Now You Know (2002)

It's a little unsurprising why Jeff Anderson' (of Clerks- fame) directorial debut was released theatrically in 2002 but sat on the shelf for four years before receiving a DVD release until 2006. The same year this film was released on DVD, Clerks II, the sequel to the film that put both Anderson and director Kevin Smith on the map was released theatrically. As a writing and directorial debut, Anderson's film plays very similar instruments to that of a Smith film, with long takes involving extensive dialog between characters and random conversations concerning a wide array of topics taking place. To say it matches the quality of what it is inspired by is quite the stretch but to say it adequately works as an intriguing little comedy- drama is an efficient summation.The film concerns Jeremy (Jeremy Sisto), your typical everyman whose fiancée Kerri (Rashida Jones) has just called off the wedding for undisclosed reasons. Returning home to their homestate of New Jersey, Jeremy and Kerri spend sometime apart, with Jeremy hanging out with his slacker-buds Gil (Jeff Anderson) and Biscuit (Trevor Fehrman) while Kerri hopes to hear rational advice from her newly- expecting friend Marty (Heather Paige Kent). Gil and Biscuit only pretend to feel for Jeremy's circumstance before too long. They're ecstatic to have their old, untied buddy back who can come with them to pull off cheap "heists" on an poor, innocent neighbor. The two have made a hobby out of breaking and entering into an older man's home at night, rearranging his furniture, family photos, and tables so that, hopefully, he will invest in a home security system manufactured by Gil's good friend. The whole subplot is so asinine and completely out there that it surprisingly warrants quite a few laughs.The relationship Kerri and Marty share is a more dignified one, predicated off of trust and honor with a dash of silliness. However, the two find themselves in a wacky misunderstanding when Marty decides to take Kerri out to a lesbian bar to take her mind off Jeremy and the opposite sex, which only leads to confusion on Jeremy's behalf when he learns from a friend his ex-fiancée was seen at a lesbian bar with another woman.Anderson's slowburn technique of giving every scene a moderate amount of dialog is a writing-strategy I never tire of. We spend, on average, anywhere from 80 to 150 with movie characters and, as I've said before, some writers don't even have the interest to give the characters last names let alone personalities. Anderson cares in the regard that he infuses his characters with smartly-written dialog that works thanks to a lack of dependence on senseless ranch and more of a clear emphasis on how the three male friends interact with one another.Sisto, in particular, is your average leading man, often funny, believable enough to take seriously in his current life- predicament and common enough as an everyman character to relate to in a simplistic sense. Anderson and Fehrman often lend a hand in creating a more lax, much less uptight environment thanks to their natural acting talents of saying something completely ridiculous and finding ways without smiling while doing it. And with two equally strong female leads and a great cameo by Kevin Smith and his wife Jennifer Schwalbach- Smith there's little to complain in regards of the actors.I suppose the only thing I can really fault Now You Know for is how it drifts and occasionally meanders, sometimes too far past the line of not being funny or sometimes too far past the line of being redundant. With Anderson being a new writer/director and already seemingly pioneering himself after the soul who put him on the map, perhaps that's something to kind of expect. But let it be known that even when Now You Know hits dry patches, it still manages to be more entertaining than many other independent comedy films that either try too hard or are dead-on arrival.The final thing to note about with Now You Know is its absence of raunchy humor. A large element of many of these kinds of films is the raunch-factor and Anderson employs it conservatively, with great restraint allowing other filmmaking tactics such as writing and character- acting to surface. With Anderson's roots, this is an admirable feat that is one of the many defining reasons why Now You Know succeeds.Starring: Jeremy Sisto, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Rashida Jones, Heather Paige Kent, Kevin Smith, and Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith.

