Kevin Smith’s 1997 film about a man who falls in love with a lesbian, “Chasing Amy,” is a film that’s become even more problematic and divisive as the years have passed. A dated product of its time, it’s also a movie that continues to speak to so many.
That’s why writer-director Sav Rodgers decided to make “Chasing Chasing Amy,” a documentary film about how his life was forever changed after first seeing Smith’s LGBTQ+ film when he was 12 years old. Sav’s film is one of kinship and fandom, a highly personal odyssey that explores the cathartic impact the romantic comedy had on a preteen from Kansas.
Obsessed with everything about “Chasing Amy,” Rodgers found himself watching and rewatching the movie for years. His documentary examines the film’s role in LGBTQ+ culture and his own developing identity, questioning what makes good queer representation on screen and why so many gay people hate the movie.
Featuring eye-opening and intimate interviews with writer-director Kevin Smith, producer and longtime Smith collaborator Scott Mosier, and star Joey Lauren Adams (among others), there’s a candid quality of the film that’s intriguing. There’s an astounding (and outstanding) piece where Rodgers talks to Adam about Harvey Weinstein and the pain she feels when she thinks about that time in her life. She admits that making the movie was terrific, but there are a lot of raw feelings there. It’s by far the best part of the documentary, but also sad that Adams has such negative feelings for the movie that she is the most famous for. It would’ve been interesting to shift the majority of the focus to this story, but Rodgers instead tries to take on too much and ends up with an unfocused mess.
The choppy storytelling is a result of the two wildly different angles to the story. One is about the making of “Chasing Amy” and a lot of tidbits from Smith (admittedly, it’s always a pleasure to listen to the man talk); the other is a highly personal exploration of Sav’s own life and struggle with personal identity. It’s not to say that the two are mutually exclusive, it just feels clunky, rambling, and will start to wear out viewers.
While it helps to have some familiarity with the film it is about, “Chasing Chasing Amy” is accessible to any movie fan. Showcasing a love for the 1990s Golden Age of independent film, Sav captures fandom on a personal level. His documentary is above all a film about relationships: the one between Kevin and Joey, Sav and the movie, and Sav and his fiancee. It’s a love story about a film, but also one about Sav learning to love himself.
