Chasing Amy Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Chasing Amy
Director: Kevin Smith
Year: 1997
Country: U.S
Language: English

"BLACK RAGE! I KILL YOU ALL!" so goes a line in Chasing Amy, a pretty funny film that uses its humor in an intelligent manner. I was very surprised that this film came from Kevin Smith considering my only exposure to the director came from accidentally watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when I was 10...so many swears. I have avoided Smith like the plague since then and am not a fan of stoner comedies. However I have heard many great things about Chasing Amy and decided to give it a chance. Surprisingly, it went far above my expectations.

The film is about a pair of comic book authors named Holden McNeil ( Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) , who live in New Jersey, have been best friends since 20 years. They spend their time working in their studio, and in the evenings they are going out. But their friendship is about to be disputed for the first time in their life, when a beautiful young lesbian woman named Alyssa Jones enters their life and Holden falls in love with her.

The plot of the film, man falls for girl who turns out to be a lesbian, is almost a set-up for a ridiculous comedy that is full of crude jokes and immature humor. However Smith approaches this film with great ambition and maturity.It is full of both witty and serious dialouge as well as deep issues about love. Infact Kevin Smith approaches the relationship between Holden and Alyssa with dead seriousness, because there is nothing funny about putting your heart onthe line. As a result of his writing, most of the characters are very verbal and keep an astonishing amount of pain hidden.

I think one fault of Chasing Amy seems to be how Smith handles homosexuality. I can't put my finger on it though, there's just something that bugs me because it feels careless, especially with the Banky twist that doesn't make much sense. However I do love Smith's discussion of gender roles and stereotypes. There are so many men who think they can make a lesbian turn straight, there are many men who have no problem talking about their own sex lives but are freaked out when their girlfriends talk about it. Women are expected to act very conservative, and when they act differently, people are generally more shocked that if it was a man.

In conclusion, Chasing Amy is a very entertaining and thought provoking film that has very natural dialogue. It's the only Kevin Smith film that I'm not embarrassed to say that I have watched. Strikingly beautiful, it has the power to tug at your heartstrings. I can see how this film might be insulting towards the gay community (Alyssa just needs to find the right guy), however I can also see how the breakdown of gender stereotypes may help society. 3.5/5