Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by her sexuality, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee) and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Kevin Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, Chasing Amy offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality.

CRITIQUE

Chasing Amy is a unique, realistic love story about Holden, who, along with his co-writer/inker Banky, is on the rise to stardom with his critically applauded and fan craved comic book, "Bluntman and Chronic." Then at a comic convention, he meets Alyssa Jones, and it's love at first sight (at least for him). Holden becomes very attracted to Alyssa, and thinks he might have finally found his dream woman, when suddenly the bomb drops and he discovers Alyssa is gay. At first he backlashes, feeling embarrassed and ashamed, but then finds that he can have plenty of fun just being friends with a girl (who da thunk?) without being intimate. At least, at first.

However, soon enough Holden is trying to find a way to express to Alyssa his true love for her, hoping for the positive outcome he so desperately craves. Can he persuade Alyssa to set her lesbian lifestyle aside and go heterosexual (which, in her best friends' eyes, is the lowest possible denominator you can succumb to)?  If he can, is there any way he can set Alyssa's shocking past aside and just accept true love over its trifling complications? Can a gay black man (Dwight Ewell) succeed in the comics industry without using extreme violence and racism? Will Holden find true love, or will he just end up, as Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) puts it, "chasing Amy" (hence title)?

Chasing Amy is a great romance film, but not the kind you snuggle up with your girlfriend while watching. It is brutally honest in its portrayal of modern differences in sexuality and the insecurity that too many guys feel in committing to relationships, even if it's with the perfect woman. This is the Kevin Smith film most appraised by critics, and while it's ending may at first be one that the viewer despises for being too realistic and against the outcome most desired, most people will (and do) grow to love it for its irony and extreme link to reality (as was the case with me).

Chasing Amy is a very well written film, and while Kevin Smith's lack of an edgy, unique directing style is very present in this film, probably more so than any other of his, it is one of the only complaints one can raise.

THE VIDEO

Chasing Amy is presented in 1.85:1/1080p on a 50GB disc and encoded with VC-1. If you want to know how Chasing Amy in high-def compares to its DVD counterpart, then HD wins, hands down. The picture is more detailed, has better contrast, and is transferred at a higher bit rate (obviously), but it’s not like the film is a visual tour-de-force or anything close to that, so the picture is only going to look just a little bit more defined. Colors look pretty decent, though at times they can be somewhat muted or sometimes bleed; overall the colors aren’t very crisp, and softness is not really an issue per se. Black levels are decent, while grain is minimal overall. Is this a great high-def picture? No. So what is it? It’s middle of the road.

THE AUDIO

Chasing Amy is presented in a nice 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit) track. Surrounds are active on occasion. This is a mostly dialogue-driven soundtrack, although all the songs sound really good. In general, the music and dialogue are crisp and clear, and equally well reproduced across the front and rear speakers.

A Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital dub track is also available. Though it’s not listed on the back cover, a German 5.1 DTS Digital Surround track is featured as well. Optional subtitles include English SDH, English, Spanish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Indonesian, Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Romanian. The commentary is also subtitled in most if not all of these languages.

THE EXTRAS

New and Exclusive to Blu-ray

Audio Commentary by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier: This new commentary reveals a lot of information and stories, and offers a good amount of jokes to boot. Fans of the film will definitely want to give it a listen.

Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc (HD, VC-1, 81:15): An interesting and lengthy retrospective documentary featuring new interviews. Smith says that had Mallrats been a success they never would’ve made Chasing Amy, at least not the version that everyone knows now. Overall this is a very good companion piece as produced and directed by Zak Knutson & Joey Figueroa.

Was It Something I Said? – A Conversation with Kevin & Joey (HD, VC-1, 18:07): Shot inside Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash comic book store in New Jersey, both recollect stories and share information about themselves and the movie.

10 Years Later Q & A (SD, VC-1, 27:46): Shot in front of a live audience inside a movie theater featuring Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes and Scott Mosier answering questions. There’s some fun and good information in here.

The following material is ported over from the Criterion DVD release:

10 Deleted Scenes (SD, VC-1, 25:01): Some good material here, including the original opening scene, that was cut from the film. These can be viewed individually or via “play all”.

Outtakes (SD, VC-1, 4:56): Basically the actors cracking up. It is fun to watch Affleck mess up several takes of his scene at the lecture hall saying, “That’s a load of hogwash”.

You also get the film’s Theatrical Trailer (SD, VC-1, 2:05) which portrays the film rather well.

Not ported over from that DVD: Smith’s video introduction to the film (which was a Criterion exclusive, so it probably wasn’t repurposed here because of a rights issue), the original laserdisc audio commentary (which starts off with Smith saying “Fuck DVD”), and finally a series of special video introductions to the deleted scenes from select cast and crew.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The new bonus material is reason alone to upgrade to the Blu-ray edition, not to mention it’s a good film. If you have never seen the film, pick up the disc. It’s also great to see this film available in so many different subtitled languages!