Release Date – TBC, Cert – TBC, Run-time – 1 hour 35 minutes, Director – Sav Rodgers
Sav Rodgers explores the impact of Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy on himself and the wider LGBTQ+ community, especially as depictions and representation in cinema changes over the years.
Sav Rodgers beams with disbelieving delight as he walks into Kevin Smith’s home. Seeing props and items from the writer-director’s films in a shop dedicated to Smith’s comics and films, not to mention visiting the Quick Stop, brings plenty of delight but meeting the director whose work changed his life is on another level. Rodgers makes clear that Chasing Amy is a big film in his life, one watched on repeat and eye-opening with its LGBTQ+ themes and representations. However, it’s not a film without its criticisms, particularly regarding its narrative which some have described as one based around a woman’s heterosexual conversion by a straight man.
Chasing Chasing Amy takes this as its starting point. Bringing in critics and people involved with the film to give their views on the film, its depictions and how attitudes may, or may not, have changed over time for the film. These link into Rodgers own personal feelings for the film as he details how it helped him to learn about himself and his own sexuality, the film acts as a personal journey for himself as much as it does something looking at the legacy of Chasing Amy.
Rodgers is a very likable figure, we engage with him and his journey, acting as a big consistent throughout the film. As various tangents crop up to look at other aspects of Smith’s 1997 feature, with the documentary seemingly acknowledging that it can’t simply be an essay about the LGBTQ+ angles, there are certainly some which work better than others; largely the ones which don’t feel as drawn-out. While only 95-minutes there’s something of a busy nature to the documentary with how much it gets in, particularly once past the second half when a new form seems to be taken in regards to the personal development of the director – a key interview with Chasing Amy lead Joey Lauren Adams about her relationship with the film, with her answers perhaps not quite lining up with what was hoped for, being a key turning point.
Chasing Amy is described part way through as “a roadmap of how not to f*ck up a relationship”. We dive into Smith’s own personal feelings towards the film, including when writing and filming it, the course that it took when first released. When leaning into Rodgers’ views, and the glimpses we see of his relationship with his wife, such moments have that extra layer of interest. They keep things going, again largely thanks to the likable nature of the central filmmaker and how he changes overtime through new understandings and interviews.
These particularly lift up the various tangents which crop up in the later stages of the film, moving away from the initial focus and themes of the documentary. And while eventually these work and lead onto something, it takes some time for things to come together, especially with how much the film wants to delve into in such a short space of time. Not everything feels as if it builds upon the opening and closing points, but overall there’s enough present to make for a decent documentary with the push of an engaging filmmaker at the centre.
While starting and ending in some interesting places, largely thanks to the personal angle of Sav Rodgers who makes for an engaging secondary focus, Chasing Chasing Amy is held back by a number of tangents to other points and topics in its short run-time.
Just A Little Bit Random 