Mallrats

Mallrats (1995), written and directed by Kevin Smith, is a slacker comedy you can watch online on iFILM. T.S. and Brodie get dumped on the same morning and respond the only sensible way: they spend the day at the mall. Not shopping. Not working. Just there.

Jason Lee and Jeremy London are perfectly matched as two guys who talk about comic books with the same intensity other people reserve for actual problems. Ben Affleck plays Shannon Hamilton, the mall's resident bully with a wardrobe full of leather jackets. Shannen Doherty and Claire Forlani are the girlfriends who, it turns out, require at least some effort to win back. Stan Lee cameos as himself, dispensing relationship advice with full authority. Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes show up as Silent Bob and Jay.

Shot right after Clerks with a real budget, the film flopped theatrically and found its audience on VHS — which is fitting for a movie about people who have nowhere better to be. For anyone working through Smith's View Askewniverse, this is the link between Clerks and the later Jay and Silent Bob films. Stream Mallrats (1995) online on iFILM.