| | | It's not who you love. It's how.
Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Subtitled
Life-long friends Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are enjoying success as the creators of the cult hit comic book "Bluntman and Chronic." When they meet fellow comic book artist Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), Holden's desire for the beautiful charmer is immediate. Alyssa, however, has set her romantic sights elsewhere and yet decides, nevertheless, to pursue a friendship with Holden. This presents Holden with a dilemma: Feeling the way he does, can he merely be friends with this woman? Banky, who knows Holden best, doesn't think so. As the friendship deepens, so do Holden's affections for Alyssa. And cautiously, yet effortlessly, so do Alyssa's for him. With their relationship struggling to define itself, Banky grows more and more frustrated at the notion of losing his best friend to emotional adulthood.Click here for more Criterion favorites!
"Two thumbs up!" Siskel & Ebert
"Outrageous humor!" Los Angeles Times
"Funny, smart and truthful!" Time Magazine
Editor's Note
When handsome young comic book creator Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) meets cute young comic book creator Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), romance seems preordained. But Holden is soon confronted with Alyssa's complex sexual history, as well as his friend and colleague Banky's (Jason Lee) conflicted and enraged response to the affair. Despite the seriousness of the issues, director Kevin Smith keeps the laughs coming, even as Holden goes through hell and grows up.
Plot Summary
Kevin Smith's third film was critically acclaimed for its adroitness in balancing complex, adult sexual issues with jokes about bodily functions. The two Garden State guys this time around are Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee). At a comic book convention, the co-creators of "Bluntman and Chronic" meet Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a New Jersey native who draws a comic entitled "Idiosyncratic Routine." Holden thinks they click, but proceeds to discover that Alyssa is a lesbian--then manages to convince her to take a chance on him anyway. The real conflict comes when Holden gets hung up on Alyssa's checkered sexual past. What's more, Banky mounts an anti-Alyssa campaign whose intensity and bile Holden can't understand. The script came out of Smith's real-life relationship with Adams, and represents a flowering of the themes of friendship and sexual jealousy which the director first explored in CLERKS. Smith fans can rest assured, however, that STAR WARS is discussed (this time as a racist allegory) and that Jay and Silent Bob do appear to dispense relationship wisdom (and collect royalties for their comic book likenesses).
| Features | The Askewniverse Legend: A Guide to the Characters in the "New Jersey Trilogy" | | English Subtitles | | Optimal image quality: RSDL dual layer edition | | New Video Introduction to the DVD Edition from Director Kevin Smith | | Widescreen digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer David Klein and enhanced for 16x9 TVs | | Interactive Menus | | Trailer | | Screen-Specific Audio Commentary by Kevin Smith, Producer Scott Mosier, Actors Ben Affleck and Jason Mewes, Associate Procucer Robert Hawk, Miramax Executive Jon Gordon, and View Askew Historian Vincent Pereira | | English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital | | Scene Access | | Ten Deleted Scenes, Plus Outtakes |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Chasing Amy - DVD Review By: Bradley Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 11/6/2009 9:42 PM | |
The intro sequence of Chasing Amy, comic book frames of oddly familiar characters, informs us immediately that we are entering the world of Kevin Smith. That world is one over-populated with comic book fanatics, philosophical drug dealers, and ambitionless twenty-somethings. To Smith, the film's director, that world is New Jersey. Like characters found in other recent Gen X movies, Smith's heroes are unjustifiably hip. In Chasing Amy, there are two groups of characters, Jersey boys afraid of the city, and fixtures of the NYC underground. But regardless of background, every character in Chasing Amy is poised with a witty remark or comical/philosophical riff on love or life....read the full review |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 12/26/2009 |
| Running Time: 113 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1997 | | Catalog ID: 17244 | | UPC: 00717951002372 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Golden Globe (1998) | | | Joey Lauren Adams, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical | |
Independent Spirit (1998) |  | Kevin Smith, Winner, Best Screenplay | | Jason Lee, Winner, Best Supporting Male | | | Scott Mosier, Nominee, Best Feature | |
MTV Award (1998) | | | Joey Lauren Adams, Nominee, Best Breakthrough Performance | | | Joey Lauren Adams, Carmen Lee, Nominee, Best Kiss |
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| | Professional Reviews | Movieline's Hollywood Life
"...A riotous, ferociously smart love story....[Adams has] four dimensions and a mouth big enough to prove it..." 12/01/1998 p.95USA Today
"...This is Smith's most provocative outing yet and certainly the toughest to forget..." 04/11/1997 p.4D Film Comment
"...The film's great strength is its screenplay, which approaches its actors with moving emotional honesty..." 03/01/1997 p.55 New York Times
"...Still showing his touch for garrulous, hair-splitting conversation, Mr. Smith engages his characters in a bright spirited demonstration of just how difficult modern love can be..." 04/04/1997 p.C3 Los Angeles Times
"...A little movie with big truths, a work of such fierce intelligence and emotional honesty that it blows away the competition when it comes to contemporary romantic comedy..." 04/11/1997 p.F12 Total Film
"...A touching, funny love story..." 09/01/2000 p.102 Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 9 of 10
Winning, original comedy-drama... Writer-director Smith hits all the right notes in this honest and appealing film, which refuses to take the easy way out (just like its lead character) right to the end. Affleck and Adams are perfect in the starring roles. Smith and Mewes reprise their Silent Bob and Jay characters from Clerks and Mallrats.
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