Film

Smith’s fans are always eager to point out that without Smith, there would be no Judd Apatow. The foul-mouthed, pop-culture-and-sex obsessed guy-pals of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad are the spiritual children of Dante Hicks and Randal Graves in Clerks. With Zack and Miri, Smith seems eager to retake the fast-talking-filth crown, and also get in on a little of Apatow’s racket of throwing in some sentimentality. On the first count, the collaboration of Smith and Rogen yields solid results. When it comes to handling romance, well, Smith can’t resist putting one of his characters on a toilet for the climactic admission of love.

Longtime roommates and compatriots in poverty Zack and Miri (Banks, solid if never brilliant at playing off Rogen’s woolly charms) have achieved a level of comfort in their years living together; he can make jokes about her dildo and she can discuss his masturbation habits. Faced with a mountain of debt, they decide to make a porno and self-distribute. To any observer, Zack and Miri’s easygoing friendship is obviously love, but for them to realize it, they must first do a porn scene together. Think of it as When Harry Fucked Sally. Whenever Rogen and, to a lesser extent Banks, are just riffing, Smith is in his comfort zone. He’s less adept at handling more conventional plotting and standard genre moments. But does anyone go to a Kevin Smith film with the word porno in the title expecting a conventional romantic comedy?