Kevin Smith announces retirement, self-promotion of new film

 Writer/Director Kevin Smith has been all over the news lately, once again generating media buzz surrounding one of his movies. This time, it is Smith’s new film Red State, a horror film featuring Westboro Baptist-style evangelicals as the antagonists, that is ruffling up the feathers of celebrity gossipers, church-lead protesters, and the worldwide consortium of men living in their mothers' basements also known as the blogosphere. As has been the case with anything Smith has been involved with over the past decade or so, said buzz has nothing to do with the critically acclaimed quality of the movie itself, but rather the bomb that Smith dropped on Hollywood during the initial screening of the film during the Sundance Film Festival.

After jokingly bidding on and winning the rights to his own movie for 20 dollars during a staged auction following the screening of State, Smith took to the stage and announced his plans to shun traditional methods of film promotion and take his film on the road himself. Citing the popularity of his “Silent Bob Speaks” speaking engagements as his inspiration, Smith revealed that he will appear live at nontraditional venues in major cities to hold Q&A’s after a viewing of his new movie, pre-release, in order to boost ticket sales when it is officially released to traditional theaters. Much like Smith’s credit card-funded debut film, Clerks, this ballsy move has the potential to fall flat on its face or be a defining moment for the way in which movies are distributed in the future.Red State may be the first truly independent film in that it will not only be independently produced and filmed, but distributed in that manner as well.

This move comes during the same week that the portly Smith--who was once famously booted from a Southwest Airline flight for being too large to fit into one seat securely--revealed that he has lost 65 pounds, spoke poorly of actor Bruce Willis, and announced that his next film will be the last motion picture that he will ever make. Smith described working with Bruce Willis on Cop Out(LOL-for the wrong reasons) as “soul crushing,” stating that Willis lacked respect for him and did not take direction well. Tossing more raw meat towards frothing gossip hounds, Smith also stated in multiple interviews that he would be retiring from movie-making for good upon completing his next film, Hit Somebody, a hockey-based comedy that shares a name with the Warren Zevon hockey-themed song.

“From the beginning, I always said that I felt like I only had ten scripts in me,” explained Smith.

“Ten scripts” is being just a tad generous, methinks, and I believe Smith hanging up his directorial trench coat is a move that is long overdue.  While I applaud Smith’s gutsy, potentially game-changing approach to distributing his recent movie, it seems that Smith is perenially in the news for something other than making a quality film. Chasing Amy (a movie that, along with Clerks, I would easily place into the top 10 American comedies of the 90s). A few of his films since then have had a nice cult following and, perhaps due to counter-productive backlash from religious and censorship groups, seemed a little more interesting and exciting when they first came out than they are upon present-day reflection (watch “Dogma” again sometime—despite a brilliant performance by George Carlin, it really ain’t that good). Even the later movies involving the always hilarious Jay and Silent Bob—two of the most memorable fictional movie characters of all-time—were flat-out terrible.
The man has not made a great movie since

On the one hand, Smith likes to brag about how the controversy that his films generate counter-intuitively helps bring attention to them. On the other hand, he wants to blame restrictive practices of hesitant studios for the poor sales numbers that his movies garner. In other words, Smith wants to have his cake and eat it too (as a man who is also certainly no stranger to the husky section, I will refrain from inserting a fat joke here). But what Smith fails to mention is the obvious—perhaps the true reason for the box office failure of his recent movies is that he is simply not making good films anymore.

Hardcore Smith fans, please forgive me; I do not take pleasure at all in dishing out these criticisms towards him. I believe Clerks to be a pioneering movie that changed the landscape of film dialogue forever and it even influenced a nineteen-year-old me to write my first screenplay. In fact, there are elements of Smith’s influence on me as an overall writer that could probably be detected in this very article. But, as someone who also dabbles in movie reviewing, I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that Smith’s movies have not come close to matching the extreme controversy/hype that have surrounded them in quite some time. I think that Smith is an extremely talented comedy writer, but I also sincerely believe that he is making the correct move in pulling the proverbial plug on his own directing career. For that self-awareness, I give him all the credit in the world.

After his retirement from directing, Smith says that he will focus his attention on movie production and distribution and also hinted at the possibility of creating a cable network television program, should he ever regain the urge to extend the stories of the “Askewniverse.” He has also stated that he would like to expand upon his career in radio. Alongside producer and longtime friend Scott Mosier, Smith hosts an internet podcast, which is also broadcasted on XM, called Smodcast. It is a compelling hour of radio—if you consider the perpetual discussion of comic book minutia, excessive homoerotic humor, and incessantly laughing at one’s own jokes “compelling radio.” Nooch!

Until next time, keep your head hidden in the bushes and your eyes on the stars.