REVIEW: Celebrate 25 years of ‘Mallrats,’ now on Blu-ray from Arrow Video
Image courtesy of Arrow / Provided by official site with permission.
Kevin Smith is something of a god amongst indie filmmakers. The New Jersey native found early success by bringing a DIY aesthetic to his 1990s films, including Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. Some of his more recent movies have been hit or miss, but there’s no denying that he has kept his rebel spirt alive by finding unique ways to finance, lens and distribute his art.
In 2020, amidst a global pandemic with few bright spots on the horizon, Arrow Video came through with some genuinely good news: They restored and released a new Blu-ray edition of Smith’s second film, Mallrats, celebrating its 25th anniversary in this year of years. This is the edition that many of his devotees have been waiting for. The two-disc set is chockfull of tantalizing extras, including introductions by Smith, an audio commentary with many people involved in the film, interviews, a tribute and a collector’s booklet. There are even multiple cuts of the film: the original, the extended cut and the hilariously ridiculous TV version (with dubbing in place of the profanity).
The introduction to the original cut by Smith is interesting and revealing. The writer-director talks about Mallrats as the scorned child who was later accepted in life. He was riding high after the unexpected success of Clerks, his breakout debut film, and when his sophomore effort was released, critics chewed it up and spit it out. Reviews and box-office returns were abysmal, and Clerks was re-defined as a one-hit wonder. Smith, quite openly, dissects this negative feedback and lets the viewer understand what he was thinking at the time.
Then, the fans started to find and appreciate the film later in the intervening years, and they haven’t stopped finding the film. As Smith says in the introduction, quoting one of his producers, Mallrats isn’t bad, but it may have been too early. Much of the humor has not dated, and the characters seem to be relevant in the 21st century. Heck, the comedy even has a Stan Lee cameo, well before Marvel did Stan Lee cameos.
For those not from Jersey: Mallrats, which was released in 1995, tells the story of two couples struggling to find love and meaning in their relationships. When the narrative begins, Brodie (scene-stealing Jason Lee) has been dumped by his girlfriend, Rene (Shannon Doherty). Ditto for TS Quint (Jeremy London), who has been similarly jettisoned by his hopeful-fiancé, Brandi (Claire Forlani). They go their separate ways but somehow all end up at the local mall. Supporting work comes from local stoners Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith), a maniacal TV producer (Michael Rooker), a men’s clothing salesperson (Ben Affleck), and a friend with some advice on relationships (Joey Lauren Adams).
A Smith script is always an interesting creation. The humor can offer biting commentary on pop culture, comics and modern love, and it can also resort to strings of profanity and sexual frankness. His characters often talk as if standing on a soapbox, with a seemingly endless array of comments about this and that. Brodie, perhaps the best creation in the movie, is the epitome of this monologue-spewing raconteur of high culture and low culture. Some of the dialogue is a bit cringe-worthy on its 25th anniversary, especially in light of the MeToo movement, while other jokes and stories hold up well and point toward Mallrats knowing the zeitgeist before anyone else did.
The movie has become a bonafide cult classic because its humor is funny and accessible, and its narrative structure is easy to digest and romantically traditional (the grand finale is a taping of a dating TV show, after all).
Mallrats was probably too early for its own good, but Arrow Video has corrected the history books with this special edition Blu-ray.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Mallrats (1995). Written and directed by Kevin Smith. Starring Jeremy London, Claire Forlani, Shannon Doherty, Jason Lee, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams, Stan Lee, Michael Rooker and Ben Affleck. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated R for strong language, including sexual dialogue, and for some scenes of sexuality and drug content. Rating: 
