Chasing Amy

Chasing Amy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kevin Smith
Written by	Kevin Smith
Produced by	Scott Mosier
Starring	Ben Affleck Joey Lauren Adams Jason Lee Dwight Ewell Jason Mewes Kevin Smith
Cinematography	David Klein
Edited by	Scott Mosier Kevin Smith
Music by	David Pirner
Production company	View Askew Productions
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	April 4, 1997
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$250,000
Box office	$12,021,272

Chasing Amy is a 1997 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith. It is the third film in the View Askewniverse series. The film focuses on the relationship between a heterosexual man and a lesbian.

The movie contains frank sexual dialogue, and was originally inspired by a brief scene from an early movie by a friend of Smith's, Guinevere Turner's Go Fish, wherein one of the lesbian characters imagines her friends passing judgment on her for "selling out" by sleeping with a man. In real life, Kevin Smith was dating star Joey Lauren Adams at the time he was writing the script, which was also partly inspired by her.

The film won two awards at the 1998 Independent Spirit Awards (Best Screenplay for Smith and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Lee) and Joey Lauren Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical.

Plot

Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are comic book artists and lifelong friends. Holden is the calmer, more reasonable of the duo; Banky, meanwhile, is the caustic and short-tempered half. Everything is going well for them until they meet Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) at a comic book convention in New York to promote their comic Bluntman and Chronic. Holden is attracted to Alyssa, but soon learns that she is a lesbian. The two begin hanging out, and a deep friendship develops. This does not sit well with the homophobic Banky, who dislikes and distrusts Alyssa and is bothered by her and Holden's relationship. Eventually, Holden is no longer able to contain his feelings, and confesses his love to Alyssa. She is initially angry with him, but that night the two begin a romantic relationship.

This new development worsens the tension between Holden and Banky. The latter investigates and uncovers dirt on Alyssa's past, and he reports to Holden that Alyssa participated in a threesome with two men during high school, which gave her the nickname, "Finger Cuffs". Holden is deeply disturbed by this revelation, having believed that he is the first man Alyssa had ever slept with. He angrily confronts Alyssa while attending a hockey game, after he clumsily attempts baiting her into confessing. During a tearful argument, she tells Holden about her "many" youthful sexual experimentations. She apologizes for letting him believe that he was the only man she had been with. However, she refuses to apologize for her past, and Holden leaves feeling angry and confused.

Later, during lunch with Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), Silent Bob reveals that he was once in a relationship similar to Holden's. Despite the fact that he was in love with his girlfriend, Amy, his insecurities about her adventurous sexual past caused him to sabotage the relationship and leave her. Angry at himself for letting her go, he has spent the rest of his life since then "Chasing Amy". Inspired by Silent Bob's story, Holden devises a plan to fix both his relationship with Alyssa and his fractured friendship with Banky. He invites them both over and tells Alyssa that he would like to get over her past and remain her boyfriend. He also tells Banky that he realizes that Banky is in love with him — kissing him passionately to prove the point. Holden suggests that the three of them should have sex with each other. Though initially appalled, Banky agrees to participate, whereas Alyssa explains to Holden that it will not save their relationship. Before leaving, she states that she loves him, but she will not be his whore. Banky also leaves the apartment, and summarily ends their friendship.

One year later, both Banky and Holden are busy promoting their own respective comics at a convention in New York. It is revealed that Holden has dissolved their partnership over Bluntman and Chronic, leaving the viewer with the assumption that he sold the publishing and creative rights over to Banky (which is corroborated in the beginning of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). Banky smiles sadly at seeing his old friend, who silently congratulates him for his success. Banky gestures over to a booth hosted by Alyssa, and provides wordless encouragement to Holden to go talk to her. He has a brief, quietly emotional conversation with Alyssa, and gives her a copy of Chasing Amy, his new comic based on their failed relationship. After Holden leaves, Alyssa's new girlfriend (Virginia Smith) arrives and asks who that was. A shaken Alyssa feigns indifference and replies, "Oh, just some guy I knew."

Cast

• Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil
• Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa Jones
• Jason Lee as Banky Edwards
• Dwight Ewell as Hooper X
• Jason Mewes as Jay
• Kevin Smith as Silent Bob
• Ethan Suplee as Fan
• Scott Mosier as Collector
• Matt Damon as Shawn Oran
• Brian O'Halloran as Jim Hicks
• Guinevere Turner as Singer

Release and reception

Critical reception

Critics praised the film as one of Kevin Smith's best, earning a 91% from reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert also gave the film "two thumbs up," and Ebert thought it was a great improvement over Smith's previous effort, 1995's Mallrats. The film also helped launch Affleck's career. Kevin Smith received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Original Screenplay, while Jason Lee received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Box office

On a budget of $250,000, the film grossed $12,021,272 in theaters.

Home media

A special edition DVD was released with 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 surround sound. It includes the following bonus features: Audio commentary from cast and crew; Introduction by Kevin Smith; deleted scenes; outtakes; and a theatrical trailer.

Chasing Amy was originally released as a Criterion Collection Laserdisc. Smith raised eyebrows when he recorded the running commentary for the Laserdisc, as he started it by saying, "This is a laserdisc, and I'd like to take a moment to say fuck DVD." When Criterion released the DVD – which re-uses the Laserdisc running commentary – Smith recorded a special introduction in which he apologized for the comment and jokingly attributed it to Jason Mewes.

It was rumored that 2007 would see the release of a Chasing Amy X DVD, in a similar vein as the Clerks X DVD and the Mallrats: 10th Anniversary DVDs. But at Comic-Con 2007, Smith confirmed that a special "supplementary" DVD would be released the following year to go along with the Criterion Collection DVD released earlier that will just have more extras on it. Smith later said Criterion rejected the idea of a special edition as being "double dipping," but he is hopeful that new featurettes can be included on a future Blu-ray Disc release of the film.

Smith recently revealed at a Q&A session in Vancouver in early 2009 that he and the film's cast were currently recording new material for an upcoming Criterion Blu-ray release of the film.

Novel

In Japan, the screenplay of Chasing Amy was adapted into a novel by Kenichi Eguchi and published by Aoyama Publishing. The unique concept of the book is that it is roughly half-novel, half-manga, with Moyoco Anno providing the art for the comic book pages.

Cultural references

• In a scene originally written for Mallrats, several principal characters share memories of sexual escapades gone awry. This scene reveals the character's own emotional "sex scars" and was purposefully created – down to the style of dialogue and set dressing – to mirror a scene from Steven Spielberg's Jaws in which Quint and Hooper share the physical scars they've both earned from encounters with sharks.
• The British alternative band Howards Alias wrote a song called "Chasing Amy", which appears as the opening song on their album The Answer Is Never.
• Singer/songwriter Ryan Coughlin wrote a song called "Chasing Amy", which appears on his 2009 album "Make It Count".
• Holden and Banky are named after Holden Caulfield and Ed Banky, both from the J. D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye.

See also

• View Askewniverse
• Jay and Silent Bob

External links

• Official website
• Chasing Amy at IMDb
• Chasing Amy at the TCM Movie Database
• Chasing Amy at AllMovie
• Chasing Amy at Box Office Mojo
• Amy Chasing Amy at Metacritic
• Chasing Amy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Chasing Amy at the Criterion Collection
• DailyScript.com – The Chasing Amy screenplay.