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Movies / On DVD / Chasing Amy
Chasing Amy

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Chasing Amy (1997)

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Reviews Counted:66

Fresh:60

Rotten:6

Average Rating:7.5/10

Consensus: Chasing Amy explores gender roles, sexual mores, and the limits of friendship with a mixture of sensitivity, raw honesty, and director/screenwriter Kevin Smith's signature raunchy humor.

Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Kevin Smith's third film was critically acclaimed for its adroitness in balancing complex, adult sexual issues with jokes about bodily functions. The two Garden State guys this time around are... Kevin Smith's third film was critically acclaimed for its adroitness in balancing complex, adult sexual issues with jokes about bodily functions. The two Garden State guys this time around are Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee). At a comic book convention, the co-creators of "Bluntman and Chronic" meet Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a New Jersey native who draws a comic entitled "Idiosyncratic Routine." Holden thinks they click, but proceeds to discover that Alyssa is a lesbian--then manages to convince her to take a chance on him anyway. The real conflict comes when Holden gets hung up on Alyssa's checkered sexual past. What's more, Banky mounts an anti-Alyssa campaign whose intensity and bile Holden can't understand. The script came out of Smith's real-life relationship with Adams, and represents a flowering of the themes of friendship and sexual jealousy which the director first explored in CLERKS. Smith fans can rest assured, however, that STAR WARS is discussed (this time as a racist allegory) and that Jay and Silent Bob do appear to dispense relationship wisdom (and collect royalties for their comic book likenesses). [More]

Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell

Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Casey Affleck, Guinevere Turner, Brian O'Halloran, Matt Damon, Ethan Suplee, Scott Mosier, Carmen Lee, Dan Lunney, Tony Torin, Rebecca Waxman, Paris Petrick, Welker White, Kelli Simpkins, John Willyung, Tsemach Washington, Ernie O'Donnell, Kristin Mosier, Virginia Smith

Director: Kevin Smith

Director: Kevin Smith
Composer: David Pirner
Producer: John Pierson, Robert Hawk, Scott Mosier
Screenwriter: Kevin Smith

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 13, 2000

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Chasing Amy
  • Outrageously sexy and frankly hilarious, CHASING AMY is another hit comedy from Kevin Smith, the critically acclaimed director of CLERKS. Holden's been looking for the perfect woman -- funny, bright, and attractive. When he finally meets Alyssa, the woman of his dreams ... she has someone a little different in mind -- another woman! But together, Holden and Alyssa share the kind of relationship they've been looking for all along ... and soon discover that the confusing ups and downs of love, sex, and friendship in the '90s have never been so complicated ... or so funny! Audiences and critics cheered this provocative and lively comedy ... you're sure to enjoy every entertaining moment.
  • Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Chasing Amy

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    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.

    Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
    11/21/09
    Bill Gibron
    Bill Gibron
    PopMatters

    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.

    Full Review Source: Movie Views | comment Comment
    11/15/09
    Ryan Cracknell
    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.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
    02/03/09
    Channel 4 Film
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Smith isn't just fooling around anymore.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
    02/03/09
    Owen Gleiberman
    Owen Gleiberman
    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    02/03/09
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    02/03/09
    TV Guide's Movie Guide
    Top Critic Icon 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.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
    02/03/09
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Amusing and appealing.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    09/05/08
    Todd McCarthy
    Todd McCarthy
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

    Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
    03/31/08
    David Ansen
    David Ansen
    Newsweek
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

    Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment 1 Comment
    09/24/07
    Rob Gonsalves
    Rob Gonsalves
    eFilmCritic.com

    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.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    06/24/06
    Geoff Andrew
    Geoff Andrew
    Time Out

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

    Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
    06/02/06
    Emanuel Levy
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

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

    Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
    04/09/05
    Robin Clifford
    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.

    Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
    03/31/05
    Philip Martin
    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.

    Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
    12/06/04
    Jeffrey Overstreet
    Jeffrey Overstreet
    Looking Closer

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

    Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
    05/14/03
    Jeanne Aufmuth
    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.

    Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
    12/08/02
    Ron Wells
    Ron Wells
    Film Threat

    Indie god Kevin Smith's finest hour gets the Criterion treatment.

    Full Review Source: Netflix | comment Comment
    11/07/02
    James Rocchi
    James Rocchi
    Netflix

    It's a tribute to a smartly written script that the triangular relationships are played out in hip, flip language, but are not trivialized. These characters may be wry, rude and foul-mouthed, but they are grappling with honest human emotion.

    Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
    10/15/02
    Margaret A. McGurk
    Margaret A. McGurk
    Cincinnati Enquirer

    What really make the film special is that, while still being packed with foul language and pop culture references, this film is the only one in which Smith really seems to care about his characters and their lives.

    Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
    09/10/02
    Kevin N. Laforest
    Kevin N. Laforest
    Montreal Film Journal
     
     
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    Latest News for Chasing Amy

    January 17, 2008: Kevin Smith's Porno Adds Five
    Just in time for filming to begin, Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno has added five new faces to its cast. More...

    July 20, 2006: Critical Consensus: "Lady" Is All Wet; "Ex" Is Not Super; "House" Is Scary, "Clerks" Is Funny
    This week we've got some magic in ordinary dwellings (M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water" and "Monster House") and some funny couples ("My Super... More...

    June 19, 2006: "Clerks II" Getting Some Premature Critical Love
    After screening at Cannes to an eight-minute standing ovation, "Clerks II" is beginning to garner precious positive reviews from print and online critics, who have... More...

    February 08, 2006: Affleck & Damon to Reunite for Disney Drama
    Variety reports that old buddies Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reunite to star in a Disney-backed "based on actual events" legal drama. And it's not a Kevin Smith... More...

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