Chasing Chasing Amy

So why the long face, Horse?

I'm just having a little girl trouble.

Bitch pressing charges?

I get that a lot.

Holden McNeil was set in his ways.

The way he worked, the way he lived,

and the way he thought love should be.

But then she showed up.

Miramax Films presents a comedy that tells it like it feels.

She's been around and seen things

we've only read about in books.

-What'd you do last night? -Got lucky.

"Chasing Amy."

And now, at last, we come to what at least I think

is the only good movie on this week's show.

It's called "Chasing Amy,"

and it was written and directed by Kevin Smith,

who made a name for himself a few years ago

with a very low budget comedy named "Clerks."

Now he's back with "Chasing Amy,"

which is a terrific film--

well written, well acted-- about a love affair

that forces a comic book artist

to question all of his ideas about himself.

Do you understand why I love this movie so much?

No.

Give us a quick, you know, thumbnail sketch of the plot.

It's about a guy who falls in love with a lesbian.

I love you.

Finds out she's had heterosexual relationships

and can't deal with that.

I want us to be something that we can't be.

And what's that?

A normal couple.

In the late '90s, it was still an occasion

to have a really big queer film come out.

And this was big.

Ultimately, it made $12 million in the box office.

There was Hollywood, and then there's independent film.

And when an independent film broke through,

everybody noticed.

It's extremely personalized, extremely good.

I've never really seen a romantic comedy

like it ever in my life.

It's a well-crafted film that came out

in that great '90s era of indie filmmaking.

Kevin Smith definitely was one of the young kings

of independent film.

"'Chasing Amy' is obviously a personal film for Smith--

a chance to work through his masculinity issues on screen."

I do know that he's talked about it being based on a relationship

that he had at one time.

You got this Golden Globe nomination.

-Are you excited? -I am. I'm very excited.

If I wrote about real life, "Chasing Amy" would be all about

the fact that I couldn't stand that

my girlfriend at the time had went to Bali

when she was younger and I didn't.

I think he was being true to himself

and being as true as he could to the the subject matter.

It directly addressed issues of intersectionality,

sociopolitical issues,

and really looked at identity politics

in a way that most films hadn't.

It's oh-so acceptable to be a gay girl nowadays.

People think it's cute.

Do you find the film to be authentic

to the LGBTQ community?

No, I find it to be authentic to the straight white dude

who happens to fall for a queer woman community.

This is a movie about a woman who is a lesbian

and decides to be with a man.

I'm like, "You know, that's, uh, gonna be controversial."

There are some people that inevitably are going to see

a lesbian no longer being a lesbian

by meeting "the right man" and rejecting that entirely.

Set aside the notion that any lesbian

can be magically turned straight if the right guy comes along.

What's extra offensive in hindsight

is the idea that that guy would be Ben Affleck.

When I first saw the movie, like,

I thought it was kind of dumb but harmless.

That would have been excellent for the poster tagline--

Dumb but Harmless.

There were some people in the community

who did not appreciate the ambiguity, the subtlety.

There were a lot of question marks in that film.

I mean, it's not rocket science.

A straight man tells a lesbian story,

and now everyone's paying attention.

I hear the word problematic with "Chasing Amy" a lot.

Is it bad that it's problematic?

Is it okay that it's kind of divisive?

Did you see that? Your dyke-courting ass

just got me scored on.

Sometimes something that's problematic can still mean

a lot in your development.

It was, I think, a brave film at the time

to portray somebody who's... fluid.

I know that there's a lot of controversy

about these older gay films, but at the same time,

like, it meant something to you as a filmmaker

and, like, that is, like, an undeniable thing.

I do have more respect for this film than I thought I did,

less because of how it's put together

and more for what it was able to do

for people like you.

I do have a question--

why do you want to make this movie?

When I was 12,

I exclusively wanted to watch Ben Affleck movies.

It's an incredibly specific thing for a child to demand.

But Ben Affleck was the star

of the 2003 superhero film "Daredevil."

Naturally, I was in love with him.

One day, while raiding my family's movie collection,

I came across an unfamiliar box with Mr. Affleck's face on it.

The title read "Chasing Amy."

"Chasing Amy" had everything that I wanted.

The characters were comic book writers.

They spoke in romantic monologues

about the kind of love that only seemed to exist in movies.

And there were openly queer people,

and I didn't realize what a big deal that would be for me.

Around this time, I entered junior high school.

Young me did not have it particularly easy.

While I was lucky to have a few people

that I could call friends, I often felt isolated,

but wasn't really sure why.

In one violent incident in the seventh grade,

a group of boys surrounded me as I waited for my mom

to pick me up after school.

I regarded these kids as my friends.

So imagine my shock when they started pushing me,

threatening me and hurling words

like "dyke," "queer," and "faggot" at me.

I had never heard the word "dyke" before in my life.

This wasn't the last time

I'd encounter homophobia as an adolescent,

but it was the first time

I realized just how I was being othered.

See, it sucks when everyone else

knows you're queer before you do,

because then you don't have anything

to protect yourself with.

These young men weaponized my perceived sexuality against me.

Back then, there were virtually no consequences

for homophobic bullying in Kansas.

But I did have this one movie.

I had a movie where the gay and lesbian characters were good.

They were intelligent and funny and out.

They were able to live as their authentic selves.

And you know what? The spirit of "Chasing Amy"

kept me alive for years to come, despite the suicidal thoughts

that began to permeate from the trauma

I was continuously experiencing at school.

No matter what I was dealing with,

I had this one movie to bring me solace.

I once kept this movie in my DVD player for a month.

I would watch it at least once a day every day for 30 days.

Now, to be fair,

I didn't know that there were other gay movies.

Nowadays, I'm a filmmaker,

and because I can't seem to shake this topic,

I'm now directing a project

about the legacy of "Chasing Amy" as an LGBTQ film.

It's by far the most dramatic way of saying "thank you"

I could possibly think of.

Thank you.

The whole store, like, looks the same.

It feels like I'm stepping into, like, a time capsule

-in the best way. -Yeah.

You know, all the racks are the same.

I don't think the T-shirts or the books were over there.

No.

And over here was cassingles,

which kind of dates it pretty badly, but, uh...

But the exterior, the carpet.

Oh, yeah. It really feels like

I watched the movie and then just, like, walked over here.

Maybe what's really troubling you

is that your fragile fantasy might not be true.

You remember that,

I want to get the rights to that song

and just, like, do a montage of this whole day.

Hey. Hey!

Wow.

I'm a little nervous.

I didn't know what I expected.

I did not expect all this. This is cool.

-Ta da da! -Oh, my.

Oh, my God.

That's the original piece right up there.