or 'serious' film, and the effect is somewhat liberating." Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back marks Smith's fifth film in the so-called "New Jersey Chronicles," which includes Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. According to Mike Flaherty in Entertainment Weekly, "Smith has pledged that Jay and Silent Bob [Strike Back] would be their swan song, which would be a shame. [Jason] Mewes' comic potential alone is cause to hope he won't bogart such a promising franchise."

Jersey Girl focuses on the father-daughter relationship between single-dad Ollie Trinke and precocious seven-year-old Gertie. Smith based the relationship on that which he shares with his own daughter. Kirk Honey-cutt of the Hollywood Reporter called Jersey Girl "a sentimental love story about an emotionally devastated man who must find the right way to love his young daughter." A writer for USA Today noted, "Jersey Girl is the most grown-up film yet for Smith, whose first movie Clerks put him at the vanguard of the 1990s wave of young independent filmmakers. The new movie has plenty of Smith's trademark character banter, but on a mature level, without the gross-out schtick of his previous work."

In addition to his onscreen endeavors, Smith has written a book and several comic books. He coauthored the book Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema with John Pierson. He wrote a four-issue comic-book miniseries, which he collected in Jay and Silent Bob: Chasing Dogma. The book fills in the adventures of Jay and Silent Bob between the films Chasing Amy and Dogma. Tony Chester of the Concatenation: Science, Fact, and Fiction Web site wrote in his review of the book, "This is a little gem of a comic, despite the word-heavy prose that is forgivable in film … but, which is not ideally suited to comics." Chester acknowledged, however, that "it is certain to be received warmly by fans of Smith's films." Other comic-book writings include issues in the Daredevil series, Clerks: The Comic Books, Green Arrow: Quiver, and Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence. Of Green Arrow: Quiver, Steve Raiteri remarked in Library Journal, "Smith puts his extensive knowledge of DC history to good use in this tale of the return of Oliver Queen, the original Green Arrow." Raiteri continued, "Smith's scripting shows great understanding of the characters and is full of humorous moments…. There's enough background for new fans, but longtime DC fans will especially appreciate Smith's many references to earlier stories and series."

As if directing movies, acting in several films, and writing screenplays, comics, and books, isn't enough, Smith owns Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a comic-book store in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey, where he often works behind the counter. He also owns, with Mosier, View Askew Productions, which is responsible for the production of all of Smith's movies. According to a writer for Newsmakers 2000, Smith "dreamed of making his own film ever since he saw Jaws at age five." Now that he is a wellknown and accomplished director fulfilling his childhood dreams, Smith takes both the positive and negative criticism he receives in stride. In an interview with Ansen in Newsweek, Smith said, "Because I've made movies that pushed the edge of the envelope in the past, I get penalized when I make one that doesn't. Some people are, like, 'Well, it's not your riskiest move.' What am I, a stuntman? I got in the movies to tell the stories that I wanted to tell."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 37, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Muir, John Kenneth, An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith, Applause Theatre and Cinema Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Newsmakers 2000, Issue 4, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Pierson, John, and Kevin Smith, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1996.

periodicals

American Spectator, April, 1997, p. 68.

Billboard, February 16, 2002, Wes Orshoski, "Jay and Bob DVD: Another Final Bow: Dimension Issuing Two-Disc Set of Smith's Purposely Paper-Thin Comedy," p. 58.

Cosmopolitan, November, 1994, p. 24.

Entertainment Weekly, November 18, 1994, p. 79; May 19, 1995, pp. 68-71; June 23, 1995, pp. 26-29; September 29, 1995, p. 72; November 3, 1995, pp. 44-46; April 4, 1997, p. 64; April 11, 1997, p. 25; March 16, 2001, review of Green Arrow, p. 62; August 24, 2001, Jeff Jensen, "Mr. Smith Goes to Hollywood: The Voice behind Silent Bob Weighs in on His Return to Mallrats Culture," p. 104; September 7, 2001, Owen Gleiberman, "Smooth Mewes: As Half of the Dopey Duo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jason Mewes Plays a Rebel without a Pause," p. 134; February 15, 2002, Mike Flaherty, "Chronic Gains: Kevin Smith's Raunchy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Is a Stoned-Cold Blast," p. 49; May 3, 2002, Jeff Jensen, "Don't Go 'Changing,'" p. 18; May 10, 2002, Owen Gleiberman, "Taste Dud: The Most Offensive Thing about Vulgar Is its Incompetence," p. 53; March 5, 2004, "The Green Hornet," p. 46.

Film Comment, May-June, 1994, pp. 9-10.

Film Journal International, September, 2001, Eric Monder, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 53.

Hollywood Reporter, August 20, 2001, Kirk Honeycutt, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 9.

Interview, April, 1997, pp. 42-44; September, 2001, Kenneth M. Chanko, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 100.

Library Journal, December, 1995, p. 112; September 1, 2002, Steve Raiteri, review of Green Arrow: Quiver, p. 151.

Maclean's, August 27, 2001, Brian D. Johnson, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 48.

National Review, May 19, 1997, pp. 56-57.

New Republic, May 5, 1997, p. 24.

Newsweek, October 21, 1994, p. 68; April 7, 1997, p. 73; August 27, 2001, Devin Gordon, "A Phatty Boom Batty Flick: With His New Movie, Director Kevin Smith Says Thanks to Family, Friends, and Yes, Those Nutty Fans on the Web," p. 55.

New York, October 24, 1994, p. 41.

New Yorker, April 7, 1997, p. 97.

New York Times Book Review, February 4, 1996, p. 8.

People Weekly, November 7, 1994, p. 20; December 12, 1994, p. 156; August 27, 2001, Jason Lynch, "Chatter," p. 130; September 3, 2001, Leah Rozen, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 37.

PR Newswire, February 19, 2004, "Miramax Films to Release Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl in Theaters on March 26, 2004; Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler Starrer to Expand on April 2nd and April 9th."

Rolling Stone, November 3, 1994, p. 104; April 17, 1997, p. 86.

Saturday Night, September, 1996, p. 110.

Time, November 6, 1995, p. 77; April 7, 1997, p. 76.

U.S. Catholic, February, 2004, review of Dogma, p. 46.

Variety, January 31, 1994, p. 4; October 16, 1995, p. 94; February 3, 1997, p. 46; May 24, 1999, Todd McCarthy, review of Dogma, p. 73; August 20, 2001, Scott Foundas, review of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, p. 23; July 1, 2002, David Bloom, "Helmer Delivers Biz Poop on New Web Site," p. 6.

online

Concatenation: Science, Fact, and Fiction, http://www.concatenation.org/ (January 16, 2003), Tony Chester, review of Jay and Silent Bob: Chasing Dogma.

Dogma Movie Web site, http://www.dogma-movie.com/ (January 16, 2003).

Hollywood Reporter, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ (March 17, 2004), Kirk Honeycutt, review of Jersey Girl.

Movie Poop Shoot, http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/ (March 25, 2004).

MSN Entertainment Web site, http://entertainment.msn.com/ (March 24, 2004), "Celebs: Kevin Smith."

Newsweek Web site, http://www.newsweek.com/ (March 29, 2004), David Ansen, "Chasing Kevin," interview with Kevin Smith.

ReelViews: Movie Reviews and Criticism, http://moviereviews.colossus.net/ (March 25, 2004), James Berardinelli, review of Jersey Girl.

USA Today Web site, http://www.usatoday.com/life/ (March 25, 2004), "Ben and Jen Are Back, but It's Affleck's Show with Jersey Girl."

View Askew Web site, http://www.viewaskew.com/ (March 24, 2004), information on Kevin Smith movies.*