Every Kevin Smith Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
3. Chasing Amy (1997)
Considering the way Ben Affleck is written in the rest of Smith's films, the fact that he's as sympathetic a lead in Chasing Amy is quite astounding. And that's with a particularly douchey goatee too.
The film works chiefly because of Affleck's chemistry with Jason Lee and the perfect sell of Joey Lauren Adams' Alyssa: she is spell-binding and charismatic in a way that makes Lee and Affleck's immature besottedness entirely believable. They're the same worldly cynics as populate Smith's first two movies, and the same not-quite-grown-up teenagers, but they aren't fools or victims.
Chasing Amy has bags of charm and a maturity that proved Smith had himself grown up. His scripting powers were still there, but he was more artful and more technically astute than he had been in Mallrats.