Chasing Amy

For the first time in several years I took part in the night film festival again. Fortunately, the festival is increasingly scheduling its programme at more humane hours, so I signed up once more. There was a good reason for it too, for Chasing Amy, the latest film by Kevin Smith, will not be released in this country. That also meant it was without Danish subtitles, which resulted in some initial difficulties, for Smith's dialogue is quick-fire and contains many unfamiliar expressions.

Holden McNeil is a young comic-book artist who falls in love with a colleague and only finds out too late that the girl, Alyssa, is a lesbian. Holden is so smitten that he does not give up. The miracle happens: Alyssa and Holden become a couple. All is joy and bliss until Holden learns that Alyssa had a rather experimental youth, especially where sex is concerned. To Danes Holden seems a little too prejudiced, but the plot has to keep moving, after all. Only too late does Holden realise that it was perhaps him rather than Alyssa who had something wrong with him.

Chasing Amy is in the same drawer as "Clerks": lots of cheeky and funny dialogue focusing on the characters' sex lives, but it is purely verbal. "Clerks", however, had its refreshing difference as its strength. Now we know the style.