Four years ago, bad-boy writer-director Kevin Smith of “Clerks” fame changed gears with the sweet dramedy “Jersey Girl.” Ben Affleck starred as a publicist forced to raise his young daughter alone when his new bride (Jennifer Lopez) dies. Mr. Smith’s loyal flock erupted in horror. Where were Jay and Silent Bob, Mr. Smith’s raunchy recurring characters? What, no sharp-tongued slackers? Film critics weren’t impressed by Mr. Smith’s soft, gooey center, either.
Today, the indie director’s career is back on solid, albeit more familiar, ground. His last comedy, “Clerks II,” returned the Red Bank, N.J., native to his creative home turf of fast-talking layabouts and ribald set pieces.
This weekend’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” has Mr. Smith directing two of Hollywood’s hottest comic actors - Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks - in perhaps his bawdiest tale yet.
The film follows platonic pals (Mr. Rogen and Miss Banks) who decide to shoot an adult movie when they fall too far behind with their bills. If that sounds like the plot of a Judd Apatow comedy, all the better for Mr. Smith’s career.
Mr. Smith’s films, unapologetically rude but with an old-fashioned heart, parallel in many respects Mr. Apatow’s assembly line, including “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Both directors often traffic in immature but lovable man-children who learn to grow without surrendering their silly sides. However, while the independently minded Mr. Smith has enjoyed a cultlike following to this point, Mr. Apatow’s features routinely bring in big bucks - and enjoy far bigger budgets.
Mainstream audiences might not have been receptive to the outrageous premise of “Porno” 14 years ago, when Mr. Smith burst onto the scene with “Clerks.” It could be a different story this weekend. Blame a coarsening culture, or Mr. Apatow for rearranging the R-rated comedy scene.
“[Mr. Smith] was doing stuff like that long before Apatow. Now, it’s almost like his brand of humor is accepted in the mainstream,” says Jason Guerrasio, managing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
“I think his box-office numbers will do a lot better because of the landscape we’re in right now,” he says.
Mr. Smith clearly was stung by the reaction to “Jersey Girl,” which may have been hurt by a backlash against the tabloid fixation on “Bennifer” - Mr. Affleck and Miss Lopez’s ill-fated romance. He quickly learned his lesson, Mr. Guerrasio says.
“He woke up one day and said, ’I’m alienating the people who got me here,” says Mr. Guerrasio, who interviewed Mr. Smith for a recent profile in his magazine. “He knows what works and keeps going back to it.”
Mr. Smith currently can be seen in “Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith,” a recently released DVD that captures Mr. Smith’s raucous question-and-answer performance last year in Red Bank.
The DVD showcases the director’s ability to connect with his fan base courtesy of his raw delivery and self-deprecating tone. Offstage, he stays in contact with fans with near-religious fervor through his Web site, www.viewaskew.com.
Keith Simanton, managing editor of the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), says Mr. Smith’s strength transcends the puerility of his screen gags.
“There’s been a ton of raunchy, gross-out comedies,” Mr. Simanton says. “What caught people about Smith was his engaging characters. With ’Clerks,’ you want to listen to those two guys talk about the Death Star.”
It’s hard to blame him for trying to stretch with “Jersey Girl,” Mr. Simanton says. “’Jersey Girl’ was an earnest attempt to make a movie not about nerd stuff but about real life,” he says.
It looks like Mr. Smith has licked his wounds long enough. His next project, “Red State,” departs from his comedic formula but doesn’t stray too far from his youthful base. It’s a horror film targeting extremist Christian fundamentalism.
The director told rottentomatoes.com he got inspiration from Fred Phelps, the fundamentalist preacher who has picketed the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq War.
Mr. Simanton says Mr. Smith is likely working through the blowback he felt after creating the 1999 movie “Dogma.” The film followed a lapsed Catholic (Linda Fiorentino) chosen by an angel (Alan Rickman) to save humanity from two angry fallen angels (Mr. Affleck and Matt Damon). Catholic groups expressed horror at its R-rated theatrics, less-than-holy tone and the casting of singer Alanis Morissette as a mute, mugging God.
“’Dogma’ has a very sweet but misbegotten and wrong approach to theology,” Mr. Simanton says, echoing the view of the film’s spiritual critics.
Mr. Smith didn’t need an Internet connection to hear the “Dogma” outcry, but even on less-heated projects he routinely interacts with his fans online. That leaves him vulnerable, and unusually responsive, to criticism, Mr. Simanton says.
“Smith is more open about that than anyone else,” he says.
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