Snootchie Bootchies! Kevin Smith Movies Ranked

Kevin Smith burst onto the cinematic scene in 1994 when his debut film, Clerks, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. With his first five films, Smith created the View Askewniverse, a series of films that take place within the same reality and are connected by two drug dealers named Jay and Silent Bob and Smith’s home state of New Jersey. While he returned to his View Askewniverse a few other times throughout his career, Smith has also dabbled in other genres, including a buddy cop film and a few horror films. Although his films never achieved blockbuster success at the box office, Smith saw relatively good returns on his films, especially his earlier ones, by working with low budgets and maintaining an independent spirit.

Kevin Smith is a true auteur of cinema, not because of how he makes his films but because of his world-building and writing. Like Quentin Tarantino and Richard Linklater, two contemporaries of Smith, Smith’s characters, dialogue, and world-building are wholly unique and cannot be replicated. His dialogue is razor sharp and can be dirty and expletive-heavy, but also warm and sweet. His films feature non-stop pop culture references and even feature some pop culture icons, like Stan Lee. Many of his movies feature a love story at the center of the film and look at the dynamics between two friends through a unique lens, which is interesting to think about since the characters in Smith’s films are usually stoners, slackers, or unpleasant in some capacity.

When visiting the films of Kevin Smith, I was surprised by how hard it was to rank all fifteen of his films. He has five or so films that are comedy masterpieces, a couple of duds, and the rest that range from great to interesting, even with their faults. He’s had his fair share of hits, faults, controversies, and even a death scare in 2018 when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack. But with every movie, you see the vision of Smith and recognize that he makes films the way he wants to make them, and you have to respect the man for that. Here is my Kevin Smith movie ranking.

15. Cop Out (2010)

Cop Out is the only film in Smith’s filmography that he did not write. The film was written by Robb and Mark Cullen, and Smith took the gig because he said the film reminded him of if Dante and Randal from Clerks were cops. It’s a shame that the film isn’t nearly as good as that idea sounds.

Cop Out is a generic cop film starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as buddy cops trying to find a rare baseball card that has been stolen. Willis, who notably did not get along with Smith on set, sleepwalks through his performance and performs like he is getting his lines read to him through an earpiece. Morgan does his best to make up for Willis’s lack of charisma, but that forces him to go too big. Cop Out is a lifeless, boring, unfunny slog.

14. Yoga Hosers (2016)

Yoga Hosers is Kevin Smith at his most Kevin Smith. Released during a tumultuous run of films that saw poor box office, mixed critical reviews, and controversies on and off the set, Smith’s second entry in his True North Trilogy, following Tusk (we’re still waiting for the trilogy’s third entry, Moose Jaws), is a cinematic middle finger. A film that attacks critics, pokes fun of Gen Z, and features Nazi sausages as henchmen.

Does it all work? Absolutely not. But Yoga Hosers is a delirious and kind of fun horror comedy about two convenience store teenagers (Harley Quinn Smith and Lily Rose Depp) who love their phones and yoga and get caught up in a world-threating plan by a cryogenically frozen Nazi (Ralph Garman). It’s an utterly insane and messy movie that is best viewed while not sober.

13. Red State (2011)

Red State was Smith’s first venture away from comedy. It’s a mean little horror film about three high school boys who get kidnapped by religious activists, which ultimately leads to a shootout with the F.B.I. While the film features a showcase performance by Michael Parks as the leader of the religious activists and a wicked shootout, the film ultimately feels pointless, with nothing to say.

Red State failed to spark any fire when it was released, bringing in just $1.8 million at the box office. The film might best be remembered for the controversies surrounding it. From the protests of the film, to the protests of the protests of the film (led by Smith, of course), to its premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where Smith said he would do a live auction for studios to bid on the film following the premiere only for him to pull the rug from under everyone in the room and win the bid himself for $20 and self-release the film. Smith did this due to his anger and annoyance with how studios market films, and hoping to relaunch truly independent cinema. Not sure if Smith’s relaunch was all that successful, but it certainly made for one of the most memorable moments in Sundance history.

