‘The 4:30 Movie’ review: Kevin Smith delivers his best film in years by writing about teenagers instead of grown men who act like them

Thirty years ago, Kevin Smith burst into the world of independent filmmaking in a blaze of glorious serendipity that nobody could replicate if they tried. Self-financed for less than $30,000 and shot entirely in the convenience store where he worked, the original “Clerks” was an electrifying mix of slacker wit and utter absurdism at a time when putting pop culture-obsessed male mediocrity on the big screen felt like a genuinely novel concept. Even after double digit viewings, the film still feels like a pitch-perfect punk rock farce that can make even the most discerning cinephile laugh out loud more than it has any right to.

None of Smith’s subsequent work caught that kind of lightning in a bottle, but quite a few of his early films were close enough to the original high to be watchable. “Mallrats” is a passable ’90s comedy, “Chasing Amy” is a clever character study anchored by a great Ben Affleck performance, and “Clerks 2” was a solid sequel. But for much of the 21st century, the pickings have been slim for Kevin Smith fans hoping for a renaissance. His body horror experiment “Tusk” was a great midnight movie, but it spawned the truly abysmal Nazi-sausage-centric spin-off “Yoga Hosers.” And while “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” was tolerable as fan service, “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” was unwatchable drivel. Even the long-awaited “Clerks 3” amounted to little more than a trip down memory lane.

All of which is to say that nobody would blame you for tuning out Smith’s directorial output years ago. His brand as a cultural figure remains strong thanks to an empire of podcasts and comic books that left him perfectly positioned to ride the wave of 21st century geek culture, but his movies have increasingly felt like self-contained efforts that existed only for his diehard fans.

“The 4:30 Movie” could have easily been more of the same. It was filmed almost entirely at SModcastle Cinema, Smith’s childhood movie theater that he purchased and re-branded in 2022 — and the lack of external constraints could have permitted him to run wild with his worst impulses. But Smith has always done his best work when he’s forced to come up with an idea based purely on having access to a cool location, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that his coming-of-age comedy is easily his best work since “Tusk” — and possibly even since “Clerks 2.”