Films Not To Watch When You’re Single, No. 1: Chasing Amy
I’ve been a fan of Kevin Smith (of View Askew) films ever since Dogma came out. It was only then that I realised he’d done an entire series of related films and I went back to watch them. They are all fantastic – except for Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, which is just a masturbatory piece of shameless self-congratulation *spit*.
Chasing Amy is the third film in the series. I saw it again a couple of days ago and realised how much more of an intelligent offering it is, than its more tongue in cheek siblings.
Don’t get me wrong – this film will make you laugh your fucking intestines out of your ass. It’s worth watching for the ‘fucking tracer!’ line alone. But it does have a serious point and it doesn’t fail to deliver it straight to your face.
It is a tale of friendships and love and how the past doesn’t mean anything when you forsake it for the here and now. Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) plays the part of a lesbian girl that forsakes her sexuality to fall in love with Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), whose jealous best friend and working partner Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) turns the relationship into an absolute cunt when he digs up enough dirt on Alyssa that Holden finds she’s orgied with half his home-town (and wasn’t a lesbian at all).
Noticeably devastated, Holden breaks the whole thing off, only to find later that the concept of ‘Chasing Amy’ is where you find someone so special that they forsake everything they were to be with you. Yet, that past life of theirs is so intimidating to you that you call the whole thing off. If this girl has been having threesomes most of her life, how can I be enough? The point is that part of her is over now, and now she wants you. The only person who can’t deal with it is you and that’s to do with your own insecurities. From that day on, you are Chasing Amy.
I think the message is powerful, mainly because nobody is at fault. It exemplifies Love as a Cunt. There is no resolution to this film, no happy ending. Holden and Alyssa split up and that’s it. There’s nothing to learn here, no trick to get around it. The writer is evil in fact – where the fuck does he get off on this shit?
Luckily, Jason Lee is so stupidly hilarious throughout that you almost don’t notice the sad ending. Excellent work.
7/10
Chasing Amy is the third film in the series. I saw it again a couple of days ago and realised how much more of an intelligent offering it is, than its more tongue in cheek siblings.
Don’t get me wrong – this film will make you laugh your fucking intestines out of your ass. It’s worth watching for the ‘fucking tracer!’ line alone. But it does have a serious point and it doesn’t fail to deliver it straight to your face.
It is a tale of friendships and love and how the past doesn’t mean anything when you forsake it for the here and now. Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) plays the part of a lesbian girl that forsakes her sexuality to fall in love with Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), whose jealous best friend and working partner Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) turns the relationship into an absolute cunt when he digs up enough dirt on Alyssa that Holden finds she’s orgied with half his home-town (and wasn’t a lesbian at all).
Noticeably devastated, Holden breaks the whole thing off, only to find later that the concept of ‘Chasing Amy’ is where you find someone so special that they forsake everything they were to be with you. Yet, that past life of theirs is so intimidating to you that you call the whole thing off. If this girl has been having threesomes most of her life, how can I be enough? The point is that part of her is over now, and now she wants you. The only person who can’t deal with it is you and that’s to do with your own insecurities. From that day on, you are Chasing Amy.
I think the message is powerful, mainly because nobody is at fault. It exemplifies Love as a Cunt. There is no resolution to this film, no happy ending. Holden and Alyssa split up and that’s it. There’s nothing to learn here, no trick to get around it. The writer is evil in fact – where the fuck does he get off on this shit?
Luckily, Jason Lee is so stupidly hilarious throughout that you almost don’t notice the sad ending. Excellent work.
7/10
posted by Juliet is Bleeding... | 11:06 pm
