So Clerks was entertaining and quirky with a dollop of tastelessness, Mallrats was tasteless with (large) dollop of entertainment and quirkiness. Both of them are entertaining and worth watching. But then neither of them were based on examining and directly exploring human sexuality.
To be honest, when I first heard about Chasing Amy I was more than a little dubious. After all, this was a film from a director who (although I liked his work) was more known in my mind for people rubbing their hands down the back of their underpants and then feeding other people chocolate from the moistened fingers. This was a film from a director who had had one of his main female characters have sex with the corpse of a man who had died while having a wank in a convenience store lavatory. And this director had decided to have a film in which a straight man 'converts' a gay woman. I mean - how likely was it that it would be treated well?
Seeing the film was a hell of a shock. Because Kevin Smith went further than treating the subject with sensitivity. He treated it with absolute and total honesty - having characters actually and purposefully confront the underlying interpersonal dynamics that one normally suspects in these films, but never sees played out.
Holden (Ben Affleck) is a comic book writer and artist who publishes "Bluntman and Chronic" (based on Jay and Silent Bob from the previous films who also make a cameo appearance) along with his best friend, the wildly provocative Banky (Jason Lee). Everything is going well until Holden falls in love with Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). The only problem is, she's gay.
Well not really. In what in other films might seem a cop-out, Alyssa is actually bisexual. The twist in "Chasing Amy" is that she is fully realised character who has been extremely experimental, regrets some of the things she has done, doesn't regret other things she has done, has generally become comfortable in a lesbian identity, but doesn't deny the fact that occasionally she wants to be with men. There is no moral lesson in her character's past - she is prepared to step out of line, to be a non-conformist if that is what she thinks is right.
They begin a relationship, but Holden begins to have problems with her past, and Banky gets extremely jealous of their relationship. These tension threaten to tear them all apart, until they are resolved in the most unlikely of ways.
Ben Affleck manages to put in another solid and likeable appearance, while Jason Lee demonstrates again that he deserves a lead role. There isn't a bad actor in the piece, nor are there any of the cartoony character that have loomed out of Smith's previous films.
It isn't all flowers and ponies and anyone who can't handle anything more than a Julia Roberts romantic comedy might be frustrated or disappointed. But it has been made with such a light touch, with such intelligence and integrity, that everyone else should be thrilled.
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