Chasing Amy (1997)

Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee) are comic book artists. Everything's going good for them until they meet Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: When Kevin Smith pitched the idea to Miramax films, he also said that he had written the parts with his friends Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, and Joey Lauren Adams in mind. Miramax, however, wanted to cast people who already had celebrity status, such as Jon Stewart, David Schwimmer, and Drew Barrymore (these three were actually suggested). The film's original budget of $3,000,000 depended on Miramax's support. Ultimately, Smith suggested that he make the movie with his three original actors on his own, and Miramax could buy it for distribution if they liked it. The brothers Weinstein liked this idea, and gave him $250,000 to make the movie (1/24 of the budget of his previous film, Mallrats (1995)). Silent Bob tells Jay that "What he doesn't know about him could just about fill the Grand Canyon". In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Robert Redford says the same thing to Paul Newman. Carmen Lee who played Kim, Alyssa's lesbian lover, was the wife of star Jason Lee. Joey Lauren Adams who played Alyssa was director Kevin Smith's girlfriend. During the scene where Holden and Alyssa are playing darts, men are going in and out of the women's bathroom and women are going in and out of the men's bathroom. The sequence in the club, where Banky and Alyssa compare sexual scars and stories, parodies a similar scene on board the boat in Jaws (1975) between Hooper and Quint.

This is the third movie in the View Askewniverse series. All the movies were written by Kevin Smith and involve the same characters and same locations and reference each other. I love Kevin Smith's dialog. It is intelligent yet irreverent. The plot summary above may sound simple but it was a great movie, nothing simple about it. I still have not seen two of the View Askew movies, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II. But as of right now, Clerks and Chasing Amy are the two best.