Procura-se Amy

My all-time favourite film! Kevin Smith creates such truly endearing, eccentric, quirky characters, and then manages to cast actors who seem destined to play their roles. Joey Lauren Adams steals the show (we need to see more of this brilliant gem!), and the Jason Lee / Ben Affleck dynamic is really powerful - all of the actors appear so natural and comfortable, and Jason Mewes is a gift from God (and that's coming from an athiest!). A beautifully written conversational comedy that very gently uncovers the hypocrisy surrounding gender relationships. This film goes way beyond the 'acceptance of sexual preference' cliche, and instead concentrates on the insecurities that all human beings are born with - gay or straight! Mr Smith, you are truly a genius!!!

With his third film, Kevin Smith tried to do something new for him: a grown-up film. As loved as it may (deservedly) be, Clerks is remembered for the crude humor rather than the plot, while Mallrats, which was meant to be a smart, amusing teen movie, turned out to be little more than a vehicle for Jason Lee's comedic talent. Chasing Amy is radically different: combining Smith's trademark superb dialogue, believable characters and a heartfelt story, it is one of the best, most insightful romantic comedies of the '90s, and the director's most satisfying picture aside from Clerks I and II.

Whereas his first two movies kept referencing other films as soon as there was time to do so, Chasing Amy centers on Smith's second great passion: comic-books. In fact, it all begins at a convention, where Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) and Holden MacNeil (Ben Affleck) are signing issues of their successful book Bluntman & Chronic. Afterwards, they hang out with fellow artists Hooper X (Dwight Ewell) and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), and while Banky spends all of his time arguing with Hooper over the racism in Star Wars (one of the funniest things Smith has ever written) or the gay subtext in Archie comics, something clicks between Holden and Alyssa, and soon enough they start seeing each other almost every day. It is obvious something deeper than friendship is in the air, and they both know it, yet there's a catch: Alyssa is a lesbian, or at least she used to be one before meeting Holden. Hence the big question: can they have a meaningful relationship with her past being such a huge burden? What kind of sacrifices will have to be made?

In another film, the boy-loves-lesbian premise would have been an excuse to deliver a 90-minute marathon of distasteful, gratuitously explicit jokes. Chasing Amy, on the other hand, is good because it really cares for its characters and whatever crudities there may be never feel excessive or out of place, but on the contrary they manage to convey the speaker's emotions more correctly (this is particularly true for Jason Lee's foolproof, energetic performance). The central love story is honest and touching, two characteristics that are evident in the realistic dialogue and acting: Adams, who hasn't managed to find a decent role ever since, portrays Alyssa as a human being, not a stereotype, and that's what makes her scenes with Affleck, always at his best when working with Smith, compelling and almost painful to watch.

Most of the time, Chasing Amy is a perfect balance between gross-out humor and tender romance, something the director kept toying with on the underrated Jersey Girl (where the jokes were less sweary than usual) and perfected with his masterpiece, Clerks II. There are, however, a few moments when Smith doesn't understand he has to stop and tells us everything about a certain character's personality, whereas he should simply have implied it. Overall, though, this feature remains one of the most hilarious, moving, revealing films of the '90s, with its best moment saved for the director himself: halfway through the movie, the mandatory Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith) make their appearance. In all the other View Askew flicks, they are just incredibly funny. This time, Bob breaks his silence and gives a long, thoughtful speech that explains the film's title and has more to say about love and relationships than certain movies do in their entire running time. Astonishing.

8,5/10

This is a really good piece of work by the brilliant Kevin Smith but I didn't fully appreciate that until the second time watching this movie. I'm glad I did. I missed out on it's significance and even it's cultural importance. I was admittedly thrown off by Joey Lauren Adam's voice, i saw it as distracting and I had to get over it, something like that shouldn't hinder the viewer but it did for me and it played a factor the first time watching.

Her and the rest of the cast are great. She is brilliant as Alyssa with a lot of gut impacting scenes. Ben Affleck and Jason Lee star opposite to her. Affleck is convincing and Lee is immaculate as Affleck's best friend, roommate and comic book artist who has a lot of memorable moments as a side character.

The theme of the movie might've been a bit groundbreaking for it's time as it explores sexual endeavours of the triangle between the 3 characters. The curiosity is compelling and it works and the best part is, it leaves the questions without solidarity answers. All this, and it still manages to feel like Kevin Smith's movie - lots of crude jokes and comedic value.

Just behind the Clerks series and maybe Zack and Miri, Chasing Amy is absolutely worth seeing.

Love stories are difficult to do well. So is comedy. Kevin Smith does both. Very very well.

Chasing Amy is, in my opinion Kevin Smith's best movie (Clerks 2nd, Dogma 3rd) and I really don't know where to start the praise.

Traditionally, Hollywood romantic comedies are... well, bad. Really lame PG-13 comedy, with some catch phrase repeated ad nauseum, and always some sort of "hilarious" incident involving a baby or a cute dog. And the characters are just as annoying as the lame jokes, so ultimately, you don't really care about whether or not they get together in the end.

Chasing Amy is different. These characters are lifelike.This isn't a romantic comedy for teenage girls. It's a movie for adults. Almost everyone can relate to being a situation where they've loved someone so much, but due to certain circumstances, you just weren't able to have that person. And I guess that's what Amy's all about. Unrequited love. Well, Unrequited love and sexual identity, but that's another topic for another day.

The real genius of this film is that for all it's serious themes, it manages to convey it's message without being at all pretentious. Most independent films have this sort of, arrogant pretentious "I'm so artistic" feel about them.......And I hate that. Smith's success lies in the fact that his movies are meaningful, and they're actually funny as well. And Chasing Amy is no exception.

In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining, and realistic love story than Chasing Amy. It's combination of hilarious dialogue, interesting characters, and realistic themes makes it a winner.

Most everyone should know the plot from reading the summary, but just in case, here's the story: Holden and Banky have been best friends for 20+ years, having known each other since grade school. They now work together on a comic book called "Bluntman and Chronic", which is basically Jay and Silent Bob as superheroes (Note: It's probably best that you've seen Clerks and Mallrats beforehand, as this is the third in his interconnected Askewniverse series, which refers to characters, places, and events throughout each film and has the one constant of Jay and Bob in it.) One night, Holden falls in love with Alyssa Jones while playing darts after a comicon. The next night, he goes to see her and finds out she's a lesbian. However, they become friends and and he soon enough falls in love with her, and they start a relationship, much to Banky's disgust, throwing their friendship into the trash.

This film not only is a great story and a meaningful message about friendship, love, and accepting the past, but an allegory for the years before he made this movie. Notice how "Bluntman And Chronic" is a hit but critically slammed (in the DVD special features of deleted scenes), just like Mallrats was. Also, Alyssa is (literally and figuratively) Joey Lauren Adams, Smith's girlfriend at the time who he broke up with over her past. Holden writes the comic in the end as an apology to her, just like Smith made the movie as an apology/Valentine to Joey. All the characters are him on some level.

This movie rocks. Skip renting the video and buy Criterion's awesome DVD, with deleted scenes, an awesome commentary track, and much more