Chasing Amy (1997)

All Critics (70) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (62) | Rotten (7) | DVD (27)

Smith isn't just fooling around anymore.

February 3, 2009 Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

The third time out is the real charm for writer-director Kevin Smith.

February 3, 2009

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

Neither PC nor crudely anti-PC, this tough and tender movie, like its characters, is prepared to take emotional risks, and the comic book milieu is deftly sketched in.

February 3, 2009 Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Amusing and appealing.

September 5, 2008 Full Review

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

Instead of cool twenty-something irony, Smith startles us with raw emotional honesty.

March 31, 2008 Full Review

David Ansen

Newsweek

Top Critic

The script moves beyond Smith's customary cataloguing of male adolescent ignorance and idiocy to offer sharp insights into the romanticism and pragmatism, pride and double standards that define the tangled threesome.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Top Critic

Dated romantic comedy wrong for all kids.

January 1, 2011 Full Review | Comments (5)

Carly Kocurek

Common Sense Media

The third installment of Kevin Smith's New Jersey Trilogy is also the only Kevin Smith movie that's worth any serious attention.

November 4, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Radheyan Simonpillai

AskMen.com

Like a raw nerve tweaked over and over again by emotions both radiant and revealing, Chasing Amy is as close to a masterpiece as Smith has ever created.

November 21, 2009 Full Review

Bill Gibron

PopMatters

Chasing Amy suggests that Smith could do so much better if only he would push himself.

November 16, 2009 Full Review

Matt Noller

Slant Magazine

Smith's most mature film. Yes, it's filled with crude dialogue, blunt descriptions of sex and an overkill of Star Wars references, but it uses these to dig deeper and make its subject matter more accessible.

November 15, 2009 Full Review

Ryan Cracknell

Movie Views

While there is nothing horribly offensive here, neither is there anything as gut-bustingly funny as in his gloriously foulmouthed debut.

February 3, 2009 Full Review

Film4

The subject -- the complexity of love when all the rules have changed -- proves beyond the scope of his limited vision.

February 3, 2009 Full Review

TV Guide's Movie Guide

The plot and dialogue play too much as if Smith is re-enacting past romantic squabbles he's had, and rewriting them, too.

September 24, 2007 Full Review | Comments (2)

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Like Clerks, this is a politically incorrect comedy with casual profanity, but more profoundly so. Smith doesn't play the Hollywood stereotype of lesbians as women who have not met yet the right guy.

June 2, 2006 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

An intelligent and provocative low-budget film with big-budget talent and look, making it an exceptional independent effort.

April 9, 2005 Full Review

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

...Smith makes raw and naturalistic, highly verbal films full of frank talk about sex; making the audience uncomfortable is part of the point.

March 31, 2005 Full Review

Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

... an important movie about young people lost in the Gen-X labyrinth who are giving it a try [and] risking their hearts to find some kind of answer.

December 6, 2004 Full Review

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

It is evident that Kevin Smith is maturing both as a writer and a human being.

May 14, 2003

Jeanne Aufmuth

Palo Alto Weekly

Smith's handling of actors has improved considerably. Now if he would stop looking for some goofy hook to build his movies around.

