Chasing Amy

Staring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee

Review by The Ranting WolfCastle

     Lesbians.  Why does it seem that everywhere you go now days, a lesbian is waiting to greet you?  I don't care of course, but I just wonder what spurred this modern revolution.  I wouldn't say that Ellen Degenerous did it.   But I think she had a big part of it.  It seems like now every sit-com has a homosexual in it.  But I can't remember if this movie came out before Ellen was gay.   It may have been that the writer/director Kevin Smith had seriously bad or good timing, depending on how you look at it.  Or it could have been that he was trying to capitalize on the recent fixation America seems to have with comical homosexuals.  I am ninety percent sure it was the former.

     Have you ever met that special someone, and long to hook up with her/him, only to find out somewhere down the line that, that person is gay?  I know I have, and so has Holden McNeil (Affleck).  The token of his affection is Alyssa Jones (Adams) and surprise!  She's a lesbian.  But Holden wants her anyway, much to the dismay of his best friend and business partner Banky (Lee).  So what's it gonna be Holden?  Chase a girl you probably have no shot at, and loose a long time friend?  Or ditch the bitch, because after all, bros before hoes?

     Kevin Smith is a talented writer, mainly due to the dialogue he presents in each and every one of his screenplays.  More often than not, the plot is week, but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie.  However "Chasing Amy" has a stronger plot than it's two predecessors (Clerks, Mallrats) without lacking any of Smith's patented big vocabulary dialogue.  Though, I did notice that the dialogue in the beginning of the movie and at the end, are two different styles altogether.  It seemed to me that the beginning conversations were much more intellectual than later in the film.  I can account for this in two ways: 1) Kevin Smith is trying to be smarter than he is, or 2) Kevin Smith got lazy while writing this film.  I don't really like either of those accounts, due to the fact that I like Kevin Smith.  So lets just say that I'm crazy.  The thing I like about Smith's writing, is his characters carefully examine and go into great depth about every topic presented to them, whether that be chicks with dicks, or male friendly lesbians.  Bravo Kevin. 

     But what about this film?  At points the dialogue begins to drag a bit, this is normally because it's a serious conversation, and although this is a comedy, the same amount of time is devoted to the serious and non-serious conversations alike.  At one point Affleck's character rambles on for almost five minutes about how he loves Alyssa.  This gets kind of boring, and isn't funny.  While it is an important scene, it could have been done differently.

     The acting is good.  Sometimes Affleck seems to lose sincerity, but overall he does a good job.  Adams is convincing as a lesbian, but the one I liked the most was Jason Lee.  He has this thing where he yells things, and they turn out funny.  He seems to be the only funny person in the movie.   Although others exchange witty banter, Lee is the only one that does it with consistency.

     So is this movie for you?  Well, not knowing you, I find that a difficult question to answer.  But I will say this, "Chasing Amy" is better than "Mallrats" but not as good as "Clerks."  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this movie might not be for you.  I think it's a generational thing.

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