12. The 4:30 Movie (2024)

The 4:30 Movie showcases Smith’s love for movies and going to the movie theater. The film follows Brian (Austin Zajur) and his friends as they embark on a day of movie-hopping at the local cinema as Brian tries to make the next move on his crush, Melody (Siena Agudong), while trying to dodge the theater’s egomaniacal manager (Ken Jeong).

The 4:30 Movie is a charming little film that came and went when it hit theaters in the fall of 2024. While Smith does sprinkle in a few too many sex jokes and some of the movie references are a little too on-the-nose, the chemistry between the boys is perfect, and the romance at the film’s core is compelling enough to keep you engaged even when the plot gets a little messy and cliché.

11. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was the first film Smith made following a heart attack that nearly took his life in 2018. Smith noted that as he was lying in his hospital bed following the attack, he kept thinking about how he regretted not making a sequel to his 2001 film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. When he recovered, he made it a point to get the sequel made.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot felt like a Smith swan song while watching it in 2019, but now can be looked at as Smith turning over a new leaf in his career. The film is equal parts Kevin Smith highlight reel and a film about life and maturing. There are a lot of recognizable faces, like Matt Damon and Joey Lauren Adams, characters like Brodie (Jason Lee) and Holden McNiel (Ben Affleck), and plot callbacks that anyone who is a fan of Smith’s film will immediately recognize. But the film ultimately looks at growing up and parenting, as Jay (Jason Mewes) discovers he has a child with Justice (Shannon Elizabeth) and now must drop his stoner shenanigans and become a father and realize what is important in life. You can feel Smith tackling his regrets about life and parenting, making Jay and Silent Bob Reboot a surprisingly sentimental entry in Smith’s filmography.

10. Jersey Girl (2004)

Following five films rooted in the View Askewniverse that featured stoners, sex jokes, and two New Jersey drug dealers as the through line of each film, Smith took a hard left turn and made an endearing dramedy about parenting. Jersey Girl follows Ollie (Ben Affleck), a successful music publicist whose life is flipped upside down when his wife (Jennifer Lopez) dies giving birth to their daughter. The film follows Ollie as he moves back from New York City to rural New Jersey to live with his father (George Carlin) and learns how to be a father.

Jersey Girl got lambasted by critics upon its release, and Smith has even called Jersey Girl “the redheaded stepchild of all his films,” and I do not see why. Jersey Girl is a lovely film that shows a different side to Smith. He stepped away from stoners and slackers and made a movie about the struggles of balancing a career with being a good parent and the village that helps raise a child. Affleck gives a strong performance, and George Carlin gives one of the best performances ever in a Kevin Smith film as Ollie’s father. Jersey Girl isn’t a perfect film, but it deserves a reexamination as a turning point in Kevin Smith’s career into more serious work.

9. Clerks III (2022)

While Jay and Silent Bob Reboot saw Smith confronting himself as a parent and his career, Clerks III saw Smith tackle death and mortality. Clerks III sees the return of Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) as they try to create a film about their lives at the Quickstop following Randal having a heart attack and realizing he needs to stop wasting his life.

Clerks III is Smith’s most emotional and meta film. It’s a movie that is as sad as it is funny, as Dante and Randal are up to their old shenanigans while struggling with elements of death, as Randal struggles with his mortality following the heart attack and Dante struggles to move on following the death of his wife and unborn daughter. Smith was still tackling thoughts and ideas he had while lying in the hospital bed following a heart attack in 2018, and he merged that event with his creation of the first Clerks, his debut film, and the film that got him into the film world. The result is a surprisingly deep and heartfelt look inside the mind of a director having faced death.

8. Mallrats (1995)

Smith’s second feature film solidified him as one of the leaders of 90s slacker cinema. Mallrats finds two friends, Brodie (Jason Lee) and T.S. Quint (Jeremy London), who have just been dumped by their girlfriends and go to the local mall to bask in a day of commerce while conjuring up plans to win their exes back.

