Review of Chasing Amy

Chasing Amy (1997)
9/10
Smith's best. Affleck's best. One of the greatest love stories ever.
7 June 2005
Love stories are difficult to do well. So is comedy. Kevin Smith does both. Very very well.

Chasing Amy is, in my opinion Kevin Smith's best movie (Clerks 2nd, Dogma 3rd) and I really don't know where to start the praise.

Traditionally, Hollywood romantic comedies are... well, bad. Really lame PG-13 comedy, with some catch phrase repeated ad nauseum, and always some sort of "hilarious" incident involving a baby or a cute dog. And the characters are just as annoying as the lame jokes, so ultimately, you don't really care about whether or not they get together in the end.

Chasing Amy is different. These characters are lifelike.This isn't a romantic comedy for teenage girls. It's a movie for adults. Almost everyone can relate to being a situation where they've loved someone so much, but due to certain circumstances, you just weren't able to have that person. And I guess that's what Amy's all about. Unrequited love. Well, Unrequited love and sexual identity, but that's another topic for another day.

The real genius of this film is that for all it's serious themes, it manages to convey it's message without being at all pretentious. Most independent films have this sort of, arrogant pretentious "I'm so artistic" feel about them.......And I hate that. Smith's success lies in the fact that his movies are meaningful, and they're actually funny as well. And Chasing Amy is no exception.

In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining, and realistic love story than Chasing Amy. It's combination of hilarious dialogue, interesting characters, and realistic themes makes it a winner.
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