{"id":379,"date":"1997-12-29T19:21:29","date_gmt":"1997-12-30T00:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/?p=379"},"modified":"2023-08-06T17:20:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T21:20:34","slug":"chasing-amy-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/chasing-amy-1997\/","title":{"rendered":"CHASING AMY (1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The third film by celebrated independent filmmaker Kevin Smith from Red\u00a0Bank, New Jersey who rose to cult icon status for his first two films\u00a0Clerks (1994)<\/em>, and Mallrats (1995). Chasing Amy (1997)<\/em> is a film made in the midst of Smith\u2019s film\u00a0explosion that came under much scrutiny due to it\u2019s heavily sexual and heavily\u00a0(for the time) controversial examination of non-linear sexuality and racial\u00a0defiance.<\/p>\n

The film follows the story of it\u2019s title characters, Banky (Jason Lee), an\u00a0aggressively sarcastic comic book co-writer and inker (tracer) on the comic\u00a0book series, \u2018Bluntman & Chronic\u2019<\/em>, whom he works on with co-writer and artist,\u00a0Holden (Ben Affleck) and rounds out with Holden’s love interest in Alyssa \u2018Fingercuffs<\/em>\u2019\u00a0Jones (Joey Lauren Adam).<\/p>\n

While the actors in this film play convincing enough roles, I wasn\u2019t 100% sold on\u00a0the character performances after seeing\u00a0Affleck, Lee, and Adam in other roles (not too far outside of the scope of the\u00a0timeline of Smith\u2019s film) which led me to believe that the direction provided by Smith\u00a0fell short of his storytelling abilities through his actors and relied more on\u00a0dialogue to tell his story. Since this was only Smith\u2019s 3rd feature film and the\u00a0story did call for a lot of in-frame reference material explanation, the acting could’ve been necessitated to take a hit in order to establish the\u00a0referential nature of the comic book fandom and the depiction of\u00a0present pop culture references.<\/p>\n

Before reading further – be advised there are spoilers below.<\/p>\n

One of the predominate character introductions in the film was for Banky (Jason\u00a0Lee) \u2013 his character signs autographs for their comic book at a local comic book\u00a0convention when he is queried about his profession as an inker. Smith utilized\u00a0this scenario off the top to connect his audience to his love of comic books, but was\u00a0also to show that the depiction of the comic book presence (and its use in the film)\u00a0was not just a gimmick to hook that audience. It was an intelligent way to\u00a0illustrate that he also knows a lot about the comic book industry\u00a0and his use of that experience was something familiar and close to himself. Most notably, the struggles\u00a0that inkers (or ‘tracers’) undergo in public by less artistically educated\u00a0individuals is very real \u2013 and real comic book fans who understand artistic\u00a0process and how an inker\u2019s (‘tracer\u2019s’) involvement enhances the feel and look of\u00a0the artwork would never question the validity of their work or write it off as merely \u2018tracing\u2019 \u2013\u00a0thus, Smith uses this information in the film to his advantage to convey his\u00a0knowledge of the subject matter and introduces one of the title characters\u00a0almost flawlessly utilizing that as a character development melting point.<\/p>\n

Smith, of course, uses the opening scenes at the comic book convention to also\u00a0introduce Holden (Bed Affleck), who is much more aloof being the artist on the book, and together they venture into one of the comic book creator\u00a0speaking panels \u2013 specifically, the minorities table \u2013 where we find Holden\u2019s love\u00a0interest for the film, Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adam), alongside Hooper X (Dwight Ewell), whose panel lecture about\u00a0black oppression and depiction in comic books (before being engaged by Banky\u00a0and Holden in a pre-planned publicity stunt) \u2013 this unites the characters together\u00a0in a realistic fashion and establishes a believable back story in how they all\u00a0interact and know each other while clearly determining the character archetypes for the film.<\/p>\n