Mallrats doesn’t have much of a plot and is another film set mostly in one location. Where Clerks was hijinks in a convenience store, Smith took things to a bigger level by setting Mallrats in a huge shopping mall. Some of the hijinks include evading the manager of a fashion store (Ben Affleck, in his first collaboration with Smith), trying to sabotage a game show taking place in the mall, and a Stan Lee meet-and-greet. Mallrats is hilarious, loaded with pop culture, and a showcase for Jason Lee, who only had one other movie credit on his resume before this.

7. Tusk (2014)

Kevin Smith has made some strange movies in his career and introduced us to even stranger characters. But Tusk, his 2014 body horror film from A24, might be the strangest movie in his filmography.

Inspired by a story from Smith’s SModcast podcast, Tusk, the first entry in Smith’s True North Trilogy, follows an arrogant podcaster (Justin Long) who travels to Canada for an interview, and in the process meets an eccentric retired sailor (Michael Parks) with dark plans related to his obsession with a walrus named Mr. Tusk. Tusk is more of a Kevin Smith horror movie than Red State. It’s dark, twisted, wildly insane, and incredibly funny. Long is excellent as our scummy podcaster, and Michael Parks once again makes the best of a meaty role as the deranged scientist.

Though it bombed at the box office and was critically panned, Tusk felt like a return to form for Smith following Cop Out and Red State, and is the most messed-up film about an artist trying to create his masterpiece I’ve ever seen.

6. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

Zack and Miri Make a Porno felt like the mending of two comedic universes in bringing actors from the hot-at-the-time Judd Apatow cinematic universe into Kevin Smith’s world. Seeing Apatow regulars like Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, and Craig Robinson share the screen with Smith regulars Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson and recite Smith’s snappy dialog in a film about two broke roommates (Rogen and Banks) who try and make a homemade porno movie for money is comedy gold, with Rogen and Banks giving two of the best performances of their careers. Beyond how graphic and dirty the film is, Zach and Miri Make a Porno is a movie filled with the spirit of independent filmmaking and is ultimately a love story.

It’s a shame that the Weinstein Corporation, which distributed the film, had no idea how to market it. Due to the film’s plot and the number of graphic sex scenes, the Weinstein Corporation didn’t put as much effort into the film’s advertising and forced the posters and trailers to be very tame and focus on the love story rather than a comedy about non-pornstars making a porno. The result was a lackluster box office performance and one that gutted Smith as a creator.

5. Clerks II (2006)

Following the poor performance by Jersey Girl, Smith returned to his View Askew roots with Clerks II, a sequel to his 1994 debut about two guys working at a convenience store.

Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are now older and still working at the Quick Stop convenience store, until they go to work one day and see the place has burned down after Randal left the coffee pot on overnight. They then get a job working at Mooby’s, a local fast-food restaurant, and the film picks up on Dante’s last day after working there for a year, as he will be moving to Florida with his fiancée.

Just like the first Clerks film, Clerks II is filled with pop culture references, inappropriate and coarse language that would get any business shut down immediately, and a lot of hijinks, like an unexpected pregnancy and a donkey show. And just like the first film, Clerks II looks at the complexities of friendship and how much we do or do not grow as we get older. It was a refreshing return to form for Smith and a film I could argue as the funniest in his filmography.

4. Dogma (1999)

Smith’s fourth feature film remains his most ambitious and most epic. Dogma, a searing exploration of Christianity and Catholicism, finds an abortion clinic worker (a perfect Linda Fiorentino) who is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) trying to exploit a loophole and reenter Heaven. Smith ditched the convenient stores, malls, and bars of New Jersey and crafted a road movie featuring angels, demons, God, poop monsters, and, of course, Jay and Silent Bob.

Smith brought out the big guns for Dogma, assembling the best cast he’s ever had. Fiorentino, Affleck, and Damon star alongside Smith regulars like Jason Lee and Jason Mewes and Hollywood heavyweights such as Chris Rock, Selma Hayek, and a masterful Alan Rickman. Smith’s layered screenplay is his most complex as he tackles tough questions and themes about redemption, forgiveness, faith versus religion, and religious dogmatism. While comedic and irreverent, Dogma is a sincere reflection on spirituality and religion in a modern world that holds up even better over 25 years later.

3. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

After years of being side characters and showing up to give the main characters words of sage-like wisdom or beat up the Easter Bunny, Jay and Silent Bob got their own movie with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The New Jersey drug dealers, played by Jason Mewes and Smith, find themselves on a cross-country journey to Hollywood to stop a Blunt Man and Chronic movie (two characters based on them) from being made. Their journey takes them to encounters with nuns, jewel thieves, the Mystery Machine, and a monkey.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is one of the funniest road trip movies ever made. Mewes shines as Jay, using the opportunity given to him to highlight his great comedic timing and show a growth in Jay from horny and crass to kind-hearted and, well, still crass. The film also pokes fun at the sequel-obsessed and IP-driven nature of Hollywood, something Smith saw coming years before Hollywood became overrun with those kinds of films.

Loaded with cameos from past Smith collaborators like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, and Jason Lee, and Hollywood legends like Wes Craven and Gus Van Sant, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a joke-a-minute comedy that is loaded with endless quotes I say to this day.

2. Chasing Amy (1997)

Following Clerks and Mallrats, two films that belong in the Slacker Cinema Hall of Fame, Smith’s third film put him into a new class of filmmakers. Chasing Amy follows two comic book writers, Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee), who are promoting their latest comic book when they meet Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian whom Holden starts to fall for.

Chasing Amy marked a new step in Smith’s maturation. Inspired by his brother being gay and his producing partner Scott Mosier having a crush on lesbian filmmaker Guinevere Turner (screenwriter of American Psycho), Smith, with notes from Turner, wrote a movie about a guy diving into a world he had never been in before and about the hardships of unrequited love. Smith’s script for Chasing Amy is one of his finest, an equally dramatic and funny romantic comedy filled with his patented sharp and witty dialogue. Chasing Amy also features three spectacular performances from Affleck, Lee, and Adams, with Adams giving, for my money, the best performance in a Kevin Smith movie.

1. Clerks (1994)

Clerks is not only Smith’s best film, but one of the most important films of the ’90s. Shot at a convenience store where Smith worked (he was only allowed to shoot while the store was closed from 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.) on a micro-budget of $27,000 and starring friends and acquaintances of Smith, Clerks is a day-in-the-life movie about a disgruntled convenient store clerk named Dante (Brian O’Halloran) who comes in on his day off and has an eventful day at the store with his friend Randal (Brian Anderson), who works at the video store next door. Their day includes a street hockey game, a man obsessed with eggs, a wake, and countless cigarettes.

Some directors don’t truly establish their voice and filmmaking style until a few movies into their career. That isn’t the case with Smith. With Clerks, Smith established his unique brand of storytelling and dialogue. The cadence of how the characters talk is wholly unique, like a twisted love child of a Howard Hawks screwball comedy and Quentin Tarantino. It’s quick and witty and covers topics about the contract workers who died while working on the Death Star to the sexual partners of a girlfriend, all of which is talked about out loud and in front of customers. We’ve never met characters like the pop-culture-obsessed Randal or the charismatic drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob, yet countless movies following Clerks have tried to replicate them. It all seems fantastical that these characters and conversations take place, yet it fits perfectly in Smith’s vision of this New Jersey convenience store. And, as we see in a lot of Smith’s films, Clerks is a love story at its core and looks at the dynamic between two friends and their opposing views on life.

Though it played at the 1993 Independent Feature Film Market to almost empty theaters, Clerks was discovered and saved by producer Bob Hawk, who ushered the film to the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it became the smash hit of the festival. Clerks went on to make $1.3 million at the box office despite never playing in more than 100 theaters thanks to strong reviews, great word of mouth, and a cult following. Clerks is a miracle of a film that defines the independent spirit and is the best film of Kevin Smith’s career.