Chasing Amy (1997)

Writer/Director:  Kevin Smith

The Quote I Quote Most Often:  “Always some white boy gotta invoke the Holy Trilogy.”  ~ Hooper X

Favorite Quote This Time Around:  “I’m happy my stuff gets read at all . . . If I sell two issues I feel like John Grisham.”  ~ Alyssa Jones

Blake’s Favorite Quote:  “YOUR MOTHER’S A TRACER!!”  ~ Banky

Character I Most Identify With:  Holden McNeil

Nod to John Hughes:  “Keep your unit on ya.”  ~ Jay

I love this movie.  Not only is it my favorite of Kevin Smith’s films, it’s in my top-five favorite movies of all time.  Because some of you seem to be using my reviews as a “to-watch” list, I feel obligated to warn you about the language in this movie. Whereas Clerks and Mallrats have a lot of dirty jokes and cursing, Chasing Amy’s language is a lot more sexually explicit.  Just so you know.

I love the raw emotion of this film.  I love that the story unfolds exclusively through dialogue (with the exception of that incredible scene in the rain.  Swoon.)   

And I love love love love Ben Affleck’s monologue in the car after they leave the diner.  Have you ever heard anything more heart wrenching in your life?!

Not only is this a romance, it's also a great story of what happens to best friends when one of them falls in love.

 

It’s so difficult to talk about this movie without spoilers, so I’ll stick to what it is that makes this movie so much better than the others.  Kevin Smith has admitted to this being a very personal story and I think that comes across in every single scene.  It’s also a theme in the movie; Holden McNeil is unsatisfied with the comic books he’s been writing and longs to write something more personal.

I can’t quote it exactly and I don’t remember who said it, but there’s a quote from a writer that says roughly, if something comes up in your writing that scares you, that’s the stuff you need to pursue.  Just the idea of this scares the whiz out of me.  I find it extremely hard to put my raw emotions on the page.  I am always thinking about what people will think if they read it.  I find it very difficult to put aside the daughter/wife/mother/teacher parts of myself while trying to write something true and real.  I must learn how to do this if I ever hope to have my Chasing Amy.  I might be able to pull off a funny book or an insightful book, but if I ever hope to write a truly good book, then I’ll have to go much deeper than I ever have before and share those parts of myself that I like to hide most of the time.

Alyssa: [about Holden's new comic, "Chasing Amy"] Looks like a very personal story.

Holden: I finally had something personal to say.