Kevin Smith reveals his 5 favourite films and what he learned from his dog Shecky’s death

For years, if you asked Kevin Smith to name his five favourite films, the Clerks writer-director had a pat answer.

“In the beginning of my career, the five that I was always citing were Jaws, JFK, Do the Right Thing, A Man For All Seasons and The Last Temptation of Christ,” the filmmaker says in a video call from his apartment above his Smodcastle Cinema in New Jersey.

But tastes change, and on an early morning video call ahead of his Schlocky Night in Canada appearance at the Sanderson Centre in Brantford, Ont., Friday, June 2, Smith says he’s no longer wedded to that list.

“We just screened Jaws here on Friday night and that still holds up,” Smith, 52, says. “But I haven’t watched JFK in about 10 years. A Man For All Seasons and Do the Right Thing I haven’t seen in three or four years. It’s also been a while since I’ve seen Last Temptation of Christ.”

He’s been talking about movies — his own and other people’s — his whole life. So Smith’s top five needs a refresh. If his early favourites were dedicated to cinephiles, the new films he can’t live without tap into more populist sentiments.

“In recent years, I have watched Avengers: Endgame an awful lot,” Smith chuckles. “I know it’s predicated on like 20 flicks that came before it, but the Russo brothers did a phenomenal job. I also love the first Iron Man. Jon Favreau made a modern-day Star Wars.”

James Foley’s star-studded adaptation of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross has also become a more recent fave.

“I like to put that on and go to sleep to it,” Smith says. “It’s like a blanket to me hearing all those voices and all those wonderful actors and all that wonderful dialogue.”

An “odd one,” Smith has returned to frequently in recent years is the 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley.

“That Anthony Minghella movie with Matt (Damon) and Gwyneth (Paltrow) is a movie I f— with regularly. It became a favourite of my wife and I’s early on, and became the flick that we put on like as a default.”

Smith pauses as he considers his fifth and final spot.

“It’s gonna seem gross,” he says, smiling, “but it’s one of my movies. I watch Jay and Silent Bob Reboot so often.”

“Maybe it’s because I have it downloaded on my phone, and I watch it a lot, but I absolutely love that movie,” Smith says.

The 2020 sequel also serves as a reminder of life just before the pandemic took over and shut movie theatres — and Smith’s busy touring schedule — down for the better part of a year.

“It was the last thing I was doing. We were on tour and we finished the Jay and Silent Bob Roadshow Tour on Feb. 26, 2020. We went back to Los Angeles and by early March, the government was like go into your house and never come out. It reminds me of normalcy before everything collapsed.”

As soon as restrictions eased, Smith returned to the road, but in his nightly interactions with fans he noticed a shift.

“Something really weird happened to this world. And then we just very quickly went back to work as if nothing happened,” he says.

Earlier this year, Smith, still struggling from the aftermath of the pandemic, thought he was losing his mind and checked himself into Arizona’s Sierra Tucson.

“It was scary,” he says. “But it always helps for me to be frank and candid.”

His struggles will inform his upcoming live shows, he says.

“I don’t know how to process life any other way than by talking about it,” Smith says. “Talking about it is always healthier than keeping it inside.”

Before he turns his attention to his next feature, which he says is a coming-of-age tale set inside a movie theatre, Smith has been revisiting some of his older films. Last year, he released Clerks III, the final instalment to the trilogy that launched his career in 1994. Smith also has a sequel to Mallrats written — aptly titled Twilight of the Mallrats — and a follow-up to his 2014 horror, Tusk.

The night before he spoke to Postmedia, Smith screened an extended version of his maligned 2004 dramedy, Jersey Girl, which starred Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

“We had to follow Gigli,” he says, referencing Affleck and Lopez’s 2003 misfire. “That film made $6 million and ours did $25 million. So as a better movie, we actually did better.”

Next year marks the 20th anniversary. “Maybe it’ll get a proper release,” he says wistfully.

When we last spoke, Smith, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 2018, said that he had reached a stage of perfect contentment.

“There was a moment where it was all going to end and my last movie would have been Yoga Hosers. Thank God I lived long enough to make Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Clerks III. If I go out on Clerks III, no problem. I’m walking into traffic without looking in either direction because, if my life ends tomorrow, it would be kind of perfect.”

After nearly dying — and the recent death of his Instagram-famous dog Shecky in April — Smith has a new found appreciation for life as he moves into his next stage.

“She gave me a very important lesson right before she left this best of all possible worlds, which is, no day as promised,” Smith says, noting that this was a “bummer way” to end the interview. “You know, it’s something important to always remember. You can’t take people or pets for granted and think they’ll always be there. They won’t, and she went like that.”

Pausing, he breaks into a little smile. “They call it the present, because everyday is a gift.”

Kevin Smith performs at the Sanderson Centre in Brantford, Ont., Friday June 2. He’ll also be appearing at in CaptCan Comics the same day.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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