#17 - Chasing Amy

Oh Chasing Amy. No one should be chasing anything in this movie. It's so bad. It's difficult to get through the entire movie. I had to actually take a couple breaks because I could not handle the terrible plot and subpar acting. I'm really surprised at it's popularity and critical acclaim. Because honestly, I really don't see it as anything good. A friend of mine pointed out that for its genre its a good movie. And I guess in that regard, yes it's a good stoner movie. But if you are looking at it from a critical perspective, I fail to see how it's any good.

Plot

Holden and Banky are comic book writers that meet Alyssa at a comic book convention. Holden falls for Alyssa but soon finds out that she's a lesbian. Regardless of this, he continues to fall for her, hangs out with her, and eventually confesses his feelings for her. Alyssa becomes angry at him for putting her in this unfair situation, which leads one to believe that she too had developed feelings for him. Nonetheless, they eventually starts too date. But of course, things aren't going to go picture perfect. Alyssa has to deal with the fact that she self identified as lesbian but now was dating a man. Holden had to deal with the fact that he was dating a self-identified lesbian, and had to get over his insecurities. Alyssa had gotten around, and he had to struggle with growing up and being okay with that. Banky was there as Holden's foil and distrusted Alyssa. All these things eventually add up and Alyssa and Holden struggle to maintain their relationship. I won't ruin the ending for you because that would be unfair. Of course, if you're like me and don't like the movie - you won't really care how it ends; you only be happy that it did end.

Characters:

There aren't many redeemable qualities in this movie. And the characters don't really help its case. I hated, absolutely hated Holden, Banky, and sometimes Alyssa. They were all so immature and intolerable. Their actions were inane and at times completely selfish. The only things that make the characters tolerable, the movie for that matter, are the monologues that the characters go into every now and then. These monologues were quite deep and full of emotion. Sure, this would then be followed by something nonsensical but at least for those few moments, Chasing Amy had my attention.

Pros

I must say, the acting in the movie isn't that bad. The characters were believable and there was a certain chemistry between all the characters.

Cons

So, why do I detest this film. The plot was terrible. I much rather prefer the summary than the actual movie. Because past the main points I mentioned, there isn't much else to the film. That's an issue. It's difficult to get through the movie, because nothing really seems to be happening. It progresses further into nonsense and it progresses with some annoying immature characters. I don't want to go on their journey to discovery. No thanks. Do I blame the plot being terrible on the script? Only partially. The directing was the what completely ruined the film. Then again, it's a stoner film - so we're not going for quality here folks. But still, I didn't think that I'd be throwing a couple hours out the window with nothing to show for it but a blog post and a bucket full of angry.

All in all

If you like this type of genre, you'll like this movie. If you really can't stand this types of film - then avoid Chasing Amy. It will hurt you to do otherwise.