Title: Dogma
Director: Kevin Smith
Released: 1999
Staring: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Jason
Mewes, Kevin Smith, Salma Heyek, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Jason Lee, George
Carlin, Alanis Morissette
Plot: Exiled to Wisconsin, two fallen angels Barleby
(Affleck) and Loki (Damon) having discovered a loophole in the newly revised Catholic Dogma which
will allow them back into Heaven after being cast out by God, unaware that they could potentially
undo all creation. Upon discovering this Metatron (Rickman) aka the voice of god, tasks abortion
clinic worker Bethany (Fiorentino) with stopping them, while she soon finds
herself aided by Rufus (Rock) the thirteenth apostle, Serendipity (Heyek) a
muse with writers block and Prophets Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith)
Review: To approach
this film I think its best to apply Kevin Smith to the many worlds theory which
posits the existence of an infinite number of Kevin Smiths in an infinite
number of universes. Now with this in mind I would like to think that at least in
one of them he would be still making films of this standard, rather than
churning out his lazy dick and fart joke favoring movies of late while
generally bashing critics in public rants. Still there was a time when Smiths
career was one of a symbiotic relationship between his two styles as he would
make a smart dialogue driven comedy (Clerks & Chasing Amy) and follow it up
with one of his fart and dick jokes favoring comedies (Mallrats & Jay and
Silent Bob Strike Back) before then making one of his smarter comedies, a
pattern which worked well and saved audiences from becoming bored with one
style, while keeping Smith’s worse fresh and interesting. Alas there must be a trigger point for change and that was
“Jersey Girl” a severely underrated smart comedy, which was so largely bashed
it seemingly shook Smith’s confidence as since that movie he has concentrated
on making solely fart and dick joke comedies, aiming for easy laughs over the
smart comedy which helped his original indie film get noticed in the first
place, something seemingly also forgotten by Smith judging by how “Clerks 2”
was shot in his now favoured style over the original films memorable style.
From the start it is clear that Smith is not pulling any
punches when it comes to poking fun at his source material which in this case
is Catholic Dogma, with the opening joke of the Catholic church bringing in a
number of changes including the now legendry “Buddy Christ” as part of their
Catholicism-WOW campaign to revitalize interest in the church. No doubt this is
also the get off point for anyone slightly sensitive about having their belief
system questioned, something I have always held the firm belief that
questioning your beliefs only makes them stronger and Smith himself raised a
devout Catholic really lets his knowledge of the faith shine throughout, though
needless to say it did upon its release piss off a whole bunch of Roman
Catholic groups in particular the Catholic League, who were more than happy to
brand Smith as being worse than Hitler and the KKK combined for daring to make such
a film. Still for those of you not concerned with such things or more willing
to see the funny side of religion there really is a lot to enjoy here,
especially when Smith is not making fun of religion just for the sake of it,
but also using the film as a platform to raise his own questions about aspects
of his faith without at the same time feeling as if he needs to turn it into a
sermon to do so. Still perhaps if these religious groups looked a little
further than the surface of the film, they might have been less quick to arms,
especially when Bethany is in many ways representing the atheist view point, as
she questions the existence of god largely thanks to her own misfortunes, with
each of her companions playing their part in restoring her faith, with the
exception perhaps being Jay and Silent Bob, whose appearance is more to do with
continuality of the Askview universe than plot necessity. At the same time
implying that god’s true form is Alanis Morissette, let alone that she is a
woman might only undo this much like the idea of a thirtieth apostle.
The plot is broken into two main threads with the first
following Bartleby and Loki as they journey across country on their mission to
get back into heaven, along the way scratching off a few remaining grudges such
as the cleansing of the Mooby’s board of directors. The second thread follows
Bethany and her ragtag group as they try to track down Barleby and Loki, with At
the same time while Bartleby and Loki’s actions could be seen as putting them
in the position of being the bad guys of the film, ultimately they are merely
pawns of a larger game and even the supposed bad guy of the film Azrael (Lee)
is far from the big evil you’d expect especially considering how little screen
time he’s given almost as if Smith is trying to imply that the lines between
good and evil are more grey than black and white and that it is often our own
actions which determine the side in which we stand.
The cast are all memorable in their individual parts,
despite Smith later commenting on the difficultly he had working with
Fiorentino whose role as Bethany he wished he’d given the role to Janeane
Garofalo instead, while even more disturbingly considering Joey Lauren Adam
aswell, whose raspy tones would have no doubt driven me over the edge. Still it
is Alan Rickman whose presence threatens to overshadow the rest of the cast
with his fantastic performance as the sarcastic and generally pissed off
Metatron (aka the voice of god), who once again manages to elevate even the
most simplest of dialogue. Equally fun are Affleck and Damon who bounce off
each other and transfer their off screen friendship onto the screen as they
provide many of the films best moments and the decision to follow these two as
much as Bethany’s group ultimately proves to be a great one, especially when
they are just so much fun to hang out with.
Unsurprisingly controversial for its stand point on religion, the film remains one of Smith's strongest movies to date and ultimately a sad reminder of what could have been, had Smith continued to make films of this intelligence, something which Smith has only recently hinted of being capable of producing again with the sadly overlooked "Red State". Still if your not too firm in your religious stand point there is a lot to enjoy here while proving that you can make a film about religion without needing to get on a soapbox to make your point and plus how seriously can you really take a movie with a rubber poop monster in it?
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