We've all been there. We've all been in the situation where either us or one of our friends has broken up with someone they've been with for a pretty significantly long time. "Now You Know", the writing and directing debut from Jeff Anderson, better known perhaps as Randal from the "Clerks" films, deals with a familiar situation but through characters and settings which we don't see much in Hollywood films. The movie is well-intentioned, it's aiming to capture the same sort of relaxed, conversational tone a Kevin Smith film has, with significantly fewer raunchy gags. The movie is a romantic comedy, but even though everything turns out fine for the characters, it's still not easy getting there, and the movie's not nearly as predictable as most rom-coms, so it's pretty enjoyable overall.The reason "Now You Know" failed to end up being a movie I can wholeheartedly recommend is that it's not really significantly funnier or significantly more enjoyable than spending a day with a friend after a situation like the one depicted in this film occurs. In fact, it's almost exactly like that. Kevin Smith can write movies where the dialogue reminds you almost word-for-word of conversations you have had, particularly if you've worked the sort of jobs his characters have done, and have similar interests, but what I realize now is that Smith's movies consist entirely of the best sort of real-life conversations. You would have to have had an insanely good day to have it reflect the events of a Kevin Smith movie. With "Now You Know", Jeff Anderson follows a fairly similar formula to Smith's work, which is why I'm mentioning Smith as much as I am. The problem with this movie is that while it has some of those wonderful conversations, it also has a lot of the sort of conversations you wouldn't bother remembering. As a slice of real life, it absolutely works, but there needs to be something else there, and I guess I was never invested in any characters here outside of Jeremy, our lead male character.Another issue I had with the film was the depiction of women. I wouldn't say the movie was misogynist at all, but it plays like something a man who hasn't been around women much thinks they act in private. While the male conversations and those between females and males ring true, the dialogue between the lead two female characters feels stilted and expository.Still, the movie is ultimately enjoyable perhaps because it captures the experience the characters are going through so genuinely. Also, Jeff Anderson appears to have a natural talent when it comes to directing, as his small-scale, low-budget first film looks as good as most bigger-budget romantic comedies. Credit to the DP too I suppose. The movie doesn't look great, but considering its budget it's not bad. There's some naff acting as well, I suppose, but the cast are ultimately believable and anyone who has any interest at all in Jeff Anderson should probably see this movie. I don't think it's a great debut, but it's promising enough and I'd find myself looking forward to anything he does in the future. 6/10

We all know and love Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) from the Clerks movies. I saw this movie a couple of years ago at Vulgarthon, which is basically a Kevin Smith film festival. In fact, I can see myself in the crowd during the Q&A on this DVD which is pretty neat! :-) I will be honest and say that I did not have high hopes for this movie. I did not expect it to be bad, but I was certainly pleasantly surprised at how good it was and as one person stated during the Q&A, I now think of Jeff Anderson as Jeff Anderson, not as Randal. He has definitely come into his own and should be recognized for having talents all his own and beyond his quick-talking role in Kevin Smith's movies.Now You Know is about a couple who are engaged and on the eve of their wedding the bride-to-be (Rashida Jones) calls off the wedding with (seemingly) no explanation, leaving the groom (Jeremy Sisto) confused and at a loss as to what he should do next.One of the high points of the film is definitely the casting. For the most part the cast is impeccable and the acting is great. Jeremy Sisto is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors consistently surprising me in the unique and independent films he chooses to be in. His performance here is no exception, he is excellent as the sweet and baffled Jeremy. One hilarious fun fact is that according to Jeff Anderson his first choice for the role of Jeremy was Joey Lawrence! He said that Lawrence auditioned and was absolutely perfect but he couldn't bring himself to cast him simply because "come on, it's Joey Lawrence." Anyhow, Sisto fills the part just fine, although it would have been interesting to see Lawrence in the part as well.I was happy to see Jones in the role of Kerri--the only other thing I have seen her in is one episode of the much beloved show Freaks and Geeks. She does just fine as the dissatisfied and confused Kerri.In supporting roles we have Anderson as Gil, one of Jeremy's old friends, who does great as always. We also have a wonderful performance by Heather Paige Kent whom I used to watch in an underrated and short-lived TV show called That's Life. She turns in a remarkable performance here as the supportive friend of Kerri with a big problem of her own. I hope to see her in more movies in the future. In my opinion the only weak point in the casting is Trevor Fehrman as Bisquit, Jeremy and Gil's buddy. His performance is forgettable, poor and he brings almost none of himself to the part. Most of his rants are pretty typical of rants in almost every Kevin Smith movie and it's pretty obvious that these are some of the same, his inflection is even the same as so many other secondary characters in Clerks and it was actually a little distracting and it's also part of the reason I gave the movie six stars instead of seven or eight.Another reason for the six-star rating is due to the fact that the movie suffers from a little predictability (not too bad though) and some dialogue in certain scenes that is too run-of-the-mill or typical. I also feel that certain parts of the movie are a bit too reminiscent of Clerks, which is not entirely a bad thing but it would have been nice to see Anderson break away from that and come up with something completely separate from his work with Smith.All in all Anderson really put himself out there and we can see a lot of his personal story in Now You Know. This is a great first-time effort and I think we will see something even better with his next film Marry Me To Death. He stated that he wanted to make a movie that appealed to both men and women and this movie has crude humor and a somewhat Bachelor Party-esquire feel to it and also has a softer side with some romantic elements which will appeal to the ladies (not me so much because romance in movies makes me sick, haha). Anyway, he most certainly accomplishes this goal with Now You Know. I recommend checking this flick out, it is well worth the time.

You'd have to live in a Jersey suburb to like this, and even then you may feel embarrassed. I'm glad I didn't have to pay to view it, but who's going to pay me for the time I lost watching this?Although it's written by another Clerks character, it's nothing like it. There's a moral forced onto the story and the gross-out scenes are forced. The whole thing feels forced. Reminds me of something a California slacker just out of AA and a script writing course would put together after watching some TV show with about Jersey.