Throwback Thursday: A Lesser-Known But Really Fun Kevin Smith Movie

Would you make a porno with your best friend?

Hey Fleshbot fans! Who doesn’t enjoy them some Kevin Smith movies? All of his movies are a bit risque to say the very least with the constant sex and weed references. Hell, Clerks 2 actually includes a detailed discussion of clit size and the classic “Pillow Pants” conversation. One of Kevin Smith’s movies that is underrated in my opinion is 2008’s Zack and Miri Make A Porno, also sometimes referred to as simply Zack and Miri, and it’s my Throwback Thursday pick for this week. Let’s check it out!

We open the film in Pittsburgh right before Thanksgiving on a pair of platonic best friends who are roommates. Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are also co-workers at a coffee shop, so basically not a lot of personal boundaries exist between these two. Money is so tight that it squeaks right now, plus it’s the holiday season, and they are about to attend their ten-year high school reunion, to make things even more depressing. It gets worse. A teen miscreant at the coffee shop happens to capture Miri in her “granny panties” with his phone while she’s making a quick change in the back room and she’s become a viral sensation, just in time to find out at the reunion that her high school crush is not only gay but a gay porn star. Oof.

After hitting rock bottom in various ways, the pair enlists the help of their co-worker and financial backer Delaney (Craig Robinson) and makes him their producer. They manage to find a location, recruit some talent for the film, some of which are played by actual porn stars. Katie Morgan plays Stacey and “Bubbles” (she doesn’t have the nickname for nothing) is played by Traci Lords. Lester (Jason “Jay” Mewes) rounds out the hired talent along with Zack and Miri who will be shooting their scene together. They’ve decided to make a porn parody of Star Wars, because that’s easy, right?

As these things happen in movies, there are lots of problems when trying to film this cinematic opus and Zack and Miri definitely have some issues catching feels after having sex on camera, even though they both swore they wouldn’t. Will they be able to navigate all the hijinks, pay their debts, and salvage their friendship? I’m not spoiling you!

Even though this film is not in the Jay and Silent Bob universe, I think an ideal food pairing for a viewing would be some fast food burgers and fries that you can pretend are from Mooby’s. If you’re so inclined, grab some high-quality smoke in honor of Mr. Rogen and pretend that it’s that sweet Snoochie Boochie. This film has aged in an interesting way and is actually quite prescient when it comes to people making porn at home, especially to supplement income from crappy jobs. Amateur porn was nothing new even back then, but it’s interesting to think about what the story would have been like today with OnlyFans and the like.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno is available to stream (at press time) on Amazon Prime Video and free streaming service Tubi.