Further dissecting Smith\u2019s storyline, a lot of the conflict introduced surrounds\u00a0Alyssa\u2019s and Hooper\u2019s sexuality \u2013 wherein Hooper is a \u2018.. minority within a\u00a0minority..\u2019 because he is not only gay, but also black, and Alyssa is a lesbian\u00a0(but non-linearly) \u2013 setting the tone for the audience (not forgetting this story\u00a0was originally told in the mid to late 90\u2019s) to learn along with Holden about straight\u00a0white male privilege and objectification of woman in fantasy \u2013 which is largely a\u00a0topic not dissected in film and why the film drew a lot of heat and controversy –\u00a0after all, the film was targeted at high school and college students in the\u00a0emergent period of human history where helicopter parents was a growing trend in raising children.<\/p>\n

Switching off of story development, and into production \/ post-production, I felt one\u00a0of the most compelling scenes in the film was at the hockey arena when Holden\u00a0finally confronts Alyssa about her high school \u2018Fingercuffs<\/em>\u2019 nickname.<\/p>\n

In my\u00a0opinion, I felt that this scene was one of the most well done in the film both in\u00a0production and in post (editing), and I think this was achieved because of\u00a0Smith\u2019s love of hockey. Being a turning point in the film, I want to believe that\u00a0Smith did this (the introduction of hockey) so that he would pay extra care to the\u00a0execution in representing the symbolic and parallel storylines of the slowly\u00a0building conflict between Holden and Alyssa, and the hockey players on the ice\u00a0\u2013 moving towards a gloves off showdown with the hockey fight\u2019s final blow\u00a0being dealt as Alyssa explodes and admits to Holden that she \u2018.. blew him (Rick) while\u00a0Cohee fucked..\u2019 her – hitting Holden with a devastating revelation of truth.<\/p>\n

The execution in the timing, editing, shots depicted within this scene is almost\u00a0perfect. All of the elements creating the locked scene \u2013 the shots, the sound fx,\u00a0the movement, and the lighting (while you can see some of the errors due to the\u00a0scope of the scene and number of actors involved is understandable), all marry\u00a0this as arguably the largest conflict in the film. Some would disagree and cite the\u00a0final scene with Holden, Banky, and Alyssa together where Holden proposes a\u00a0three-way to be the climactic conflict scene \u2013 but I would disagree with that\u00a0argument as it’s an offshoot and failure to save the romantic aspect of\u00a0the storyline as Holden completes the hockey arena scene by announcing \u2018I\u00a0\u00a0want us to be a normal couple\u2019 to Alyssa, before walking away. From this scene, we\u2019ve already\u00a0been informed this isn\u2019t salvageable and the three-way scene just solidifies the\u00a0outcome even though there is a slight potential for resolution.<\/p>\n

As with many other films of the 90\u2019s geared towards the high school and college\u00a0target audience, it wasn\u2019t shot to be \u2018beautiful\u2019 or \u2018cinematic\u2019, but instead was a meant to\u00a0depict real life and create representation of things happening in the lives of the audience of that\u00a0time. For that reason, as illustrated above (and because of the somewhat\u00a0relaxed budget of $250,000 USD) production costs could take a hit making\u00a0the film more along the lines of an independent film or low-budget feature – at\u00a0times with lighting and set design budgets being identifiable through badly\u00a0diffused light or unnatural looking props and fixtures.<\/p>\n

But that was also the magic of ’90’s cinema – it didn’t have to be perfect to be enjoyed.<\/p>\n

All in all though, Chasing Amy (1997)<\/em> is an enjoyable and entertaining film to watch. It\u00a0really illustrates to audiences the ignorance that straight white men in the 90\u2019s (and still today, but not as proportional)\u00a0had to issues of this magnitude (racial, sexuality, class) and watching it in\u00a0present day would likely elicit very different reactions than it did then (as was\u00a0illustrated through the reactions of my co-viewer whom had not viewed it prior).<\/p>\n

\u2605 \u2605 \u2605 \u00bd \u2606\u00a0\u2606<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note:
\nThis review was originally written as an academic paper in Q1 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third film by celebrated independent filmmaker Kevin Smith from Red\u00a0Bank, New Jersey who rose to cult icon status for his first two films\u00a0Clerks (1994), and Mallrats (1995). Chasing Amy (1997) is a film made in the midst of Smith\u2019s film\u00a0explosion that came under much scrutiny due to it\u2019s heavily sexual and heavily\u00a0(for the time) controversial examination of non-linear sexuality … <\/p>\n

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