In an interview with The Austin Chronicle, David Gordon Green, director of the independent film “George Washington,” trashed fellow indie director Kevin Smith, saying, “He kind of created a Special Olympics for film.”
Smith’s response to the criticism was to turn the event into a story.
“Somebody was saying, ‘There are filmmakers who came before you, like Kevin Smith, that helped pave the way,’ and he went off on a terror. He was just like, ‘Look, that dude lowered the bar. He didn’t really make it easier for us to get in.’ ”
The story appears as part of Smith’s latest DVD release, “An Evening with Kevin Smith,” a three-and-a-half-hour collection of the best questions and answers from five college lectures.
While Green may be right about Smith’s banal directing style, his comedic talent has never been more apparent than on this DVD. Whether he’s talking about his own films or his troubles with singer Prince, Smith sounds like he fell directly out of one of his films, spouting off one-liners and pop culture references left and right.
Obviously, “An Evening with Kevin Smith” is going to appeal to a very limited market, with established Smith fans being the only ones to give it a shot. Be that as it may, the comedy is for more than just Smith’s fan base. While it helps to have a knowledge of his work (so references to Dante, Randal and Cousin Walter don’t go misunderstood), Smith goes beyond references to his own films, choosing to include hilarious segments involving members of the audiences.
At Indiana University, one student tells Smith he was fired from his job as a busser at an Italian restaurant because he attended the event. Smith pulls the kid onto the stage and agrees to call his boss in an attempt to “smooth things over.” Of course, the situation is made even funnier when the boss refuses to hire the guy back.
One of the principal topics covered on the disc is the potential for another film starring Jay and Silent Bob (played by Smith pal Jason Mewes and Smith himself), but, like everything else, Smith just shrugs the questions off with a clever remark.
“There just comes a time when you stop, because you don’t want to overstay your welcome — you don’t want to be Pauly Shore,” Smith said.
Smith also launches into hysterical stories about the rewrite of “Superman Reborn,” his fights with fellow director Tim Burton, and his “Chasing Amy”-esque sexual battle scar with then wife-to-be Jennifer Schwabach (who actually played Missy in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”).
He even jokes about one of his more controversial topics — religion. Smith was protested by Catholic groups for his “blasphemous” film, “Dogma.”
“Yes I believe in God. Why? Because I have a career. There can be no better explanation or proof of the existence of God than the fact that I have a film career,” Smith said.
Smith does take a few of his controversies seriously though, having one lengthy debate with a lesbian audience member about her dislike of the portrayal of lesbians in “Chasing Amy.”
“All I can do is make movies the way I want to make them, the way I want to see them — as entertaining as possible, and if I can whip a little bit of message in there, that’s more than most cats do,” Smith said.
Of course, Smith answers another question with a quip on how some gay women view “Chasing Amy.”
“I think I have made a science fiction movie: ‘Chasing Amy.’ Because you go ask any lesbian — that’ll never happen,” Smith said.
Perhaps the only thing on the DVD that’s not funny is its lack of extras. The only items on the disc beside the lectures themselves are just a few trailers for other movies, with the only Smith film being “Dogma.” It would have been nicer to see trailers for the rest of Smith’s films — “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
This oversight notwithstanding, “An Evening with Kevin Smith” is one of the funniest DVDs to hit stories in a while and should be on the wish list of anyone who has laughed at one of Smith’s films.
