Chasing Amy
Chasing Amy is the third installment in the "New Jersey Trilogy" from award-winning writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma). Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by her sexuality, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee), and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, Chasing Amy offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality.
Member Reviews
Changing Amy - ABC99
Chasing Amy captures relationship insecurity about as well as any movie that I have seen. The issues the characters face make us squirm is our seats. So many relationship collapse because we cannopt come to terms with our partners past or they cannot come to terms with oours. While it is sad that people can sacrifice happiness due to jealousy and insecurity, it is not less true.
Kevin Smith's best and most honest work.Great love story with a sense of humour. - thenewguy
Chasing Amy is one of my all-time favourite films and definitely my favourite romantic comedy. The main character, Holden, falls in love with Alyssa and his hopes for romance are torn apart when he finds out she's a lesbian.
The characters form a friendship, which eventually blooms into an intense, turmoil-filled romance. But that's just the over-all story. As with Kevin Smith's other films, the dialogue is fast and witty (and dirty). The characters explore a lot of concepts, especially sexuality and people's notions of love, sex and standards. The cast puts in a great performance and the movie (while foul-mouthed) is touching and potent.Smith's most mature work - adnanz
"Chasing Amy" is an anomaly in Kevin Smith's filmography because his standard slacker characters are not in similar positions to where they are in most his films, but are in a very confused place, mentally, physically, emotionally, and sexually. They're out of their comfort zone here, overgrown children slowly coming to the realization of what they are and struggling to fully grasp adult life.
Kevin Smith's script here is not his absolute best- "Clerks" is still one of the funniest and most true-to-life comedy scripts I've ever read, but it's a striking piece of work from a less juvenile, more wistful writer than we're used to. The romance at the core of "Chasing Amy" is complex and does accomplish a fair bit of depth and detail in examining sexual identity and basic human interaction. This is not a conventional romantic comedy at all, not just because of its outlandish plot, but also because of essentially everything that occurs around the basic plot. It's not even a conventional slacker comedy. I was surprised by how real the drama in much of this film was, a fact that made the failed 'high drama' moments more distracting.
Smith has always directed actors well, and this is no exception. Ben Affleck may be bland but he is just right for this part and does basically nothing wrong. Jason Lee is great as well, displaying a decent amount of range and solid comedic timing. This movie is intelligent, clever, mature, world-weary, competently directed, exceptionally well-written, and well-acted. It's exactly the sort of antidote one needs to the "Sleepless in Seattle"s of the world.
8.5/10
Member Reviews
Read All...
Changing Amy - ABC99
Chasing Amy captures relationship insecurity about as well as any movie that I have seen. The issues the characters face make us squirm is our seats. So many relationship collapse because we cannopt come to terms with our partners past or they cannot come ...Great love story with a sense of humour. - thenewguy
Chasing Amy is one of my all-time favourite films and definitely my favourite romantic comedy. The main character, Holden, falls in love with Alyssa and his hopes for romance are torn apart when he finds out she's a lesbian.
The characters form a friendship, ...Smith's most mature work - adnanz
"Chasing Amy" is an anomaly in Kevin Smith's filmography because his standard slacker characters are not in similar positions to where they are in most his films, but are in a very confused place, mentally, physically, emotionally, and sexually. They're out ...