Checked back in with one of my all-time favorite making of docs. Tainted one star’s worth by, unfortunately, a rare on-camera interview with h*rvey w**nstein in the last ten mins 😩 

Otherwise, a delight that always has me circling back to a few essential themes - 

1) The nature of luck in artistic success - if you have the dvd set, check the outtakes from the doc for Scott Mosier’s amazing account of what their whirlwind success from Clerks felt like in the moment. 

2) Working with your friends - how integral each (male) friend of Kevin’s formative years was, in some way, in forging the Kevin Smith niche; and, along those same lines - 

3) Every great artist has a creative collaborator who is The Dick of their story, and for Kevin Smith it’s Jeff Anderson for sure lol. It’s a real mindbend...would Kevin Smith have a career if another actor had played Randall in Clerks? Was that performance essential to the film’s, and his, success? They don’t dive into this theme in the doc, but it comes up in a 10th anniversary Q&A on the same disc of the Clerks X dvd set. And their drama sticks out like a sore thumb now, in the wake of Smith’s heart attack and the subsequent Jay And Silent Bob Reboot casting, where Anderson was literally one of just a tiny handful of past View Askew players who didn’t show up. Hmm...

P.S. if you ever want to see an absolutely elemental depiction of the phenomenon of The Dick who butts heads with The Lead Artist, check out the perfect music film DIG! and its capturing of the intense creative friction between the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe (The Lead Artist) and Matt Hollywood (The Dick). Especially elemental because they’re really both dicks, so it gives your morals a workout. Haven’t watched it in years, but it’s a classic!