Chasing Amy
An essay by Azzam Abdur-Rahman
I would like to preface that I am writing this review on a phone as my laptop is dealing with issues so our wonderful editing team will likely be cleaning up an assload of mistakes! But it seems fair that I write this here because this movie impacted me when I was a young man and my phone was my world. Kevin Smith is a lot of things. To most he is the director who made that weed movie on credit cards, to others he is the guy from Degrassi, he is the guy who was too fat to fly but what he always is, is honest. Smith's filmography as a whole is an honest reflection on his views and where he is at during trying moments of his life. Chasing Amy is the rare film in his filmography that is a timeless movie that muses on what Clerk’s started with but really focuses on something people cannot handle, who your partner was before you, and how that can drive away people we love. At 16, that hit me like a ton of bricks.
Chasing Amy is about a straight male comic book artist who falls in love with a bi-female and the issues both face from friends as they navigate their feelings. The movie shows Holden as a man whose ego like many men’s is fragile and he has the whore-Madonna complex in between being completely enraptured by this woman for whom he has fallen head over heals with. Now at 16, I loved Smith’s other movies but for whatever reason, Chasing Amy has escaped me. Probably because this was and still is Smiths most serious and mature work coming from a place contemplation. You see this movie is built on one monologue from Smith himself. It is the high point of the movie. This moment changed my whole life. Smith as Silent Bob in a lunch meeting with Holden sees he is down about Alyssa (his girlfriend) whom he has rejected over her sexually adventurous past. I won’t spoil it but it’s something I know many people would struggle with. Bob speaks and says that he is Chasing Amy. Bob explains that he had a partner similar to Holden who had lived a life before him but due to his own ego and insecurities couldn’t accept that what she had done was in the past and in that moment she just wanted to be with him. By the time he was able to be mature enough to accept this, he found himself watching Amy move on and him always hoping to find her again in some way. This is timeless and speaks to the fragile egos of men specifically but the lesson of acceptance rings very true as well.
The night I finally watched this movie was after a week where a girl I was interested in confided to me about her past and I began to reject her for it. I felt so stupid but some part of me couldn’t accept that I was who she chose and that she would leave me to go off and do those things she told me again as unimportant as they were to be fragile ego they were. After watching Chasing Amy it hit me that Silent Bob was right. Who she is now is more important then who she was. Now that relationship amounted to a flicker of a memory but that moment stood with me. It was the first time I felt like I had grown as a person and finally saw someone for who they are and that is the power of Chasing Amy. This movie faced something that a lot of people struggle to do which accepting your partner for who they are but also believing them when they say they love you and want to be with you. Smith dives into sexual politics in a way that very few directors who were not female or members of the LGBTQ could. That is why it is arguably the best film in his filmography. I believe everyone should watch Chasing Amy. Everyone should see it, it isn’t a timeless movie, it is very 90’s but it’s message is true. Take in how much of what we are is our internal monologue driving us to failure. If you watch any movie from Smiths filmography, let this be the first in your list!
Chasing Amy is about a straight male comic book artist who falls in love with a bi-female and the issues both face from friends as they navigate their feelings. The movie shows Holden as a man whose ego like many men’s is fragile and he has the whore-Madonna complex in between being completely enraptured by this woman for whom he has fallen head over heals with. Now at 16, I loved Smith’s other movies but for whatever reason, Chasing Amy has escaped me. Probably because this was and still is Smiths most serious and mature work coming from a place contemplation. You see this movie is built on one monologue from Smith himself. It is the high point of the movie. This moment changed my whole life. Smith as Silent Bob in a lunch meeting with Holden sees he is down about Alyssa (his girlfriend) whom he has rejected over her sexually adventurous past. I won’t spoil it but it’s something I know many people would struggle with. Bob speaks and says that he is Chasing Amy. Bob explains that he had a partner similar to Holden who had lived a life before him but due to his own ego and insecurities couldn’t accept that what she had done was in the past and in that moment she just wanted to be with him. By the time he was able to be mature enough to accept this, he found himself watching Amy move on and him always hoping to find her again in some way. This is timeless and speaks to the fragile egos of men specifically but the lesson of acceptance rings very true as well.
The night I finally watched this movie was after a week where a girl I was interested in confided to me about her past and I began to reject her for it. I felt so stupid but some part of me couldn’t accept that I was who she chose and that she would leave me to go off and do those things she told me again as unimportant as they were to be fragile ego they were. After watching Chasing Amy it hit me that Silent Bob was right. Who she is now is more important then who she was. Now that relationship amounted to a flicker of a memory but that moment stood with me. It was the first time I felt like I had grown as a person and finally saw someone for who they are and that is the power of Chasing Amy. This movie faced something that a lot of people struggle to do which accepting your partner for who they are but also believing them when they say they love you and want to be with you. Smith dives into sexual politics in a way that very few directors who were not female or members of the LGBTQ could. That is why it is arguably the best film in his filmography. I believe everyone should watch Chasing Amy. Everyone should see it, it isn’t a timeless movie, it is very 90’s but it’s message is true. Take in how much of what we are is our internal monologue driving us to failure. If you watch any movie from Smiths filmography, let this be the first in your list!
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