Clerks

Clerks. 1994 Miramax Films & View Askew Productions.
Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonhauer, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier
Director: Kevin Smith
Buy Clerks at Amazon. Also available: the 10th Anniversary Collection.

Dante Hicks (O'Halloran) is called into work at the Quick Shop, a New Jersey convenience store, on his day off. He's asked by his boss to cover the morning shift, and is supposed to only work until twelve, giving him two hours to get to his hockey game. Everything imaginable goes wrong for Dante, prompting him to exclaim "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" on several different occasions.

Randal Graves (Anderson) works in the adjacent video store, although he spends most of the day in the Quick Shop talking with Dante about a plethora of topics. When he's actually working, he's doing his best to drive away the customers who walk in.

Outside, the legendary Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes & Smith) hang out outside all day, selling dope, and Jay spends most of the day showing off to anyone who will listen. He and Bob invite Dante to a party towards the end of the movie, but Dante turns that offer down.

During Dante's marathon shift, he convinces his buddies to play hockey on the roof of the store, an idea that goes bad after 12 minutes. He and Randal also close down to attend the wake for an ex-girlfriend, which goes very badly, although we don't see exactly what happened. Veronica (Ghigliotti), Dante's current girl, stops in before class to motivate him into quitting a dead end job and go back to school, which he can't bring himself to do. After she leaves, he starts wondering about an unfaithful ex named Caitlin (Spoonhauer), and by coincidence, she comes in. After chatting, Dante decides to take her out. While he slips home to change, Caitlin has sex with a dead man (who snuck a pornographic magazine in there and died of a heart attack) who she mistakenly believed to be Dante. This horrifies Caitlin, and she's taken away in an ambulance along with the corpse.

Highly, highly recommended.