December 8, 2002 Full Review

Ron Wells

Film Threat

• 1. Holden McNeil: There's a world of fucking difference between typical high school sex and two guys at once! They fucking used you?
  2. Alyssa Jones: I used them! You don't think I would've let it happen if I hadn't wanted it to, do you?! I was an experimental girl, for Christ's sake! Maybe you knew early on that your track was from point 'a' to 'b' - but unlike you I wasn't given a fucking map at birth, so I tried it all! That is until we - that's you and I - got together, and suddenly, I was sated. Can't you take some fucking comfort in that? You turned out to be all I was ever looking for - the missing piece in the big fucking puzzle! [tries to calm down] Look I'm sorry I let you believe that you were the only guy I'd ever been with. I should've been more honest. But it seemed to make you feel special in a way that me telling you over an over again how incredible you are would never get across. [she touches his face. He pulls back. She stares at him, hurt and pissed] Do you mean to tell me that - while you have zero problem with me sleeping with half the women in New York City - you have some sort of half-assed, mealy-mouthed objection to pubescent antics, that took place almost ten years ago? What the fuck is your problem?
  3. Holden McNeil: [eyes are downcast. Alyssa waits for a response] I want us to be something that we can't.
  4. Alyssa Jones: And what's that?
  5. Holden McNeil: A normal couple.
  – Submitted by Jordan P (11 months ago)
• 1. Holden McNeil: What are you doing?
  2. Alyssa Jones: Get back in the car and get out of here.
  3. Holden McNeil: Your'e going to hitch to New York?
  4. Alyssa Jones: Y'ep.
  5. Holden McNeil: Aren't you at least going to comment?
  6. Alyssa Jones: Here's my comment fuck you.
  7. Holden McNeil: Why?
  8. Alyssa Jones: That was so unfair. You know how unfair that was.
  9. Holden McNeil: It's unfair that I'm in love with you?
  10. Alyssa Jones: No, it's unfortunate that you're in love with me. It's unfair that you felt the fucking need to unburden your soul about it. Do you remember for a fucking second who I am?
  11. Holden McNeil: So? People change.
  12. Alyssa Jones: Oh, it's that simple? You fall in love with me and want a romantic relationship, nothing changes for you with the exception of feeling hunky-dorey all the time. But what about-me? It's not that simple, is it? I can't just get into a relationship with you without throwing my whole fucking world into upheaval!
  13. Holden McNeil: But that's every relationship! There's always going to be a period of adjustment.
  14. Alyssa Jones: Period of adjustment?!? [hitting him] THERE'S NO 'PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT' HOLDEN! I'M FUCKING GAY! THAT'S WHO I AM! AND YOU ASSUME I CAN TURN THAT AROUND JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE GOT A CRUSH?!?
  15. Holden McNeil: if this is a crush... then I don't know if I could take the real thing if it ever happens.
  16. Alyssa Jones: Go home, Holden.
  – Submitted by Jordan P (11 months ago)
• 1. Holden McNeil: I love you.
  2. Alyssa Jones: [beat] You love me.
  3. Holden McNeil: I love you. And not in a friendly way, although I think we're great friends. And not in a misplaced affection, puppy-dog way, although I'm sure that's what you'll call it. And it's not because you're unattainable. I love you. Very simple, very truly. You're the epitome of every attribute and quality I've ever looked for in another person. I know you think of me as just a friend and crossing that line is the furthest thing from an option you'd ever consider. But I can't do this any longer. I can't stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can't look into your eyes without feeling that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can't talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are. I know this will probably queer our friendship - no pun intended - but I had to say it, because I've never felt this before, and I like who I am because of it. And if bringing it to light means we can't hang out anymore, then that hurts me. But I couldn't allow another day to go by without getting it out there, regardless of the outcome, which by the look on your face is to be the inevitable shoot-down. And I'll accept that But I know some part of you is hesitating for a moment, and if there is a moment of hesitation, that means you feel something too. All I ask is that you not suppress that - at least for ten minutes - and try to dwell in it before you dismiss it. There isn't another soul on this fucking planet who's ever made me the person I am when I'm with you, and I would risk this friendship for the chance to take it to the next plateau. Because it's there between you and me. You can't deny that. And even if we never speak again after tonight, please know that I'm forever changed because of you and what you've meant to me, which - while I do appreciate it - I'd never need a painting of birds bought at a diner to remind me of.
  – Submitted by Jordan P (11 months ago)
• 1. Silent Bob: Bitch, what you don't know about me I could just about squeeze in the Grand fuckin' Canyon. Did you know I always wanted to be a dancer in Vegas? No? Bet you didn't even know that shit did you?
  – Submitted by Ethan R (13 months ago)
• 1. Silent Bob: Chasing Amy...
  2. Holden McNeil: What? What did you say?
  3. Silent Bob: You're chasing Amy.
  4. Jay: Whadda you look so shocked for, man? Fat bastard does this all the time. He thinks just 'coz he don't say anything it'll have some huge impact when he does open his fucking mouth-
  5. Silent Bob: Jesus Christ, why don't you shut up? Always yap-yap--yappin' all the time, gimme a fucking headache.
  – Submitted by Ethan R (13 months ago)