----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I just saw _Clerks_ in Chicago last weekend, and was pretty disappointed. I had expected a funnier, more daring film, one that would poke more fun at the customers and the whole system. I was extremely disappointed at the poor quality of the acting (Linklater apparently used non-actor friends for much of _Slacker_, as was apparently the case for _Clerks_, but the results were much better in _Slacker_). So the by-play between the two main clerks (I forget their names, sorry) was not very effective: intonations were unrealistic, etc. And I really had no interest in the love story; I didn't care whether he chose the taller woman who cheated on him or the shorter one who didn't and baked him lasagne. A pretty tepid storyline, IMO. Finally, it seemed that one of the central conflicts regarding the main clerk was that his devotion to the store was interfering with his real life's potential, that clerking at a convenience store is really not an important or fulfilling career. But is there anyone out there who believes otherwise? Of course these minimum-wage, tedious, and often dangerous jobs are bad jobs; I wanted to learn something I didn't already know. And the film's advertising tag-line is similarly obvious: "Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you." Again, does anyone imagine that convenience store clerks _like_ the customers? I never did. Of course, it's possible that the film is a commentary on these issues, rather than a simple presentation of them. But I must admit the acting was so aggravatingly poor that I couldn't concentrate much on the interconnections of the various thematic elements, if there were many. In fact, there were some interesting lines, and I found myself wanting to read the screenplay instead of seeing the film (a first for me, I think). (Or maybe I was just suckered in by the low-budget indie look of the thing, assuming it therefore had to be cool). Anybody else see it? What did you think? And is the screenplay available to buy and read? John Hoppe