Chasing my Kevin Smith Appreciation Week (yeah, I acknowledge this title is lame)
Welcome back, oh faithful reader!
Continuing my trend of long rambling non-sequiturs review of the Kevin Smith Library we move from Mallrats to Chasing Amy.
I’ll be frank, this is one of my all time favorite films from Smith. Or at least it was, but like Mallrats it had been years since I’ve seen it, and I don’t think I ever watched Chasing Amy as many times as I did the other Smith films. Does it hold up? Yes, yes it does.
The story is of Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). Holden & Banky are co-creators of the Bluntman & Chronic superhero comic (based on Smith-verse reoccurring characters Jay & Silent Bob) and at a convention they meet Alyssa and Holden is smitten. Unfortunately for him, Alyssa is a lesbian. Banky is dubious of his best friend’s attentions towards Alyssa and it threatens their friendship. But surprising everyone, Alyssa and Holden make a try at it to find out if love can transcend all boundaries.
Damn this is a good movie especially watching it a day after watching Mallrats. “Looks like a very personal story” “I finally had something personal to say,” say Alyssa and Holden to each other near the end of the film and it’s obvious that Holden here is a stand in for Smith. After Mallrats it’s clear that Smith was second guessing himself, and realized that he didn’t have anything to say in that film, and Holden feels similar in regards to his comic, something full of dick & fart jokes and it pays the bills but not something that has a deeper meaning. And it is no secret that the story is a bit based on Smith’s own relationship at the time with Joey Lauren Adams (she wasn’t a lesbian but Smith realized that he had felt threatened by her sexual history). And that comes off brilliantly, you are watching someone’s very personal story.
The performances are brilliant here. Lee’s timing and readings come off much more natural, and he seems much more comfortable as Banky then as Mallrats’ Brodie. He also does a lot more acting with his face, he can go from the guy who seems like wacky comedy relief to someone who you can see the wheels turning in his head. Joey Lauren Adams is both funny and cool, and she’s given a role that many actresses aren’t, a fully fleshed out character. She is both a strong independent character but also someone who isn’t the perfect girlfriend either, she has flaws and imperfections and you love her that much more because of it. There’s a scene where Alyssa and Holden are having a fight outside of a hockey stadium and you just feel how she is both angry and sad and apologetic and pissed off at him all at once and it ripped my heart out all over again. And also let me give praise to Ben Affleck. I have always been a bit middle of the road with Ben, he’s not a great actor but I think a lot of people take him to task far more then he deserves. I think he’s a good actor when he needs to be and in this one particular piece he’s excels and becomes exactly what the role needs. He has a very long monologue where he confesses his feelings for Alyssa and it is just him talking for several minutes in a truck and he sells it. A lot of lesser actors would have bored the audience with such a scene, but it works here.
Smith’s camera direction here remains as stiff as Mallrats but luckily the story doesn’t require any fancy tricks. It’s a love story, and like I said, a deeply personal one on top of that, and slick camera movements I think could have stolen your attention away from what is a simple but deep story.
The writing is also great, not just in terms of plot and characterization but the dialogue is much,much better then Mallrats. The gags are funnier (“And Jedi’s the most insulting installment. Because Vader’s beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal feeble, crusty old white man! They’re tryin’ to tell us that deep inside we all wants to be white!” “Well isn’t that true?”) and each character has a unique voice instead of the usual Kevin Smith generic fast-paced-banter that many of his other films (especially Mallrats) replicates.
If I had to give a complaint there would be two. They are both fairly minor. Firstly, the movie seems to dance around the word “bisexual.” I am friends with at least a few bisexual women and it seems odd that a film that was so progressive, especially for its time, is dodging around this word. Obviously the movie is about a woman who identifies as a lesbian, and I’m not going to say that just because she falls for a man that necessarily she should label herself as bisexual, but I do think the discussion might have deserved to brought up. But this type of thing gets tricky and a lot of people feel uncomfortable or uncertain when it comes to labeling people, and I’ve also gotten the impression that some people (both gays and straights) that tend to treat bisexuals as “fake gays.” That they are just experimenting or whatever and need to pick a side, which in a story like this it could be only used to support that argument and that’s not what Smith’s point was. So maybe it is for the best, but it still feels odd.
The other complaint comes with the ending, or rather Holden’s planned “solution.” It seems a bit… out of nowhere. Ok that’s not entirely true, it is obviously inspired (though wildly misinterpreted) by Silent Bob’s story of “Chasing Amy.” But even then, the plan (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here) seems a bit random and lacking any real thought from Holden. Which I suspect is partially the point, he wants to solve all his problems with a desperate act, and certainly there are worse things he could have suggested but it just rang a little false to me. I think for the purpose of the story it had to be the way it was, but if I had been planted in Holden’s position I don’t think it would have been the solution I would have come up with.
So would I recommend Chasing Amy? I think if I hadn’t made that abundantly clear… Yes! Having revisited it I think this has cemented itself as my favorite of the Smith’s films, though it’s possible after reviewing some others like Dogma or Clerks 2 I might revisit that claim. Obviously there is some really harsh language here so if that offends you might be put off, and if you’re homophobic this isn’t a film for you, but broadly speaking its very excellent film and watching it again has made me glad I bought the DVD all those years ago.
