Following on from his likable threequel Clerks III, Kevin Smith remains in a nostalgic mood with yet another semi-autobiographical comedy whose main character is basically an avatar of Smith himself, just a little thinner. Protagonist Brian David (Austin Zajur, who had a much better character name in Clerks III, Blockchain Coltrane) is a junior in high school. This being 1986, there’s not much for a 16-year-old to do in suburban New Jersey but go to the local multiplex with his friends, geeky Belly (Reed Northrup) and cocky Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) – so that’s what the guys get up to, paying to see something PG and then sneaking into the R-rated film when the ushers aren’t looking.
However, on this particular day, Brian has mustered the courage to ask his crush, Melody (Siena Agudong), to go see a new release on a date with him at 4:30 that afternoon and amazingly she has said yes. Even more amazingly, Burny is disdainful of Melody’s physical attributes, resulting in a steady stream of borderline-misogynist ranting, but it’s pretty clear we’re meant to infer Burny is not just a jerk but an idiot. Every prediction he makes about the future is wrong, from declaiming that the Mets will never win the World Series to dismissing the idea that the makers of Star Wars would ever stoop to making spinoff TV shows about minor characters in the franchise.
There’s a little extra chuckle to be had over that last one, considering the star of exactly such a series, who has worked with Smith before, pops up for a cameo near the end. Indeed, several of the supporting characters are friends of Smith passing through for old times sake (including Jason Lee), or character actors hamming up for fun; Rachel Dratch, playing Brian’s mom, phones the theatre saying it’s an emergency, to tell him he has to wash the cat later. Elsewhere, Jason Biggs has a turn with prosthetics and silly accent to play a Christian rock aficionado. But by far the best thing in the film is Ken Jeong as the theatre manager, preening and ridiculous, dispensing putdowns with surgically precise comic timing.
• The 4:30 Movie is in UK and Irish cinemas from 13 September and is on digital platforms from 21 October.
