Year: 1996
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $39.99 Single release or $89.99 Kevin Smith 3-Pack
Studio(s): Miramax
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Film/Feature: A+

It’s not who you love, it’s how you love.

After taking an amusing detour in Mallrats, Smith got back to basics and made a personal film. Not in the traditional sense. Not with Meg Ryan or not like some cookie-cutter Kate Hudson film. Smith had one more chance to do a successful film or else be forgotten in the pile of directors that could have been big. (For the record, Kevin, I liked Mallrats) His goal was to make the movie Dogma, but before doing that, he had to get back on his feet, after being soundly defeated at the box office with Mallrats. Somehow, he crafted a story born out of his real relationship at the time with actress, Joey Lauren Adams and came up with Chasing Amy. Now, none of the actual events in the movie really happened in Smith and Adams’ life, but the film served as a metaphor for the crossroads that many relationships can’t seem to build a bridge over.

In this film Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee) are the best of friends, and partners in crime, comic book creators of the wildly popular comic, Bluntman and Chronic, based on the likeness of View Askewniverse dealers, Jay and Silent Bob. Holden is a conservative guy, firm in his convictions and traditional in every sense of the way, and then he meets Alyssa (Adams), a fellow independent comic creator, and falls head over heels for her. The problem is that she’s gay, and Holden’s pursuit of her troubles Banky and creates a rift that could damage years of friendship.

It’s a sordid love story that has tragedy written all over it but is neither predictable nor insensitive. Sex is spoken in vulgar fashion, but in a way that Smith so eloquently can do so well. Combined with raw performances by Adams, Affleck, and Lee, soon after the movie starts, you know that these characters will stick stay in your mind.

I found Chasing Amy so wonderful, that it restored faith that an American filmmaker could do something new with something that’s so fundamentally trite at that time in cinema. It was mature, ground-breaking and took such a strange angle at love that no one’s come close to touching it since. Chasing Amy starts out as a sex comedy that takes viewers to places they weren’t expecting, and without them knowing it, reveals the a genuine love shared between two sets of people in a way that will make you laugh one minute, and cry the next.

Take away all the dressing and Chasing Amy is not so much about sexual inadequacies, insecurities, or straight men trying to convert lesbians, as it is about getting close to the bond between two people and seeing how much or little of it can survive through and ultimately how fragile love can be.

Chasing Amy was a real shock to me at the time. I never knew that Smith had it in him to make a film like his, or that the actors had it in them to realize such full and complete characters. That’s why Chasing Amy continues to be an important film. It has soul behind the words, and that unrefined emotion behind the performances that’s rare in entertainment, and is worth revisiting time and again.

Video: A-
Much like the Clerks Blu-Ray, the new 1080p High Definition VC-1 Transfer preserves the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and improves the overall look quite well, but it’s not going to hold up well when you compare it to a film that was shot with better equipment. Primary hues and synthetic color have a bit more juice behind them, while real world colors have a drab, muted quality. You can tell when different cameras were used at different scenes. Take Chapter 14 for instance, the establishing exterior shot of the restaurant is very clear, and then when the scene goes inside it looks fuzzy and and grainy. Then the scene goes back to inside Holden’s car and the detail jumps up again. So it would be nice to see a bit more consistency across the board but this variance is probably due to the way it was shot rather than the VC-1 encode. The color in this chapter also shows all the gradual ranges of blues, purples, golds, and ambers in the scene. It’s for the most part a fairly strong transfer. There’s still grain present throughout so for those who prefer that cinematic look will be happy in the overall aesthetics. Textures have a bit more detail so to actually see differences in clothing, furniture, etc. Remember that this film was made on $250,000 which is not a lot of money, folks when you’re talking about a color film. And while that’s a significant increase in the cost of Clerks, it’s still not ever going to look like million dollar film, so given the resources and the limits in technology used, Chasing Amy looks better than it ever has, but only serious videophiles are going to walk away from this blu-ray.

Audio: B+
Like the video presentation, the high definition English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is going to feel like a little bit of overkill for what’s a dialogue driven film. The audio gets an ample jolt in spots where music is played, or again in Chapter 14 when the rumble of the Thunderstorm rolls through. Raindrops can also be heard in the rear channels when both Alyssa and Holden argue in the rain. Another scene of note is Chapter 20 at the hockey rink. It’s probably the most active scene in the film creating a full scene around you. Other audio options include Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 DTS, and subtitles are available in English, English SDH, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Bahasa, Maly, Mandarin, Farsi, Korean, Svenska, Norsk, Dansk, Suomi, Islenska, Russian, Turkish, and Romanian.

