Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
It needs pointing out that the experience of watching “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” was not a typical theatrical one, but in one of the roadshow presentations Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are taking around the country, in lieu of a traditional theatrical release. It’s actually my second time seeing Smith in person, and seeing he and Mewes interact with the packed house at Atlanta’s Center Stage was fantastic. It was worth the price of admission to see the film in that environment.
Removing the film from the experience, “Reboot” is solid, ultra-self-aware Kevin Smith, even if it pales in comparison with his best work. The film knows exactly what it’s doing at every turn, as Jay and his hetero life mate, Silent Bob, once again finding themselves traveling to Hollywood to stop a movie based on the Bluntman and Chronic comic book. This one is a gritty reboot of the original, however, now with a female Chronic, and directed by Kevin Smith. The stakes are raised, however, when Jay and Silent Bob are hustled into signing away the rights to their likenesses, and actual names, to the company making the reboot. Time for a road trip.
One of the things I appreciate about what Smith is doing with the “Jay and Silent Bob” movies, which fully connect to the View Askewniverse while also standing apart in a goofy ass manner, is how he is using them to comment on modern fandom and pop culture obsession. I think 2001’s “Strike Back” did it better, and got ahead of the toxic nature of fandom effortlessly, but “Reboot” is a worthy successor. It reflects the era we are living in now, and shows the way convention culture has evolved the fan experience, and how artists embrace it, or exploit it, in the Chronic Con they find themselves in at the end. That part of the narrative ties in to the big character arc of the film, when Jay and Bob find themselves on the road with Millie, the love daughter of Jay and Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), whom they conceived after the first film. Millie is short for Millennium Falcon, and is played by Smith’s real-life daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. Harley is an engaging presence on the big screen (say what you will about “Yoga Hosers,” but her performance is a good one), and she holds her own as Millie and her diverse group of girlfriends try to get to Chronic Con to fulfill one of their’s wishes (a hint of “Fanboys” inspiration). Millie does not know Jay is her father, and Jay didn’t know Millie existed, leading to an arc that feels like a love letter from Smith to his friend, and the growth he saw in him over the years as he got himself clean, and became a family man. Mewes plays it well; he really is an underappreciated asset in Smith’s filmmography.
While I enjoyed a lot about “Reboot,” especially with several hundred other fans around me, I’m honestly curious how the film will play outside of that experience. Yes, it is really funny the way Smith layers in cameos from old characters, and plays with the essence of a reboot in how so damn close he plays this to the first film (my favorites were Matt Damon’s Loki from “Dogma” and Ben Affleck’s Holden from “Chasing Amy”), and a lot of that plays like gangbusters with an audience in on the joke, but I wonder how it will hold up on repeat viewings. I think, as a whole, it will be fine, but some of the moments (especially Jason Lee’s as Brodie at the beginning) might lose some juice just watching at home because of just how much it follows the “Strike Back” structure. That being said, I’m glad Smith found a way in to doing this movie, and if he does decide to revisit the formula again in almost 20 years (which he hinted at in the post-film Q&A), I think he’ll have plenty of pop culture material to skewer while he indulges in his inside jokes.
Here’s praying he is able to stick the landing on “Clerks 3” and “Mallrats 2” in the meantime…
