REVIEW: The 4:30 Movie (2024)

Movie Reviews

The 4:30 Movie is Kevin Smith’s slice-of-life teen flick mixed with 80s nostalgia, an ode to a simpler time when people lined up to go to a movie theater that wasn’t owned by a mega-chain, spent the day sneaking from theater to theater, and made plans with their friends – and, hopefully, a girl – around the release schedule. It’s got some of Smith’s hallmarks – the bond between male friends, the love of movies, the perfect woman who can make your life click into place, New Jersey – but he’s also treading on new territory. For the first time, outside of maybe Yoga Hosers, Smith focuses on high school kids rather than adults, and there’s a magic to their reactions to Smith’s themes that differentiates The 4:30 Movie from his other works. It’s a shame it isn’t more successful; while The 4:30 Movie has its moments and a healthy dose of heart, it stumbles often, never quite coming together the way Smith’s better films do.

After blowing his chance with her last summer, Brian David (Austin Zajur) scores a date with his dream girl, Melody Barnegat (Siena Agudong), to see a movie. Before the film starts, Brian and his best friends, Belly (Reed Northrup) and Burny (Nicholas Cirillo), hop from theater to theater to see everything the local cineplex has to offer. But Brian’s perfect day is filled with disaster, from fighting with his buddies to shifting schedules to intrusive parents to a domineering theater manager who has it in for Brian’s crew.

While the trailer focuses mostly on the romance between Brian and Melody, The 4:30 Movie is more concerned with the friendships between the guys. This is fine in theory, but it’s hurt by the fact that the leads aren’t particularly good actors. I hate to say it about guys as young as this, but the main trio are not engaging enough to carry a movie. Austin Zajur is better here than he was in Clerks III, partly because he’s playing a character who has a reason to be in the film, and he has some good moments where he feels like a real teenager reacting honestly. But he doesn’t have the screen presence to be the lead, and he never really sells Brian’s love of cinema the way, for example, Jason Lee sold Brody’s love of comics in Mallrats. He and his co-stars, Nicholas Cirillo and Reed Northrup, often deliver their lines awkwardly but not in an intentional way. Cirillo is the best of the three as Burny, the masculine ladies’ man of the group, and he has some very funny moments, but his delivery is inconsistent. Reed Northrup has next to nothing to do, mostly acting as the butt of a joke, and his big scene is stilted and forced.

Much better than the three guys is Siena Agudong, who makes Melody feel like a real teenage girl despite being an idealized near-fantasy woman for Brian. (That’s not a criticism; the film calls for that, and Agudong delivers.) She has the difficult job in most Kevin Smith movies of making you understand why the main guy loves her so much, and Agudong portrays Melody as a fun, kind girl who’s still a person and can talk about sex, movies, or Chinese food as if she’s having a real conversation. Otherwise, the best parts of the film come from the grownups, and The 4:30 Movie has a cavalcade of cameos and bit parts for many of Smith’s regulars, each one stealing the show from the kids when they turn up. Many of these are found in the fake movies and trailers shown at the theater, and those are fun and generate some good laughs. I think The 4:30 Movie could’ve done with more of them to help make it feel like the plot revolves around a movie house. Ken Jeong is a highlight as the theater manager, who acts as the sort-of villain, or at least the foil. Jeong has a great time being a hateful little creep who despises theatergoers and has it in for the three guys he just knows are troublemakers.

If this all sounds like a lot for a Kevin Smith movie, especially one of the more intimate ones (as opposed to more sprawling, ambitious ones like Dogma or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), that’s because it is. The 4:30 Movie is less than ninety minutes long, and it has too many characters, conflicts, and plot threads for that short amount of time. Belly could have easily been cut so the film could focus on Brian and Burny’s friendship, which is the real meat of this part of the movie. (It would also fit the usual Smith pattern of having two best friends for the leads.) Sure, we’d lose a running gag with Belly and Burny, which is pretty funny, but the drama would be stronger for it. And instead of jumping around from place to place as much as it does, especially at the end, the film would be stronger if more of it took place in the theater. That should be the centerpiece of everything that happens, the nexus for the friendship and the romance; by the end, it feels almost like a distraction.

That being said, some of the best stuff in The 4:30 Movie comes from the small-town New Jersey locations and the way Smith films them; most of this is at the beginning, which is where it should be, but seeing him go past places I used to visit with my family is gratifying, and as always, you can feel how much he loves his home state. And while the film is too cluttered, it still manages to infuse itself with a lot of heart, which saves it when some of the jokes don’t land. The central conflict between Brian and Burny is real, and while it isn’t executed perfectly, there’s just enough to make you care about these two staying friends. And Brian and Melody are a couple worth rooting for; one thing Austin Zadur does well is make you believe that Brian loves Melody, and that’s essential for the Burny storyline as well. There’s some decent music, too, with a song that I believe was written for the film; it’s nothing special, but it also doesn’t go overboard like a lot of modern 80s-set movies.

The 4:30 Movie isn’t what it could have been, and it isn’t nearly one of Kevin Smith’s better movies – in fact, I liked his most recent films, Clerks III and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, more. It’s got some subpar acting, extraneous characters, and too much going on. But it’s also got Smith’s usual heart, some good laughs amid the missed ones, and a charming performance from Siena Agudong. It’s not great, but it’s pleasant enough to be worth a watch, especially if you’re a Kevin Smith fan.

Let us know what you thought of The 4:30 Movie in the comments!

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