2024 BFI Flare Film Review – Chasing Chasing Amy (2023)

Released back in 1997, Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy had a patchy critical reception. The legendary Roger Ebert loved it, others weren’t so sure, but there was certainly more to it than the bland “romantic comedy/drama” label would have you believe. The premise was simple but full of complications: a comic book artist falls in love with a girl and discovers she’s gay.

For the teenage Sav Rodgers, struggling with his sexual identity, the film was a lifeline. Watching it every day helped sustain him through some dark times and, as he revealed in a Ted Talk in 2019, “saved my life”. That moment provides the springboard for his documentary Chasing Chasing Amy and a clip from Ebert’s review on TV reinforces that this, in part, is a love letter to the film that played such a significant part in his life. Chasing Amy featured familiar characters from Clerks – Smith’s Silent Bob and Jason Mewes as Jay – but also starred a twentysomething Ben Affleck as the lovesick artist and Joey Lauren Adams as the object of his affection.

Rodgers’ film falls neatly into parallel halves which occasionally overlap. While his own story, including his relationship with the articulate and engaging Riley, has its charms and tries to root the film in a certain amount of reality, it’s the weaker of the two and comes close to making his personal story feel like little more than a convention. Thankfully, it’s saved from doing him a disservice by the other half, which examines LGBTQ attitudes to the film, the context in which it was made and also shows him to be an appealingly honest interviewer. Inevitably, he knows the film inside out and back to front, and the surprise is written all over his face when he discovers the antagonism towards it from some sectors. But he takes it on the chin and it encourages a debate about what good representation of sexuality actually looks like.

It’s Joey Lauren Adams who provides the most eye-opening perspective on the film, as she reflects on the involvement of former producer, now convicted rapist, Harvey Weinstein, and her own relationship with Smith while the film was being made. She describes having to work with Weinstein with remarkable frankness, yet when it comes to her break-up with Smith, one solitary moment gives away her true feelings. He’s describing how he ended their relationship, it all seems amicable and they’re laughing – until, for a split second, her smile dips. Perhaps it wasn’t that funny after all.

For something that could easily be dismissed as a piece of fan filmmaking, Rodgers gives us plenty to reflect on, as long as we keep in mind his love of the movie. The more serious issues prevent the tone from veering towards the saccharine so it retains its natural warmth and, at the same time, is a thoughtful testament to truth in its many shapes and forms.

★★★

Showing at BFI Flare on 14th and 16th March, in UK cinemas from May 17th / Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Guinevere Turner, Jason Lee, Andrew Ahn, Kevin Wilmott / Dir: Sav Rodgers / Kindred Pictures / Cert: TBC