Movies You Should See is a new weekly series of essays covering movies that aren’t recommended but everyone should see if they are serious about seeing great films. Some of these films you likely heard of, some may have been before your time but can easily be found on physical media or streaming and some are more obscure than they deserve to be. Either way, these are films I feel you very much should see if you are serious about being a viewer of film as both a artform and a important medium. That doesn’t mean there won’t be films on here that aim to be nothing more than entertainment, but the films like that in this series aim to be great entertainment, and not just a time killer on a screen. With the current situation concerning the COVID virus, and my ability to go to the theaters cut short, I will start this series. However, I plan to continue it even after I get vaccinated.
Before Maximax fell apart, way back in the 90s, the studio was a
powerhouse of independent films. Maximax discovered a lot of great filmmakers,
including such icons as Quentin Tarantino and documentary juggernaut Michael
Moore. One of their most iconic discoveries was a guy from New Jersey named
Kevin Smith, who made a low budget but ground breaking indie film on a very low
budget, called “Clerks” in 1994. A movie anchored by dialogue and mostly one
setting, the film evolved around Dante Hicks (Brian O’ Halloran), Randal (Jeff
Anderson), their girlfriends, their consumers, and two mysterious drug dealers
who hung outside the convenience store they worked at, Jay (Jason Mewes) and
Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, himself). The following year in 1995, Smith made a
higher budget follow up that was released by a bigger studio, Universal, called
“Mallrats”. These movies were tied together by the presence of Jay and Silent
Bob and the universe Smith had created of his characters running into each
other in the state of New Jersey. The name of Smith’s cinematic universe is
called the View Askewniverse. It wasn’t until his third film, however, that
people started to see deeper issues than smart slackers and working-class joes
talking “Star Wars”, smut and comic books, and that 1997’s “Chasing Amy”,
again going back to a release by Miramax.
“Chasing Amy”, like most of Smith’s films during this era, has a
unique way of capturing the counterculture of the time. Punk music and comic
books were very much considered counterculture in the 90s. It didn’t quite have
that mainstream appeal yet that we saw later on. It existed, but it wasn’t
quite billion movie franchises or the basis for a whole hit sitcom like “The
Big Bang Theory”. However, Smith added an extra element of this kind of culture
in this film, which plays a role in the doomed love story. Holden McNeil (Ben
Affleck), and his friend, Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), are comic book artists,
and best friends, working in a rented space above a record store in New Jersey.
The film opens with them at a comic book convention, pushing their publication.
While there, they meet up with a friend of theirs, a African American comic
book artist named Hooper (Dwight Ewell), who sells his comic books by pushing a
fake persona of being a black revolutionary. In reality, he is a gay man who
just wants to sell his comic books, and turns off the act when potential
readers aren’t around. They also meet a young woman and fellow comic book
writer named Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) and her partner, as they are
pushing their own comic book series at the convention in New York City.
While Holden and Alyssa start to spend more and more time together as
friends, with Holden having the knowledge she’s unavailable from the get go, he
can’t help but have feelings for her. Now a lesser movie would have not played
up the gay angle, and found a more convental reason standing in front of Holden.
Smith also adds an extra layer to his movie which plays up with the fact Holden
is also in a way, jealous of her history, which is more active than he ever
was. It’s a double sword, and they even at some point, do try to be a couple,
sorting through confusion of the whole situation. Add to the fact that Banky is
showing hints that this whole relationship he is having with her will ruin
their friendship. However, there’s also pauses in the film that makes us think
Banky feels even more than friendship for Holden. Smith is a really good
dialogue writer, and Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel took note of that in their 90s
review of the film on their TV show, commenting that Hollywood screenwriters
should study this film for a basis of how people talk, instead of the fake way
they write people as talking.
Another thing that is noticed, and Roger Ebert pointed this out in
his print review, is this film also shows the major flaw in a lot of standard
romantic comedies. The idea that love isn’t a serious business. Ebert says
Kevin Smith knows it is. We’ve seen so many romantic comedies with whacky and
artificial setups of a guy having things in his way to get the girl of his dreams,
but Smith turns that on his head, in two ways. One is the girl isn’t sure of
who she’s attracted to, and second, the guy isn’t only confused about her
orientation but is also concerned that if she does turn out to be straight, her
history will make him not good enough to be with her. This is where Jay and
Silent Bob come in. One of the great things about Silent Bob as a character is
he often only talks if he has something profound to say, and he and Jay meet up
with Holden in a diner, delivering a monologue about how he knew a girl
named Amy, and how her experiences led her to want a guy as a person
instead of a big past history, but the fact he couldn’t of gotten over that
ended up being his problem and not hers, as she was ready to move on herself.
Thus, he’s spent his whole life chasing a girl named Amy. This
is a pretty head of the curve monologue for a movie in the 90s, which at the
time treated romance as more whacky, and guy versus girl type humour. However,
this also highlights the importance of independent film as a counterbalance at
the time of mainstream film and humour.
Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams all give funny yet also
pained performances in this film. The scene where Holden, Blanky, and Alyssa
sit down in his apartment to try to dish this out is a memorable scene, with
lots of hints about more complicated emotions than just simply fragile
friendships and relationships, blurring the lines. However, in the end, they
deal with this the only way they know how. They all make their experiences into
comic books, and the fewer words spoken the better. Smith has credited this
film with the one that showed he can write more than simply jokes. Smith’s
films at times can be a mixed bag, but the best of his films are placed in the
90s, as they define the counterculture of that era, and leave us with great
characters along the way who simply knew how to turn their frustration into
their medium, just like their creator.
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