Review of "Chasing Amy"
CHASING AMY (1997)
Directed by Kevin Smith
Written by Kevin Smith
Starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell and Jason Mewes
This film is mostly set in present day New Jersey and tells the story of two best friends, Holden McNeil (Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Lee) who make a successful comic book called “Bluntman and Chronic”. Their situation is complicated when Holden falls in love with fellow comic-book creator Alyssa Jones (Adams), but finds out to his shock that she is a lesbian and likes him as a friend, but nothing more.
This film is part of Kevin Smith’s loosely interconnected “View Askewniverse” series which are linked by recurring characters (most notably the characters Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (writer-director Smith) who have a brief but very funny scene here) and references. This film has plenty of the crude but very funny humour and endless pop-culture references that are the hallmark of Smith’s films, but for the first time there is some heart as well. Basically it’s an off-beat contemporary love story, and far funnier and more heartfelt than most other romantic comedies. For the most part the characters ring true and you can sympathise with them and their problems. In my opinion, this is probably the best of Smith’s films to date. It was apparently inspired by Smith’s relationship with then girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams (who previously appeared in Smith’s Mallrats (1995) - a film for which Smith inserts an apology during the closing credits of Chasing Amy).
Contains very strong language.
Eight out of ten.
Directed by Kevin Smith
Written by Kevin Smith
Starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell and Jason Mewes
This film is mostly set in present day New Jersey and tells the story of two best friends, Holden McNeil (Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Lee) who make a successful comic book called “Bluntman and Chronic”. Their situation is complicated when Holden falls in love with fellow comic-book creator Alyssa Jones (Adams), but finds out to his shock that she is a lesbian and likes him as a friend, but nothing more.
This film is part of Kevin Smith’s loosely interconnected “View Askewniverse” series which are linked by recurring characters (most notably the characters Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (writer-director Smith) who have a brief but very funny scene here) and references. This film has plenty of the crude but very funny humour and endless pop-culture references that are the hallmark of Smith’s films, but for the first time there is some heart as well. Basically it’s an off-beat contemporary love story, and far funnier and more heartfelt than most other romantic comedies. For the most part the characters ring true and you can sympathise with them and their problems. In my opinion, this is probably the best of Smith’s films to date. It was apparently inspired by Smith’s relationship with then girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams (who previously appeared in Smith’s Mallrats (1995) - a film for which Smith inserts an apology during the closing credits of Chasing Amy).
Contains very strong language.
Eight out of ten.