# Dogma (1999)

### reviewed by
Berge Garabedian

    DOGMA
    RATING: 7 /10 -->Good movie

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Please note that I have written this review with a great strain on my objectivity. You see, besides Quentin Tarantino, there has been no greater writing influence in my life than Kevin Smith, the director of this film. I say this because I do not want you to think that I am pretending to forget or put aside my grand respect for the man, because I couldn't do that even if I tried. In fact, besides being a great writer/director, I simply believe him to be an upstanding human being as well. Okay, now that you know my dirty little secret, let's see what I have to say...

PLOT: Two renegade angels attempt to get back into Heaven through a loophole that they find at a church in New Jersey. A woman who works at an abortion clinic is chosen by the voice of God to stop these men, along with the help of two "modern" prophets, the 13th unknown apostle and a muse/stripper, before the angels cross the threshold and lead to the end of all human existence. Simple enough?

CRITIQUE: Ambitious, original, funny film about a bunch of religious figures pasted into a modern fantastical world environment with a lot of tedious theological speak and a lot of "dick and fart" jokes (as Kevin would say). It's hard to say who this type of movie is going to attract, since the young, non-religious hipsters (okay, I'm not so young but I still consider myself part of this group) will probably not appreciate all of the religious points made in this film, and the older, religious non-hipsters will probably not appreciate any of the more juvenile humor, which I thought was hilarious. Maybe the older, non-religious, hipsters or the younger, religious, non-hipsters? Either way, I personally enjoyed it for most of what it represented which was an alternative point of view on religion, Catholicism in particular, and the unrelenting humor written by Smith for his Jason Mewes and Chris Rock characters. Jay simply rocked! I could honestly say that if Silent Bob and Jay were not in this movie, I might be hard pressed to recommend it so highly.

One thing that you have to know going into this film is that it is a fantasy. A modern-day comedic fantasy, but a fantasy nonetheless. On the whole, most of the mythical elements seemed to meche flawlessly within the modern-day environment, but others just appeared too fake for me to get around, like the wings on the angels and the horns on Jason Lee. Also, as much as I tried I could not help but think "that's singer Alanis Morissette" when God made her first appearance. I just couldn't help it! The more I tried not to think about it, the more I did. Isn't it ironic? Anyway, I recommend this film under the two main conditions that I liked it which were the overall story, which was interesting, and the humor-laced script which was peppered with particularly great lines for Jay and Rock. I thought the Affleck, Damon and Rickman characters were a little too drowned in their explanatory religo-babble (a 20-minute trim-job might've helped), and Hayek distracting (well, in some good ways but also in some bad), but overall, the film was original, funny and certainly inventive.

Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: A convention premiere of DOGMA in Atlanta during the first week of November 1999, provided some more insights into the man better known as Kevin Smith. 1) Kevin claimed that he only wants to direct ten films in total and that he only has three ideas for future films ready now, so it might turn out to be only seven. The one idea that he did mention was an adaptation of Mage (comic book). 2) Kevin said that Jay and Silent Bob would probably be in one more film and then would only appear in the comics and the Clerks Animated Series. 3) He also explained that one of the major problems that he had with Superman producer Jon Peters while he was still attached to the project was that Peters wanted Braniac to have a "gay" robot sidekick (similar to C3Po). He even wanted the black guy from CHASING AMY to do the voice. 4) Other than Ben Affleck, Chris Rock and Matt Damon, Smith said he would not try and get big name actors for his movies. 5) He said that the reason Jeff Anderson (Randall from CLERKS) wasn't in MALLRATS or CHASING AMY was that Anderson had a falling out with Smith over some money from CLERKS. The good news is that Anderson does have a small role in DOGMA as the gun store clerk. Note that Brian O'Halloran (Dante from CLERKS) also has a small role in DOGMA as the reporter. Kevin Smith wrote the DOGMA script before he had ever written his first flick, CLERKS, but shelved it because he wanted to do it with the proper special effects. British actress Emma Thompson was originally slated to play the part of God but pulled out before filming began in order to have a baby. As usual, dozens of other movie references show up in the film (too many to enumerate here, but I'm sure they'll show up on many a Kevin Smith fan page over the next few weeks), but at least five John Hughes films were referred to directly in this film. Smith has always said that he "grew up" on John Hughes comedies and admires them. Smith got married to reporter Jennifer Schwalbach in 1999 and had a daughter soon thereafter. The child was named Harley Quinn (also the name of a character in TV's "Batman: The Animated Series"). This should also go without saying but Kevin owns his own comic book store, "Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash" in Red Bank, New Jersey. He had apparently sold his comic book collection for money to film CLERKS (which cost about $27,000), but bought it all back once the film became a huge success. The "guy on the bus" character is played by none other than producer Scott Mosier.

    Review Date: November 8, 1999
    Director: Kevin Smith
    Writer: Kevin Smith
    Producer: Scott Mosier
    Actors: Ben Affleck as Bartleby
    Matt Damon as Loki
    Linda Fiorentino as Bethany
    Chris Rock as Rufus
    Genre: Comedy
    Year of Release: 1999
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    (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian

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