Chasing Amy

THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
Chasing Amy is the third movie in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, the first two being Clerks. and Mallrats. The only View Askewniverse movies I've seen are Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II and all of them are equally funny, but this is the only one I consider to be intelligent. This movie is a perfect example of what a romance story should be: funny, dramatic and of course, romantic. On to my review?

Plot - 9 / 10

The story of Chasing Amy centers around two men: Banky Edwards and Holden McNeil, the latter being the hero or the protagonist of the movie. They are both comic book writers, their comic being Bluntman & Chronic (the characters being based off Jay and Silent Bob). Banky is Holden's best friend. He's a passive-aggressive gay basher and frequently talks about how much he likes chicks. Holden is a guy looking out for one girl, that girl being Alyssa Jones, the female lead and comic book writer. Holden is played by Ben Affleck, Banky's played by Jason Lee and Alyssa is portrayed by Joey Lauren Adams. Early in the movie, Holden meets Alyssa and assumes they shared a moment after that night. The next day (probably), Holden is invited to a peculiar club by Alyssa and Hooper, another comic book writer. After a few words and a song, Holden finds out that Alyssa is a lesbian. After that, Alyssa goes to Holden to straighten out how and why she's gay then they become good friends. But behind that friendship, Holden's love for Alyssa becomes unbearable that he confesses his love for her. Though it looks like Alyssa ditches him, she confesses that she's in love with him too. So they date as a couple while Banky sulks. Banky soon finds out about Alyssa's weird history about taking on two guys at once. Banky informs Holden this which becomes the eyelash in Holden's eye. Holden interrogates Alyssa who gives in and tells him this along with other dirty sexual relationships she's had. The relationship deteriorates after that. We see Holden sulking in a diner where we see our heroes, Jay and Silent Bob, collecting their basis-for-characters fee. They talk about random stuff when Holden tells Jay the name of his love. Jay recognizes Alyssa as Finger Cuffs (which irritates Holden even more). Silent Bob tells Holden that he's chasing Amy (which is where we find the title for the movie). Bob's story is about him and his old girlfriend who he dumped because of her sexual past. This encourages Holden that there is a way to patch up his relationship with Banky and Alyssa. Soon after this, we see Alyssa, Banky and Holden in one room. Holden tells him his idea of a threesome. While Banky reluctantly accepts, Alyssa downright refuses with no attitude of changing her mind. The relationship sinks even further. We come to the end of the movie when we see Banky with his own comic book and Alyssa with her new girlfriend. Holden shows us his new comic book called "Chasing Amy" with him and Alyssa as the main characters. And that is the end of Chasing Amy.

The characters are well written. Banky Edwards was really funny though annoying. The most annoying character was indeed Hooper X. Joey Lauren Adams played a great lesbian and Ben played well as a bisexual. There's not much to say about the characters. The only character development we see is Holden, Banky and Alyssa.

It's all about the dialogue (along with the other View Askewniverse movies). The dialogue, much like Pulp Fiction, moves the story along. The dialogue is very sex-related and profanity-happy, though the words used are very necessary to the story. You can hear the f-word probably 118 times and alot of "going down ons".

The music is the only thing that bothered me. Though some of the music was good, the rest was annoying. If you're gonna watch this movie, don't expect AWESOMEMUSIC playing. The only tune I liked was the Holden/Banky theme (played on the menu of Chasing Amy and I think, the beginning of the movie) which is also played for Holden on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.