The award-winning debut feature of self-taught US auteur Kevin Smith, Clerks is set in and around that well-known hub of the social universe, a convenience store in suburban New Jersey. It revolves around a day in the amiably bickering friendship of Dante and Randal, hapless clerks who serve time behind the counter. The monotony of work compels these reluctant wage-slaves to resort to simple diversions: shooting the breeze, antagonising their customers and indulging time-honoured masculine obsessions (sex, movie trivia, ice hockey).