Chasing Amy

Banky (Lee) and Holden (Affleck) are beginning to make a name for themselves as creators of the cult comic book 'Bluntman & Chronic', but their partnership is threatened when Holden falls for fellow artist Alyssa (Adams). For one thing, Banky - whose attitude to women is at best neanderthal, at worst blatantly misogynist - is jealously proprietorial about his buddy; for another, Alyssa already has a girlfriend. Though Smith's directing talent remains rudimentary, as a writer he's progressed from the basic schtick-and-gags routine of Clerks, his gleefully un-PC debut. Again, there's plenty of profanity, but the film scores in its exploration of the social and psychological implications of Alyssa's increasingly tender feelings for Holden. The script moves beyond Smith's customary cataloguing of male adolescent ignorance and idiocy to offer sharp insights into the romanticism and pragmatism, pride and double standards that define the tangled threesome.