Kevin Smith Week: ‘Chasing Amy’

What is the one thing that will drive two best friends apart? A cute blond bi-sexual girl of course. One of my all time favorite View-Askew films is ‘Chasing Amy’, Kevin Smith’s third installment in the Jersey Trilogy and his most critically acclaimed film to date. ‘Chasing Amy’ was the winner of the Independent Spirit Award for best Screenplay and  the launching pad for little known actress  Joey Lauren Adams. Adam’s also received a  Golden Globe nomination  for her performance of Alyssa Jones, the previously mentioned bi-sexual blond. Kevin Smith is a film maker with an eye for talent, gathering a group that today would  make up  an A-list cast (Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck)  to do a movie with a shoestring budget close to $250,000.

Ben Affleck and Jason Lee return, after fighting over Shannon Dougherty in ‘Mallrats’, as life long friends Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards in 1997’s ‘Chasing Amy’. McNeil (Affleck) and Edwards (Lee) are roommates and successful comic-book creators. Their latest endeavor is the story of Bluntman & Chronic, a tale of  two stoner superheroes, that have a strong resemblance to Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, himself) . If you haven’t picked up the books, you really should …they’re great! (and available at www.viewaskew.com).

While at a comic book convention, Holden notices an attractive artist on a Q&A panel, Alyssa Jones (Adams) creator of her own feminist comic ‘Idiosyncratic Routine’. One of my favorite scenes in the film happens at the convention, when Banky (Lee) is forced to defend his station in life: being an inker. Don’t even call him a tracer! Holden, Banky, Alyssa and black militant homosexual artist Hooper (Dwight Ewell)Â  all meet for a drink following the convention. Holden is convinced he and Alyssa shared a moment, and he is infatuated with her.

It’s not until the next time Holden meets up with Alyssa at the Meow Mix bar that he realizes she plays for the other team.  Holden catches  her playing a little tonsil hockey with a young blond. That’s when Banky realizes they are trying to pick up girls at a lesbian bar and smiles  from ear to ear.  Ã‚  This doesn’t stop Holden who eventually falls for Alyssa, and in turn,  she falls for him.  This forfeits  Alyssa’s membership in the she-woman man haters club.

The new romance also drives a wedge in the Bluntman & Chronic team.   Banky does what any best friend would do…he digs up some dirt on Alyssa. Banky discovers her high school nickname was “fingercuffs”, coming from her early sexual awareness. you need to check out the DVD to decode the meaning of… “fingercuffs”. (DVD available at www.viewaskew.com)

Holden, who thought he was the one who converted Alyssa back to the “sausage side”, is unable to look  at  a future with Alyssa, being  disgusted with her past sexual exploits. Following the break-up, we finally are treated to  the first  appearance of Jay and Silent Bob. Bob , not so quietly, explains to Holden the concept and basis for the title of the film “Chasing Amy” or in this case Chasing Alyssa. Basically letting your one true love get away and then spend the rest of your life chasing after that feeling you once had. Holden, after a failed suggested threesome with Alyssa and…Banky?,   pens a new graphic novel and apology called …yes you guessed it….”Chasing Amy” that chronicles his and Alyssa’s relationship culminating with a final panel “I’m Sorry Alyssa”.

Kevin Smith’s cannonball into the sexual revolution pool is a “10!” Chasing Amy is a wonderful story of how people react to  each other’s sexuality.  I have been to Red Bank, New Jersey (everyone should visit this cool small town). Every time I watch ‘Amy’ it’s like re-living the trip there, I can almost smell the pizza slices around the corner from the View Askew shop.   Chasing Amy is the perfect end to a hilarious threesome of buddy movies (Clerks, Mallrats), and it will make you laugh, it will make some cry (not me!) and mostly it will make you think! You will also see the graduation of a fine director (Kevin Smith) into the icon he has become today. Make ‘Chasing Amy’ part of your DVD library and don’t let Amy be a stranger… re-visit her often.