Theatrical Release Poster for “Chasing Amy”

When you think about the Miramax movies of the 90s and early 2000s, you probably think about “Mallrats” or “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”. The movie that always seems to fall through the cracks is “Chasing Amy”. There are cases to be made on why it was forgotten. The point is actually to discuss the movie. There is one caveat; we need to start by saying that this movie was released in 1997 and contains super problematic sh*t like homophobia, pedophilic comments, grown men not understanding sexual attraction, and pretty much a host of other shit. Kevin Smith (plays Silent Bob) wrote all of these Miramax movies, and his other stuff contains a woman fucking a dead man(not on screen in Clerks), in a classic case of mistaken identity in the dark. You can understand that covering these topics in these movies is an act of satire. That being said, Kevin Smith has come out to speak out against Harvey Weinstein, who funded some of his projects. So Kevin Smith is not a bad guy, but some of his characters are bad people. Now that we’ve said all that, we can enter into this stupid wild review of a stupid wild movie. Let’s gooooooo.

The Characters

The characters in this movie are all interwoven into the Miramax universe, where Jay and Silent Bob exist, and Randall and Dante, and the Quick Stop, and all that other cool stuff. I know it sounds like I’m not excited about that, but I’m very excited and my hands are trembling and I can’t wait to introduce you to the three characters that are important to talk about.

Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil, circa 1996 (filming). Sourced from IMDB via View Askew Prods & Miramax Films

Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil: Do you ever watch a movie and someone feels a bit out of place in it? That usually happens to me when I see Ben Affleck in most things, but it didn’t happen here. I always thought that he fit in this role. It was the first time he had been cast in his career as something other than a bully or dummy or whatever. You know? So this was a big deal. He plays a guy who’s a comic book artist, who works with his best friend, who is utterly shielded from the dynamics of things outside his New Jersey bubble. He’s naive, loveable, foolish, noble, ignorant, intelligent, and impulsive. All of those things, pfft, it gets complicated. I just want to point out that the next major appearance for Ben Affleck on the silver screen, besides Going All The Way (which is really awful), was in Good Will Hunting (which is really wonderful). So this was kind of like a tune-up for that¹.

Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa Jones: I think it is only appropriate to say that I saw her in Big Daddy first, even though it came out after Chasing Amy. I watched Chasing Amy for the first time in the early 2000s. I was in love. Seriously, she’s wonderful as Alyssa. She’s mercurial, and intelligent, and witty, and I still think she’s the perfect “Amy” for Holden. When Kevin Smith was writing this movie, I don’t know that he could have imagined a better person to play Alyssa; a carefree woman whose way of being is like a tree swaying in the wind. She’s the perfect foil to Holden. She’s well-traveled and way more experienced than Holden, which becomes a huge problem later on.

Jason Lee as Banky Edwards: So remember all of that stuff that I had to disclose about the movie earlier? This guy right here is the manifestation of all of those things. But this is a comedy, so it’s fine. Banky is Holden’s best friend and partner in the illustrating and writing of Bluntman and Chronic. He cares for Holden deeply, probably a little bit deeper than he should. His regular banter is homophobic and immature in nature. He’s just like… the guy who needed to be in this movie, but whose character was a complete piece of shit. You know? Anyway, he grows to hate Alyssa because he believes it’ll all end badly for Holden. It does, so I guess he’s not completely wrong all the time. I love Jason Lee, and when I think about him, I think Mallrats and I think skateboarding. Sometimes, if you catch on the right day, I’ll remember him as “that trash dude in Chasing Amy”, and also the skateboarding (he was really good, and if you didn’t know that he skated, shame on you, but seriously go look it up). As you can tell, I chose three characters, which means that I tried to only choose characters that were absolutely essential to the story. Banky is that. He’s essential, because of what happens at the end, when Alyssa and Holden break up. I’m sorry to break it to you like that, but chin-up?

Alyssa and Hooper LaMante in the scene where she first meets Holden. Sourced from IMDB via View Askew Prods & Miramax Films.

Honorable Mention:

I felt that I would be doing you a disservice by failing to mention Dwight Ewell as Hooper LaMante (X) He’s a comic book writer, whose schtick is to portray a character who closely resembles the Black Panther Party of the 60s-70s. He displays a militant attitude about race relations and is a caricature of actual black nationalists. He does this to sell copies of his comic book, which I’m not going to name because it’s mad racist (seriously, though). That being said, you can look it up if you want. It’s really not important because the most important thing about Hooper is that he introduces Holden and Banky to Alyssa. Therein lies his super duper importance. He is well deserving of this article’s Honorable Mention. Congrats, Hooper.

The Good Stuff

There are so many references to other Miramax movies like when Holden meets with Jay and Silent Bob and he remarks, “What were you at the mall again?” It’s the little Easter eggs *smiles and wipes tear from corner of eye*.

*smiles and wipes tear from corner of eye*. Silent Bob. Silent Bob shows up for a small, but important part of the movie. He delivers a speech about how he had once experienced the insecurity that Holden feels with Alyssa, with another girl named Amy. He remarks about how his inability to reconcile his insecurities led to him losing Amy, and he supposes that ever since then, he has been CHASING AMY . ←Good Stuff. This leads to Holden coming up with his ultimate idea on how to salvage his friendship with Banky and his relationship with Alyssa. It goes badly. Holden…that was so dumb, you dumb dummy.

Silent Bob shows up for a small, but important part of the movie. He delivers a speech about how he had once experienced the insecurity that Holden feels with Alyssa, with another girl named Amy. He remarks about how his inability to reconcile his insecurities led to him losing Amy, and he supposes that ever since then, he has been . ←Good Stuff. This leads to Holden coming up with his ultimate idea on how to salvage his friendship with Banky and his relationship with Alyssa. It goes badly. Holden…that was so dumb, you dumb dummy. Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa is one of the good things. She’s the only traditionally good thing about this, like film-wise. She’s an incredible actress, and she put forth a nice performance, albeit a bit extra², but still good. She got won the “Most Promising Actress” award for 1998 from both the Chicago and the Las Vegas Film Critic Associations, and most notably, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. So yes, she’s undeniably good in this movie.

The Wrap Up

This movie serves to do a few things: remind you of the 1990s, remind you that there were so many people like Banky Edwards out there and still are, make you laugh, and lowkey, was Ben Affleck’s moment of shedding his super bully persona³. All of those things make Chasing Amy a movie that you should see at least once in your life, like all those times when you’re sitting on your couch or laying in bed talking about, “there’s nothing on Netflix.” This is on Netflix, so go enjoy some of good old *almost twenty years old* Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse⁴.

Footnotes