USA. Stoner comedy.
I suppose the director of this film must be a huge Kevin Smith fan, because this is practically a love letter to Smith. In fact, the dialogue and tone of the film makes it so similar to Clerks, that I first thought it must be a Kevin Smith film. I stopped the film to look up the director’s name, and it turns out to be a rapper named Logic, who is apparently a big deal in the hip-hop world. I wasn’t familiar with him, but that means nothing. I basically know nothing about rap music.
This time the clerks are fighting to keep a record store alive, knowing full well that they’re swimming against the current, but willing to do so in order to preserve a beloved institution.
Just in case you didn’t see any Smith parallels, consider who shows up later in the film. It’s the local hangers-out and dope dealers, interrupting this color film in black and white!
Critical reactions to this film were highly polarized, because Kevin Smith and his acolytes are not for everyone.
Consider:
Filled with racist and homophobic dialogue, Paradise Records is a sewage dump of a comedy about a record store owner who needs money to save his failing business. Everything about this junkpile movie is obnoxious and dimwitted.
As opposed to:
Paradise Records marks a stellar directorial debut for Logic, weaving sharp wit, nostalgic charm, and a dynamite cast into a comedy that feels both fresh and warmly familiar.
So, if you like Kevin’s movies, this is a film you will probably enjoy. I didn’t intend to watch the whole film, but I got reeled in. If you don’t enjoy raunchy, lowbrow humor, I’m sure you can find some Tarkovsky films somewhere on the internet.
By the way, that’s Mr. Logic himself under all that make-up, playing his own “Uncle Tony.”