DVD Having previous reviewed Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl (and I just want to echo everything I said then) I thought it would be interesting to look at the audio commentaries which accompany the dvd. Long standing readers who remember my Scene Unseen columns will know I have a thing about audio commentaries which are about the film making process not about how good everyone was. But I also love it when the spectators disregard the film and decide to talk about what they were up to that day, what else is going on in their lives or indeed what they'll be doing once the commentary is completed. These two sit somewhere in between.
The most avant guard of the two features Kevin Smith (director), Scott Mosier (producer) and Jason Mewes (not in the film at all). With only a few mentions of the film playing out, this becomes an ongoing investigation into why Mewes didn't appear in the film, what happened to him after Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and his years sobriety. It's a real gift to Smith fans who might feel burned because they're going to be buying the film twice (they promo a directors cut which is coming next year) who frankly have been worried. It feels like an audio epilogue to An Evening With ... as we delve into Mewes sexual abilities, his attraction to Liv Tyler and reaction to preview screenings. Which is the other main subject of conversation -- what happened to the film in the wake of Gigli and the Beniffer backlash, the editing process, critical reaction, and the release. It's all irrevent, hilarious and crude as hell -- and turns what would have been a PG dvd into a 15. This may well be one of those rare occasions when a dvd is worth buying just to hear these tracks.
In the second commentary, Smith is joined by Ben Affleck in a conversation which has more to do with the film and the process if not necessarily again as the film plays out. Affleck is extra-ordinarily frank about his relationship with Jennifer Lopez and again how the perception of that worked against the release of the film. The first ten minutes are a blisteringly funny attack on the 3am girls from The Mirror, and it's deeply incongruous that two American would be able to gauge such a British institution so correctly -- and quite shocking when they say our tabloid are so much worse than the Americans -- I was always led to believe it was the other way around, but through their eyes I can see what they mean. Affleck talks to an extent about the track of his career and how he doesn't have any illusions about who he is and his place in the world. The word isn't necessarily humble, but it is realistic. Illuminating.
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