At some point in my adult life I had to come to the sad
conclusion, completing my disillusionment, that Kevin Smith is a much better
writer than director. In fact, he doesn’t make very good movies. Clerks succeeds because it was all of a
time and place: a scrappy little independent low budget film that had some very
funny bits. His follow up was not well-received by anyone, but in 1997 Chasing Amy was something of a
revelation. At the time I thought it was just about the perfect romantic
comedy. Watching it again now for the first time in many years I still think
it’s got some wonderful dialogue, keen relationship insights and still sets the
bar for the genre, but I recognize how shoddy the filmmaking is.