Extras: A-
For the first time, this film gets dusted off since the fine 1996 Criterion Collection. And as a huge fan of Criterion, I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of my old DVD, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t double-dip to get Chasing Amy on blu-ray. They’ve added lots of new material as exclusives to the blu-ray, but unfortunately they took off an incredible audio commentary by Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Robert Hawk, Jon Gordon and Vincent Pereira. There was also a booklet that was used in the Criterion case with an essay by Smith, chapter menu and “Who’s Who in the View Askewniverse” that’s sadly missing as well. What has been transported over is the following:

10 Deleted Scenes (25:01) SD Tell ‘em Steve Dave (3:43), Original Love Story (5:08), Bring on the Free Hooch (1:10), Money and Power (5:25), Help a Brother Out (0:48), The Right Man (1:37), Shoes? (1:02), Bitch, You’re Schooling No One (1:32), A More Tolerant Age (2:49), The Mata-Fucking Hari! (1:43).

Outtakes (4:36) SD is a gathering of laugh-inducing moments on the set.

Trailer (2:05) SD Theatrical trailer

Sneak Peeks for On Blu-Ray (1:02) Everybody’s Fine HD (2:32), Extract HD (1:19), and Surrogates HD (1:21).

Blu-Ray Exclusives
Now we come to the new stuff which most are in high definition (with the exception of the Q and A) and in 2.0 Stereo.

First is the New Audio Commentary by Kevin Smith and Producer Scott Mosier will be a treat for those who are familiar with Smith and Mosier’s online Smodcasts. This is the only place to hear Smodcast No. 97, which is the new commentary for Chasing Amy on Blu-Ray. None of the Smith’s commentaries could ever be claimed as being scene-specific, but from the beginning, the track gets derailed into a free-wheeling conversation that takes us from one tangent into the next and while I miss the directness and focus of the original commentary, it’s a track full of laughs, (where the duo’s sobriety can almost come into question) and puts a new spin on seeing Chasing Amy for the umpteenth time. If you like this Smodcast, you can find the others here.

Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc HD (1:22:00) Like in other documentaries about Smith’s films, this is an excellent look back at the landmark moments of Chasing Amy. Everything is discussed including the early groundwork of where the story would come from, sexual insecurities, Smith and Adams relationship that would be the foundation for the film, making a film about the gay lifestyle, bromance between Banky and Holden, having $250,000 to spend instead of $3 million, and the rise and fallout of Sundance including the damage it did to the friendships of View Askew.

Was it it something I Said? HD (18:00) is a very candid one-on-one conversation between Smith and Adams as they revisit their relationship and reflect on Chasing Amy and what that did to their careers. Smith is clearly still giddy and excited to be there, while Adams still appears to have some reservations, but neither of them hold back and is a strong supplement to the film after all these years.

10 Years Later Q and A SD (27:46) with Kevin Smith, Jason Lee, Joey Adams, Ben Affleck, Dwight Ewell, Scott Mosier and Jason Mewes. Smith and crew field questions at the Arclight in Los Angeles, in reflection of Chasing Amy like revisiting the emotional scene between Holden and Alyssa, how Adams and Smith’s relationship at the time affected filming and a host of other softball questions that allowed the cast to give playful answers. It does helps to put on the subtitles as the audio isn’t very good and some of the actors like Jason Lee and Jason Mewes don’t talk very clearly into the mics.

Overall Shock Value: A+
We can always hope for all films to have a big boost in video and audio in the jump to blu-ray but at the end of the day, you still want the films to look as originally intended and not look or sound artificial. Technically, it’s better than the 1996 Criterion Collection, and it’s got a handful of new and exclusive new material just for blu-ray. Chasing Amy is finally on blu-ray and is the biggest reason to go out and get the Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection.

I’m not shy to say that Chasing Amy will always have a firm place in my favorite films of all time, because it’s unconventional journey with memorable performances. It’s a deep look at love, not just between significant others, but friends as well, and instead of trying to find the words to describe what a treasure Chasing Amy continues to be, I’ll just say, please watch it with an open mind if you’ve never seen it before and if you have, to see it again (preferably on blu-ray) and enjoy.