In another world, The 4:30 Movie might have been named ‘Movierats’. Kevin Smith has long told tales of New Jersey kids simply hanging out, be it at the local shop (Clerks), the local fast-food restaurant (Clerks II), or the local mall (Mallrats). Here, he takes that template and applies it to the local multiplex — what better love-letter to cinema than a film set almost entirely at the cinema? And more specifically, the cinema of Smith’s own youth, which he now owns and operates as Smodcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands, NJ? Disappointingly, for all the promise in the premise, it rarely projects in quite the way you’d hope.
In typical Smith style, this is very much a story from the heart, remixing personal experience in cinematic form — lead character Brian David (a charming and engaging Austin Zajur) is a clear Kevin Smith stand-in, a deeply nerdy kid with a passion for cinema, hoping to sneak into an R-rated movie with his crush Melody Barnegat (Siena Agudong), if his loudmouthed friends don’t get them banned first. It starts promisingly. The extended opening scene — a phone conversation between Brian David and Melody where they establish their date plans to attend “the 4:30[pm] movie” together — is sweetly handled, with endearing performances from the two young lovers, all doused in syrupy ’80s sax. That sincerity continues into the cinematography — simplistic, but drinking in all the small-town New Jersey scenery with genuine affection.
The central portion of the film underwhelms — all the more frustrating when the sweetness returns in the final 15 minutes.
It's a shame, then, that the film comes to a screeching halt once Brian David and co. make it to the movies. The aimless narrative never feels as scrappily charming as it did in Mallrats; the observations of multiplex etiquette rarely as sharp as the customer-baiting in Clerks. Nicholas Cirillo overdoes it in asshole mode as brash pal Burny, while Reed Northrup’s underwritten Belly is little more than a ginger rat-tail hairdo in search of a character. And as with 2022’s Clerks III, the comedy largely falls flat: while Smith has fun delivering fake trailers (one casts his own daughter in a nunsploitation movie) and imagined blockbuster ‘Astro Blaster And The Beaver Men’ (yes, there are plenty of ‘beaver’ jokes), the results are thin. The comic potential of our heroes sneaking in and out of movies, evading the manager (a one-note Ken Jeong), and getting up to no good feels largely unfulfilled. When the regular Smith roster appears —Justin Long, Jason Lee, Brian O’Halloran, Rosario Dawson, Jeff Anderson, Jason Biggs, and of course Jason Mewes — their screentime feels like a distraction from time spent with our central trio.
As a result, the central portion of the film underwhelms — all the more frustrating when the sweetness returns in the final 15 minutes. Smith’s ode to cinemagoing transforms into a self-portrait of the artist as a young man, before going full circle into romcom mode again. Those moments are far more satisfying than the screen-hopping comedy that precedes it. This being a Kevin Smith film, there’s still a handful of funny lines (“Burny’s having sex during the movie. The guy has no respect for cinema!”). But even at a slight 77 minutes for the main feature, The 4:30 Movie still feels sluggish. Roll credits.