[Rating: Swiss Fist]
Ever since his heart attack in 2018, writer/director Kevin Smith has provided fans with deeply personal movies. He followed his health scare with Clerks III in 2022, which saw Dante, Randal, Elias, Jay, and Silent Bob make a movie immortalizing life at the Quick Stop convenience store.
Two years later, Smith gives fans a look into what his teen years were like with The 4:30 Movie, a coming-of-age story set in the summer of 1986. The film follows three friends — Brian David (Austin Zajur), Belly (Reed Northrup) and Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) — who spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies. To the young folks reading this review, seats weren’t always reserved, so one could purchase a ticket to a movie and when that movies finished, we—I mean some people—would walk straight into another one.
But, this particular Saturday, Brian invites his crush, Melody Barnegat (Siena Agudong), which throws plans and friendships into a tizzy.
Melody ends up causing a rift between Brian and Burny. The three friends start the day with a matinee with plans for Melody to meet them later in the evening. Throughout the afternoon, Burny and Brian bicker about why a girl should be included in their movie adventures.
After a quick fight which temporarily separates the friends, Burny meets his idol, the wrestler Major Murder (Sam Richardson). The scene is reminiscent of Jason Lee’s discussion with Stan Lee in Mallrats. Major Murder sets Burny straight about his friendship and priorities. At the same time, Brian learns the same lesson from the stoic ticket movie theater usher (Genesis Rodriguez).
By the end of the night and the final credit roll, all of the teens learn something serious about life, friendship and love.
Along with Richardson and Rodriguez, the film is filled with cameos of actors who have previously worked with Smith like Justin Long, and Lee in a parent role, with some new faces to the View Askewniverse like Adam Pally, Kate Micucci, and Rachel Dratch.
It’s clear Smith is pulling from his childhood, using Brian David as the cinephile Smith probably was as a teen. Without a shred of Internet to rely on, Brian David is spouting movie facts and trivia left and right. He is obsessed, but when he utters the line “movies make life make sense,” you know he’s earnest and sincere with his film obsession.
What else is also clear is Smith is trying to fill the giant John Hughes hole Hollywood has ignored lately. The 2010s were filled with teenage dramedies that showed a maturation from Hughes’ films. Characters were sick and dying or being bullied and had to overcome adversity. Hughes, on the other hand, was more heartfelt and treated love and friendship as the ultimate goals in life.
That’s what Smith is trying to do with The 4:30 Movie. Escapism is great and there are plenty of ways to forget about the problems of the world—and there are plenty of them today—but more important than that is maintaining our relationships and building new ones with people that excite us.
But Smith gets in his own jokes, derailing the story with cutaways and gags of the fake movies the teens are watching. There are a lot of references to the 80s and jokes about movies that did well or bombed. John Hughes knew when to make Ferris Bueller wink at the camera. If Kevin Smith wants to keep making coming-of-age teen comedies, he needs to reel in all the winks and nods about Hollywood and focus on the characters, something he knows how to do well.
Joe Jarosz is a Midwest boy living in California. As much as he likes to think he has an edge, he’s quick to cry at the latest animated movie he takes his kid to see.
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