Silent Bob

The lore is either you're a Kevin Smith fan or you ain't. I is.

I think he's probably the best go-to guy for dialogue who's actually in some inner circles in Hollywood. I would love to know all the films he's been a script doctor on.

His books and lectures are as entertaining as his movies - and I would suspect they would have a wider audience than his movies because he's so damn funny.

The first An Evening with Kevin Smith had me laughing longer and harder than most comedies do. Highlights are the time he was hired by Prince to do a music video and suggests to his purple diminutiveness that perhaps he should get some tennis shows if the high heels are killing his knees so much, and the first time he had sex with his now wife.

Smith makes no bones about being a rabid fanboy himself and it's - well, it's just cute when he gets all gushy. Frinstance, he has a cameo in the upcoming Die Hard 4.0, and on his blog he waxes all spazzed out with joy about the fact.

I just finished reading Silent Bob Speaks, which is a compilation of articles he's done for various web mags, and dug it too. I just love the way he evokes a moment. When he was still the new kid in town and he was holding auditions for one of his films, one of the big stars he's a big fan of praises his work, and Smith is "a tickled Japanese schoolgirl in that moment." That still makes me chuckle.

One of the more interesting themes of the book is the apologetics for Ben Affleck. Myself, I've always enjoyed the guy and thought all the Bennifer nonsense was just a shame. What an odd society we live in if you can be mocked and harshed on for merely being in a love with a girl. Imagine if the whole world laughed at you because of your relationship. Bizarre, to say the least.

What I didn't know about Affleck was that he's as intelligent as he is humble. Yes, for honest and true. There's a lot of supporting quotage in the book, so I'm convinced.

Here's one of my fave Affleck quotes on Smith's suggestion he be a studio head

I don't know if I'd want to throw my name in the hat for a studio head job, because as they exist now, unfortunately, studio heads have been pushed down the chain of command, due to these corporate hierarchies based on acquisitions. I don't know that I would like to have the responsibilities of having to report upward, of having to explain to a company that makes something else entirely, other than movies, why this is a good project or that's a good project. The film business has gotten so vertically integrated, and the process of trying to translate creative instincts into pie charts and projected earnings is something I don't think anybody has fun with. [...] The problem with this business is that there's a lot of pseudoscience to it, but the ugly truth is that, to paraphrase William Goldman, nobody knows anything.

BAM baby!

Maybe it's too late to recuse myself in this post, but I have to admit, too, that Daredevil is one of my favorite comic book superhero flicks because it was gritty and funny all at the same time, and I thought the angst that someone might have over being a superhero was portrayed better than I've seen thus far. I also love the fact that he's Catholic. Faith is almost never dealt with intelligently or with any subtlety any more, so I found that refreshing, too.

I also think Jersey Girl is one of Smith's best films. It got torpedoed over the whole Bennifer thing, methinks. Anyone who's a regular here, give it a shot if you haven't. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.