Chasing Amy (1997)
director: kevin smith
cast: ben affleck, joey lauren adams, jason lee, dwight ewell, jason mewes, kevin smith, ethan suplee, scott mosier, casey affleck, guinevere turner, carmen lee, brian o'halloran, matt damon, alexander goebbel, tony torn
Kevin
Smith might be an underdog or even the nicest guy in the world but his films
still suck. The only good news here is that Joey Lauren Adams as the "object
of the chase" completely steals the film with a tremendous performance
that blows her co-actors out of the water. Stiff Ben Affleck plays a goatee-wearin'
coffee-house-styled geek and comic book artist who falls for Joey (a perky sister
of Sappho, supposedly). Trying to relate the convoluted fantasy of Smith's plot
(which could've been lifted right out of a Penthouse Forum letter titled "Lesbian
No More") about the seduction and loss of a "Lesbian" is pointless
but here it goes: Affleck isn't threatened by Joey's voluminous carpet-munching.
The problems arise when he discovers that she was once the center of a boy-sandwhich
earning her the high school moniker, "finger-cuffs"(?). Try to stay
awake for the breakup scene outside of a hockey rink. Joey pulls out all the
stops as she spills her guts so convincingly that you can almost hear wooden
Affleck thinking, "Wow, you're good!" before delivering his shapeless
lines. The moment is somewhat reminiscent of Mercedes Ruehl's scene-stealer
in "The Fisher King", but "Chasing Amy" isn't gonna win
anyone an academy award.
The
film is a stiff, consisting of horribly lit scenes with flat, head-on two shots
and close-ups of Smith's character's delivering endless monologues. Hey Kevin,
rent a camera dolly or even, gulp, go hand-held. It's fun to move the camera
around. And if the camera is not going to move, why not have the characters
move more within the frame doing something relevant to the development of the
story? How about having them relate to their environment instead of just standing/sitting
in it to add mood? It would alleviate the we-are-watching-a-play-and-not-a-movie
feeling of his films. Also, don't underestimate the power of silence. A picture
IS worth a thousand words. Smith's dialogue makes Woody Allen and David Mamet
look like minimalist by comparison. Despite some witty jewels interspersed in
the chin music, I couldn't shake that feeling I get when cornered by a rambling
drunk at a party. – Tom Graney
$1.56
© 1997 Hollywood Outsider™