Since his first Clerks film, Kevin Smith has been building his own cinematic universe of films called the View Askewniverse. For over 25 years, Smith’s signature brand of meta and crude humor has reigned supreme in his outrageous universe of colorful characters. The View Askewniverse is still going strong to this day, with Kevin Smith’s Clerks III arriving in 2022.
Beginning in 1994 with Clerks, the View Askewniverse has featured a variety of different characters, from Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith’s iconic duo Jay and Silent Bob to Jeff Anderson’s Randal Graves. Smith has continually worked with many of the same cast members over the years, with some actors even playing multiple roles throughout the films, such as Ben Affleck, who’s played several roles in the View Askewniverse. Smith’s ambitious cinematic universe is one that has grown in many different ways over the decades, both expanding on its characters in themes and becoming more self-referential in nature, with Smith making fun of both himself and his previous films in the process.
Each View Askewniverse film offers something unique to the table, whether it be in the way of genre-blending or developing certain characters further. Smith’s universe shows both his growth as a filmmaker and as a person, with each film marking a different part of Smith’s long directorial career and his life. Here’s a ranked list of every View Askewniverse film, from worst to best.
8. Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! (2013)
Being the only film in Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse to not be directed by Smith himself, Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! is an oddity in Smith’s cinematic universe. It’s the first and only film in the View Askewniverse to be animated, and it acts as Jay and Silent Bob’s second solo outing, with the story following the duo as they win the lottery jackpot and use their prize to become superheroes. The usual Kevin Smith humor is present, with plenty of cameos and returning characters in the mix to make for some fun moments. However, without Smith in the directors’ chair, there’s a certain magic missing from the animated flick that’s otherwise present in the rest of the View Askewniverse.
7. Mallrats (1995)
Smith’s second film in the View Askewniverse after the first movie in the Clerks series, Mallrats is a fun ride. Marking Jason Lee and Ben Affleck’s first appearances in the franchise, the film follows two best friends who are dumped by their girlfriends and seek refuge in their local mall, partaking in the usual antics one would expect in a Kevin Smith film. The comedy doesn’t always hit, and Smith’s direction isn’t as strong this time around, but his script is strong enough to pull the film through, and the actors all have a lot of charisma. Smith creates some fun characters here, with Jason Lee’s Brodie shining as a standout amongst the entirety of the View Askewniverse. It’s obvious in many ways that this is one of Smith’s earliest films, but it’s still an enjoyable watch overall.
6. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
With Jay and Silent Bob’s first solo outing, Kevin Smith lays the groundwork for what the View Askewniverse would evolve into overtime, particularly with the more meta aspects of the series. Here is where the cameos and meta-humor really take off, with a story about Jay and Silent Bob taking a trip to Hollywood to stop a Bluntman and Chronic film adaptation from being made. The film takes a lot of hilarious digs at the filmmaking industry and gives its titular duo more to do than they had previously been given, as Mewes and Smith prove they can carry a feature film on their own quite well. Smith’s brand of meta-humor hadn’t quite been refined at this point in the series, but Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was a strong step in the right direction.
5. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
Kevin Smith’s latest Jay and Silent Bob reboot film in the View Askewniverse is considered by many as his best. While having a notably smaller budget than Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the titular duo’s latest adventure is both their most humorous and heartwarming. The plot is nearly identical to that of Jay and Silent Bob’s previous outing, with the two accidentally signing away their names and rights to the Bluntman and Chronic characters, and having to make another trip to Hollywood to stop the latest film from being made. Along the way, Jay learns the news that he has a daughter, played by Kevin Smith’s real-life daughter Harley Quinn Smith. Kevin Smith’s film features a slew of cameos from big and small celebrities, each topping the last, while never undercutting the jokes at hand. Mewes gives his best performance in the series as Jay, offering a side of the character that hadn’t been shown up to this point. The film shows a lot of maturity from Smith with both its story and commentary on Hollywood’s reboot and sequel craze, and it stands out as the best of the Jay and Silent Bob films to date.
4. Clerks II (2006)
The sequel to the film that started it all, Clerks II isn’t quite as fresh or sharply written as its predecessor, but it still makes for a hilarious romp with the return of series favorites Dante and Randal and offers up plenty of hilarious banter and shenanigans for its quirky characters to get themselves into. Smith’s signature brand of humor is left intact, with plenty of cameos from View Askewniverse alumni and outrageous gross-out moments flooding the scene in a sequel that maintains the original’s wit while building upon its characters. Clerks II is the rare sequel that, while it doesn’t live up to its predecessor, still stands on its own as a strong film and a solid continuation from the original 1994 film.
3. Chasing Amy (1997)
Leaning more into rom-com territory than Smith’s other films, Chasing Amy is perhaps the most dramatic film in the View Askewniverse, at least by Kevin Smith’s standards. Smith’s brand of humor is still present, but it’s dialed back significantly compared to other films in the series. Long before playing Batman, Ben Affleck portrayed Holden McNeil, a comic book artist who falls for a woman named Amy (Joey Lauren Adams), who turns out to be a lesbian. Not all aspects of Chasing Amy hold up to today’s standards, but this is still an incredibly charming film led by Ben Affleck in one of his best and most underrated performances. The more serious nature of the mature lends to a more mature and thoughtful story that is very grounded, and it’s one of Kevin Smith’s best films to date, let alone one of the best of the View Askewniverse.
2. Dogma (1999)
Just coming off of Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon joins his co-star Ben Affleck in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, where the two play Loki and Bartleby, two renegade angels trying to find their way back into Heaven, while negating the existence of humanity in the process. Perhaps the most offbeat and outrageous film in the View Askewniverse, Dogma is a wild ride that is both a hilarious and thought-provoking critique of religion that has a lot more to it than may meet the eye. This is Kevin Smith at both his most creative and philosophical, with a surprisingly smart script carrying the film. It’s frankly a film that shouldn’t work, but the mix of Smith’s brand of humor and his careful examination of religion makes for one of his funniest and overall best films to date.
1. Clerks (1994)
The film that started it all, Kevin Smith’s first Clerks film is his best film to date, as well as the best of the View Askewniverse. Featuring arguably one of the tightest comedy scripts of all time, Clerks tackles workplace monotony in a way that anyone can relate to, with Brian O’Halloran’s Dante Hicks serving as the film’s main punching bag. Dante is a convenience store employee who is forced to come to work on his day off, giving an inside look at the day in the life of an average convenience store employee. It’s such a simple premise, but Kevin Smith’s incredible dialogue and the strong performances from the entire cast make this one of the most authentic, genuine comedies ever made. Every conversation is equally engaging and hilarious, and the low-stakes attitude of the film mixed with the black-and-white cinematography makes it a timeless slice of life flick, and one that even Kevin Smith himself has not been able to replicate.
