How Do The Sexual Politics Of ‘Chasing Amy’ Look After 20 Years? (They Didn’t Look Great At The Time)

Director Kevin Smith says, “The weird thing about it is, you know, when you look at it now – to borrow a term from the present – it was very woke for 1997.” Queer critics didn’t agree: as Shannon Keating sums it up here, “Ultimately, the film assumes that a lesbian can go straight, even if just for a little while, as soon as the right guy comes along.” But then, Keating continues, “Questions about how to define different queer identities, the possibilities and limits of sexual fluidity, and what mysterious chemistry drives attraction are as much a part of the contemporary queer conversation as they were in the mid-’90s. Chasing Amy was, in many ways, ahead of its time.”