Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Monmouth County writer and director Kevin Smith turned his place of work into a makeshift film set, bringing together a cast and crew of trusted confidants to create a semi-autobiographical independent sensation.
That’s the story of Clerks, Smith’s 1994 debut film, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—and it’s also the case for Smith’s 16th and latest feature, The 4:30 Movie, set for a theatrical release on September 13 via Saban Films.
“I’ve got a type, as they say,” says Smith, 54.
Clerks was a vision of ’90s snark and ennui, a day-in-the-life saga of convenience- and video-store employees that was famously filmed where Smith worked at the time, the Quick Stop in the Leonardo section of Middletown. The 4:30 Movie, on the other hand, is a summer-of-’86-set comedy about a group of teens hanging out at their local movie theater.
Smith shot his new film at Smodcastle Cinemas, the five-screen Atlantic Highlands movie house he has co-owned since 2022. It’s the theater Smith frequented—and loved—as a kid.
Smith sat down for a conversation with New Jersey Monthly on the afternoon The 4:30 Movie had its first prerelease screening, held for a handful of superfans at Smodcastle, where his love of film was cultivated in his youth. After the screening, one fan in the lobby could be heard remarking, “This is a new Kevin Smith, and I like what I saw.”
“I know the movie feels good, man,” says the Red Bank-born, Highlands-raised Smith. “It just makes people feel warm inside. If you grew up in the ’80s, it’s really going to hit you someplace, but it just has all the lack of and overwhelming urgency of being a 16-year-old kid.”
Smith directed The 4:30 Movie following his stay in an Arizona treatment center after a mental health episode. “It was the only movie I could make at that time,” he says. Photo: Courtesy of Ralph Bavaro
It’s a film Smith describes in adjectives the general public doesn’t normally associate with the off-color work of the man behind Dogma, the Clerks trilogy and Tusk.
“It is a very nostalgic, sentimental trifle, but they’re all trifles, really, at the end of the day,” Smith says. “But there’s something really sweet about it, there’s something really warm and wonderful about it. And it was the only movie I could make at that time.”
The time he’s referring to is the aftermath of a mental health episode in 2022 that led to his stay in a treatment center in Arizona. There, he dealt with trauma stemming from past sexual abuse and body shaming that had, in turn, fueled the people-pleasing, marijuana-smoking public persona he had become known for.
“When I got out of the joint, I was like, I’m not going to smoke weed anymore, because I had stopped for the whole time I was in there,” Smith says. “And so, I was in this weird place of not knowing who I was to be going forward. Because I knew who my identity was: I’m the guy that made Clerks, and I smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that. And then, suddenly, that aspect of it was kind of removed. So when I was going into this [new movie], it was more like, Well, how about before all of that?”
Before all of that—the speaking engagements, convention appearances, and work on comic books, TV shows, films and podcasts—there were a childhood spent at the old movie theater on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands and friendships with the likes of Ernie O’Donnell, now Smith’s business partner as the co-owner and operator of Smodcastle Cinemas.
“There are moments for me where [The 4:30 Movie] is tough to watch, from an emotional standpoint, because that’s us growing up,” O’Donnell says. “But it’s so charming….It’s a great coming-of-age [story].”
For Smith, the film is highly personal. “I don’t want to be like, ‘This is the most personal movie I’ve ever made,’ but my God, it’s a secret origin story,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s, ‘Hey, how’d you ever become a filmmaker after all?’ and it tells that story.”
Growing up in Highlands, Smith was one of three children of Grace and the late Donald Smith. There, he attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help parochial school and then Henry Hudson High School, acting in school plays and creating comedy skits with friends, including O’Donnell. At the time, Smith “was a long way from realizing that I could be a filmmaker,” as he wrote in his 2021 book, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash: The Definitive Visual History, but, “I was always drawn to being the center of attention to some degree.”
Now, looking back on his Monmouth County youth, Smith says, “I think it’s fair to say, having seen how other people grew up and having raised a kid of my own, I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up,” he continues. “New Jersey made the difference. It puts a chip on your shoulder to some degree because you live in the shadow of New York, which is always the center of attention, and because of that, it tends to make you try harder.”
Smith has certainly followed that credo. In addition to a legendary film career and his ownership of Smodcastle Cinemas, he’s the longtime proprietor of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a popular comic book shop in Red Bank named for two of his most famous characters.
Over the last two years, the theater has become a go-to destination for movie fans, hosting festivals, new releases, revival screenings, live events, and celebrity appearances from the likes of Bayonne native and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and actor/collaborators Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams and Justin Long.
Rumson writer and actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, known for comedic roles in movies like Baby Mama and Men in Black, is among the artists who has benefited from Smith’s work; Fallon’s 2022 film, Shelter in Solitude, which she wrote and starred in, held its world premiere at Smith’s theater as part of the inaugural Smodcastle Film Festival.
“Kevin personifies New Jersey,” Hogan says, “because he is hilarious, hardworking and loyal.”
Fallon says Smith’s theater gives “filmmakers of all ages a chance to experience film festivals, readings, movies and moviemaking. Kevin is all about sharing his talent and giving back.” The third Smodcastle Film Festival is set to take place October 24-27.
Smith is outspoken about his love of New Jersey, and now the state is showing him some love right back. The director is being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame this fall alongside other Garden State luminaries, including Oscar winner Meryl Streep and Giants quarterback Phil Simms. The ceremony is set to air on Fox 5, My9 and social media starting November 13.
“Being a New Jersey business owner is a huge point of pride with me,” Smith says. “I’ve traveled and I’ve lived elsewhere and whatnot, but this state made me who I am, and I feel like I probably love it more than it loves me—I definitely love my hometown more than it loves me, that’s for damn sure. New Jersey’s always been kind of nice to me and stuff, but it made all the difference. I wouldn’t have been on this journey had it not been for being from here.”
[RELATED: For Zach Braff, Making Movies in New Jersey Is Deeply Personal]
Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.
No one knows New Jersey like we do. Sign up for one of our free newsletters here. Want a print magazine mailed to you? Purchase an issue from our online store.