Chasing Amy (1997)

Chasing Amy (1997)

Taglines: Finally, a comedy that tells it like it feels.

Chasing Amy movie storyline. A pair of comic book authors named Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, who live in New Jersey, have been best friends for 20 years. They spend their time working in their studio, and in the evenings they are going out. But their friendship is about to be disputed for the first time in their life, when a beautiful young lesbian woman named Alyssa Jones enters their life and Holden falls in love with her. Now Holden has to deal with Banky’s jealousy, and with his new girlfriend’s very rich past.

Chasing Amy is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith. The film is about a male comic artist who falls in love with a bisexual woman, to the displeasure of his best friend. It is the third film in Smith’s View Askewniverse series. The film won two awards at the 1998 Independent Spirit Awards (Best Screenplay for Smith and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Lee).

The film was originally inspired by a brief scene from an early movie by a friend of Smith’s. In Guinevere Turner’s Go Fish, one of the lesbian characters imagines her friends passing judgment on her for “selling out” by sleeping with a man. Kevin Smith was dating star Joey Lauren Adams at the time he was writing the script, which was also partly inspired by her.

Chasing Amy (1997)

On a budget of $250,000, the film grossed a total of $12,021,272 in theaters. Chasing Amy played at three locations and earned $52,446 upon its opening weekend in the United States. The following week, the film was expanded to a further twenty-two theaters where it grossed $302,406. During the 18–20 April 1997 weekend, Chasing Amy was screened at a further 494 locations, where it earned $1,642,402 and moved into the Top 10.

Academic critics have criticized the movie for its stereotypical portrayal of lesbians, and its limited views on sexuality, for instance “while individual lesbian characters may now have some range and depth and narrative engagement, lesbian culture is still depicted (if depicted at all) in the narrowest and most stereotypical of ways.”

About the Story

Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are comic book artists and lifelong friends. They meet fellow comic book artist Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) at a comic book convention in New York City, where they are promoting their comic Bluntman and Chronic. Holden is attracted to Alyssa, but soon learns that she is a lesbian. The two begin hanging out, and a deep friendship develops. Eventually, Holden is no longer able to contain his feelings, and confesses his love to Alyssa. She is initially angry with him, but that night, the two begin a romantic relationship.

Chasing Amy (1997)

This new development worsens the tension between Holden and Banky, who hates and mistrusts Alyssa and is disturbed by her and Holden’s relationship. Banky investigates and uncovers dirt on Alyssa’s past, and he reports to Holden that Alyssa participated in a threesome with two guys during high school, which gave her the nickname “Finger Cuffs”.

Holden is deeply upset by this revelation, having previously believed that he is the first man Alyssa had ever slept with. He angrily confronts Alyssa while attending a hockey game, and clumsily attempts baiting her into confessing. During a tearful argument, she tells Holden about her “many” youthful sexual experimentations. She apologizes for letting him believe that he was the only man she had been with. However, she refuses to apologize for her past, and Holden leaves feeling disillusioned and furious.

Later, during lunch with Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), Silent Bob reveals that he was once in a relationship similar to Holden’s. Despite the fact that he was in love with his girlfriend, Amy, his neurosis about her adventurous sexual past caused him to sabotage the relationship and leave her. Angry at himself for letting her go, he has “spent every day since then chasing Amy, so to speak.”

Chasing Amy (1997) - Joey Lauren Adams

Moved by Silent Bob’s story, Holden devises a plan to fix both his relationship with Alyssa and his estranged friendship with Banky. He invites them both over and tells Alyssa that he would like to get over her past and remain her boyfriend. He also tells Banky that he realizes that Banky is in love with him—kissing him passionately to prove the point. Holden suggests a threesome. Though initially shocked, Banky agrees to participate, whereas Alyssa explains to Holden that it will not save their relationship. Before leaving, she states that she loves him, but she will not be his “whore.” Banky also leaves the apartment, ending their friendship.

One year later, both Banky and Holden are busy promoting their own respective comics at a convention in New York. It is revealed that Holden has dissolved their partnership over Bluntman and Chronic, leaving the viewer with the assumption that he sold the publishing and creative rights over to Banky (which is corroborated in the beginning of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). Banky smiles sadly at seeing his old friend, who silently congratulates him for his success on his own comic.

Banky gestures over to a booth hosted by Alyssa, and provides wordless encouragement to Holden to go talk to her. He has a brief, quietly emotional conversation with Alyssa, and gives her a copy of Chasing Amy, his new comic based on their failed relationship. After Holden leaves, Alyssa’s new girlfriend (Virginia Smith) arrives and asks who she was talking to. A shaken, misty-eyed Alyssa replies, “Oh, just some guy I knew.”

Chasing Amy movie trailer.

Chasing Amy Movie Poster (1997)

Chasing Amy (1997)

Directed by: Kevin Smith
Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Ethan Suplee, Casey Affleck, Guinevere Turner, Carmen Llywelyn
Screenplay by: Kevin Smith
Production Design by: Robert Holtzman
Cinematography by: David Klein
Film Editing by: Scott Mosier, Kevin Smith
Costume Design by: Christopher Del Coro
Set Decoration by: John Carlucci, Susannah McCarthy
Art Direction by: Jim Williams
Music by: David Pirner
MPAA Rating: R for strong graphic sex-related dialogue, language, sexuality and drug content.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: April 4, 1997

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