Chasing Amy (1997)

Number Rolled: 32

Movie Name/Year: Chasing Amy (1997)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 113 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Kevin Smith

Writer: Kevin Smith

Actors: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith

I can’t even describe how happy I was to roll Kevin Smith. I don’t roll him enough. He doesn’t have enough movies made for me to feel I roll him enough. Of all the movies of his I COULD have rolled, I’m glad it was this one though, because I have something to say.

A great deal of my friends are Kevin Smith fans. When I was in high school a group of us would sit in a basement drunk off 40s and watch movies; Clerks, Mallrats, etc. I felt a little less invisible when I was watching those movies. Chasing Amy was eventually among them, though I don’t remember if it was during those basement years or later.

The majority of the people I spoke to about the movie had basically the same thing to say about it, “meh, it’s ok. Not as good as his other stuff.” Granted, I think Clerks is the best fucking movie ever made, but Chasing Amy is possibly my third favorite by him (directly after his newest one, Red State).

I think the actors did a phenomenal job. At one point in the movie there’s a crying scene that Joey Lauren Adams has to act out and I think she executed it perfectly. For one, it wasn’t pretty. I watch some of these dramas and romance movies out now and the actresses cry without messing up their make-up or raising their voice. I sit there thinking…. “wow. Is that what I’m supposed to look like when I cry cause… fuck… I don’t look like that when I’m happy!” Joey takes it to another level. It’s realistic. I like that. I’m not the biggest fan of Ben Affleck, but he did well and Jason Lee… well… let’s just say – he’s on my “list.”

The subject itself is what snags me and really raises this movie to unbelievable levels in my eyes. The first thing I enjoyed was the bisexual struggle within Alyssa Jones. A lot of times, when someone initially finds out I’m bisexual I get the whole “that’s pretty cool, so just about everyone accepts you hm?” and that’s bullshit. People don’t realize how bullshit that is. I’ve had straight people tell me that I will just need to choose eventually and gay people tell me that it’s just a phase. That’s just not the way it works. There’s a chart, I believe it’s called the Klein Chart, that depicts 10% of the population as totally straight and 10% of the population as totally gay with everyone else falling at different levels in between. But instead of acknowledging that bisexuality exists, a lot of people call it a “phase” or call bisexuals “greedy” or “confused.” Maybe I was confused in my teenage years, but I know who I am now – and that I define myself as bisexual hasn’t changed.

The second subject that I love didn’t really hit me until a couple of years ago. It’s an underlying subject in the film that shows you shouldn’t judge someone by their past. I have an amazing boyfriend who knows everything about my past. Even the stuff I’m so embarrassed about that I don’t even want to think about. And boy, do I have a lot of that. His response is that it doesn’t matter because who I am now is not who I was then. He accepts me for who I am and accepts my choices – for better or worse. As simple as that seems it’s very rare. I’ve had significant others snipe for days after finding out something from my past that happened years ago. I’ve had people completely stop talking to me for stuff they’ve found out. And there are some people, I’d never even attempt to tell about my past because I’m not stupid and I know how they’d react. This movie shows that you have to put an individual ahead of their actions. Judge a person by who they are now, because they wouldn’t be that person without having learned from the past.

As funny and raunchy as this movie is, it’s got a deeper meaning. One that can’t be overlooked. It just makes that lesson fun to learn and helps it go down with a couple spoonfuls of sugar.

So yes, I hear people who say it’s not one of his best movies. To them I say, in the immortal words of the late great George Carlin, “fuck you and fuck everybody who looks like you.”

Overall Opinion – 5/5