Welcome back Kevin Smith (“Clerks,” “Dogma”). You were hardly even gone. After an NFT film misfire and returning to his Askew-niverse, Smith is back with his first film not related to those misfits at the Quik Stop in eight years. Loosely based on his own life, Smith mines his childhood for movie theatre teenaged nostalgia in “The 4:30 Movie.”
Set in 1986, the film follows teenaged movie geek Brian David, played by Austin Zajur (“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” “Clerks III”), who asks his crush Melody Barnegat, played by Siena Agudong (“Upside-Down Magic,” “Resident Evil (2022)”), to see the 4:30 showing of an R-rated detective movie. David and his two best friends Burny and Belly, played by Nicholas Cirillo (“Jesus Revolution,” “Fresh Kills”) and Reed Northrup (“Teenage Euthanasia”) respectively, spend the rest of the day at the theater waiting for Melody, sneaking into R-rated movies and avoiding annoying employees, like Manager Mike, played by Ken Jeong (“Community,” “The Hangover”), and phone calls from pestering parents.
It's an exceptionally threadbare premise for a film, but Smith’s strength for rapid-fire dialogue shines through thanks to that low stake premise. When the film is focusing on the banter and friendship between Burny, Belly, and Brian, it's almost magical. There’s a sort of poetry and honesty to the vulgarity that makes it all work. The humor itself is more hit or miss, with plenty of jokes revolving simply around “could you imagine if that thing ever happened? As if!” It’s funny the first time, less so after the tenth. The film’s grindhouse style trailers and fake film are also fairly amusing, but are pretty surface level, driving their jokes into the ground much like the rest of the film’s humor.
Zajur and Agudong have remarkably good chemistry, effortlessly selling the kind of teenaged puppy love that feels both enviable and also woefully short-sighted. Zajur, Northrup, and Cirillo all manage to portray that silly immature kind of teenage behavior without becoming annoying, even managing to keep a twinge of painful youthful reflection within that. Jeong is fine enough, playing the same kind of overly annoying loudmouthed character that helped launch his career, but with a handful of quieter moments of silliness. The rotating cast of cameos all do their part fine enough, popping up for brief moments that range from egregiously annoying 9I’m looking at you Ada Pally as “emo ticket taker”) to the genuinely inspired (Sam Richardson and Harley Quinn Smith are genuinely inspired in their brief appearances).
While his films have never looked beautiful, “The 4:30 Movie” does at least manage to look like a decently average indie production. Clearly shot digitally, the film makes great use of warm 1980s inspired lighting and locations, dousing everything in a slightly bloomy haze. A lot of locations fall into typical 80s stereotypes of front porches, movie theaters, kitchens, and more. It’s honestly slightly impressive that they all look so authentic on such a low budget. The theater looking impressive is less surprising given that it’s Smith’s own theater, Smodcastle Cinemas, in New Jersey.
There isn’t really much more going on underneath the surface of “The 4:30 Movie.” Smith has effectively made a hazy, warm dream of a film that recreates his childhood pastime of going to the movies with friends. It’s got plenty of hit or miss jokes but is loaded with charm and oddly sweet vibes. It's not his best, but it shows even more of his strengths with emotional material and serves as a nice reminder that Smith can indeed make a sweet one every once in a while. 3/5
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