Until next time!
Continuing my trend of long rambling non-sequiturs review of the Kevin Smith Library we move from Mallrats to Chasing Amy.
I’ll be frank, this is one of my all time favorite films from Smith. Or at least it was, but like Mallrats it had been years since I’ve seen it, and I don’t think I ever watched Chasing Amy as many times as I did the other Smith films. Does it hold up? Yes, yes it does.
The story is of Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). Holden & Banky are co-creators of the Bluntman & Chronic superhero comic (based on Smith-verse reoccurring characters Jay & Silent Bob) and at a convention they meet Alyssa and Holden is smitten. Unfortunately for him, Alyssa is a lesbian. Banky is dubious of his best friend’s attentions towards Alyssa and it threatens their friendship. But surprising everyone, Alyssa and Holden make a try at it to find out if love can transcend all boundaries.
Damn this is a good movie especially watching it a day after watching Mallrats. “Looks like a very personal story” “I finally had something personal to say,” say Alyssa and Holden to each other near the end of the film and it’s obvious that Holden here is a stand in for Smith. After Mallrats it’s clear that Smith was second guessing himself, and realized that he didn’t have anything to say in that film, and Holden feels similar in regards to his comic, something full of dick & fart jokes and it pays the bills but not something that has a deeper meaning. And it is no secret that the story is a bit based on Smith’s own relationship at the time with Joey Lauren Adams (she wasn’t a lesbian but Smith realized that he had felt threatened by her sexual history). And that comes off brilliantly, you are watching someone’s very personal story.
The performances are brilliant here. Lee’s timing and readings come off much more natural, and he seems much more comfortable as Banky then as Mallrats’ Brodie. He also does a lot more acting with his face, he can go from the guy who seems like wacky comedy relief to someone who you can see the wheels turning in his head. Joey Lauren Adams is both funny and cool, and she’s given a role that many actresses aren’t, a fully fleshed out character. She is both a strong independent character but also someone who isn’t the perfect girlfriend either, she has flaws and imperfections and you love her that much more because of it. There’s a scene where Alyssa and Holden are having a fight outside of a hockey stadium and you just feel how she is both angry and sad and apologetic and pissed off at him all at once and it ripped my heart out all over again. And also let me give praise to Ben Affleck. I have always been a bit middle of the road with Ben, he’s not a great actor but I think a lot of people take him to task far more then he deserves. I think he’s a good actor when he needs to be and in this one particular piece he’s excels and becomes exactly what the role needs. He has a very long monologue where he confesses his feelings for Alyssa and it is just him talking for several minutes in a truck and he sells it. A lot of lesser actors would have bored the audience with such a scene, but it works here.
Smith’s camera direction here remains as stiff as Mallrats but luckily the story doesn’t require any fancy tricks. It’s a love story, and like I said, a deeply personal one on top of that, and slick camera movements I think could have stolen your attention away from what is a simple but deep story.
The writing is also great, not just in terms of plot and characterization but the dialogue is much,much better then Mallrats. The gags are funnier (“And Jedi’s the most insulting installment. Because Vader’s beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal feeble, crusty old white man! They’re tryin’ to tell us that deep inside we all wants to be white!” “Well isn’t that true?”) and each character has a unique voice instead of the usual Kevin Smith generic fast-paced-banter that many of his other films (especially Mallrats) replicates.
If I had to give a complaint there would be two. They are both fairly minor. Firstly, the movie seems to dance around the word “bisexual.” I am friends with at least a few bisexual women and it seems odd that a film that was so progressive, especially for its time, is dodging around this word. Obviously the movie is about a woman who identifies as a lesbian, and I’m not going to say that just because she falls for a man that necessarily she should label herself as bisexual, but I do think the discussion might have deserved to brought up. But this type of thing gets tricky and a lot of people feel uncomfortable or uncertain when it comes to labeling people, and I’ve also gotten the impression that some people (both gays and straights) that tend to treat bisexuals as “fake gays.” That they are just experimenting or whatever and need to pick a side, which in a story like this it could be only used to support that argument and that’s not what Smith’s point was. So maybe it is for the best, but it still feels odd.
The other complaint comes with the ending, or rather Holden’s planned “solution.” It seems a bit… out of nowhere. Ok that’s not entirely true, it is obviously inspired (though wildly misinterpreted) by Silent Bob’s story of “Chasing Amy.” But even then, the plan (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here) seems a bit random and lacking any real thought from Holden. Which I suspect is partially the point, he wants to solve all his problems with a desperate act, and certainly there are worse things he could have suggested but it just rang a little false to me. I think for the purpose of the story it had to be the way it was, but if I had been planted in Holden’s position I don’t think it would have been the solution I would have come up with.
So would I recommend Chasing Amy? I think if I hadn’t made that abundantly clear… Yes! Having revisited it I think this has cemented itself as my favorite of the Smith’s films, though it’s possible after reviewing some others like Dogma or Clerks 2 I might revisit that claim. Obviously there is some really harsh language here so if that offends you might be put off, and if you’re homophobic this isn’t a film for you, but broadly speaking its very excellent film and watching it again has made me glad I bought the DVD all those years ago.
Until next time!