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Chasing Amy (1997)

★★½ — Chasing Amy (1997)

Chasing Amy was Kevin Smith's third feature and, at the time, his most ambitious, arriving after the micro-budget Clerks (1994) and the messier Mallrats (1995). Shot for around $250,000, it was again produced through Smith's own View Askew Productions and distributed by Miramax during the studio's mid-1990s indie golden period. The film drew loosely from Smith's own romantic experiences, and its comic book milieu carried over characters and in-jokes from his earlier work (Jason Lee and Ben Affleck had both appeared in Mallrats). Joey Lauren Adams earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, and the film turned a strong profit relative to its cost, briefly positioning Smith as a genuine voice in American independent cinema before Dogma (1999) shifted his focus toward broader religious satire.

It just feels a little weird? Kevin Smith movies are always a bit of a mixed bag, and Chasing Amy is no exception. There's definitely an entertaining, heartfelt story buried in here somewhere and when you're younger, it all feels very raw and "real." But watching it now, it just feels messy. The dialogue is so unnatural, the characters often act in ways that don’t make any real sense, and the whole thing is a little too immature to fully land. It’s got its moments, and Smith’s heart is clearly in the right place, but like a lot of his work, it just hasn’t aged particularly well.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1997 | Watched: 2025-04-27

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