Talking With Kevin Smith About The 4:30 Movie

The 4:30 Movie is on Blu-ray today

The 4:30 Movie, Kevin Smith’s best-reviewed movie since 1997’s Chasing Amy, is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, 4K disc, and Digital. There’s even a special, steelbook version of the movie* that is packaged to resemble a VHS tape.

For quite some time, indie film icon and perennial geek media favorite Smith has been self-distributing his movies. Smith has taken movies like Red State, Yoga Hosers, and Clerks III out on the road with him, playing to packed houses of fans who came not just to see the movie, but to hear Smith talk and joke around after.

Having been to one or two such events, they’re well worth the money. With The 4:30 Movie, though, Lionsgate distributed the film, giving it a conventional (although extremely limited) theatrical rollout. That means Smith’s first in-depth thoughts about the movie — at least the ones not previously revealed on his podcast, Fatman Beyond — were during junket interviews for the movie.

The 4:30 Movie is Smith riffing on his own teen years, with Austin Zajur playing the part of a young Brian David, who struggles to find love and begin to figure out who he wants to be as an adult, set against the backdrop of his love of movies. It’s also a deeply personal movie that has dozens of little details that, often, he says aren’t Easter eggs for the fans, so much as for himself and the people who grew up with him in New Jersey.

“When you start the movie with…‘pork roll, egg, and cheese,’ you are making a statement. Like, ‘We are in Central Jersey, kids. This is where we believe in God, movies, and pork roll, not Taylor ham.’”

Even the movie itself is set at — and was filmed at — Smith’s childhood movie theater, of which he is now a part-owner. You can go see movies at that theater — now called Smodcastle Cinemas — often with Smith in attendance. Their website is here.

Here’s our brief conversation, in which he also talks about my Kevin Smith’s Phase Three mini-essay, which you can read over at ComicBook:

* (If you buy the movie from that link, I’ll get a small commission. So, please do!)