# Dogma (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    DOGMA
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

Writer/director Kevin Smith's DOGMA is quite surprising, but not for the reasons you might expect. Smith, famous for his hilarious brand of irreverent humor with films such as CLERKS and CHASING AMY, is back with his best motion picture ever, DOGMA, the most politically incorrect movie of the year. This is all as expected given its early positive buzz and its being dropped like a hot potato by its original distributor, Disney.

What is truly surprising is that DOGMA, while unabashedly ridiculing the Catholic Church, asks so many good questions and poses so many insights into the meaning of faith that it becomes the most religious movie of the year. Usually when pictures want to make fun of organized religion, as the recent and awful STIGMATA did against the Catholic Church, they go for nothing but the cheap shots and never try to raise any genuine issues about belief in God. DOGMA, while firmly in the comedic camp, is as good a serious film as it is a funny one. Only in its gratuitously violent scenes does the film go needlessly awry.

Knowing that he would get tremendous flack, Smith opens his film with a written disclaimer. He explains, among other things, that the film is a "work of comedic fantasy" and asks viewers not to "pass undue judgment" since that is "reserved for God and God alone (this goes for you film critics too…just kidding)." Already, he has softened us up, and the movie hasn't even started.

Cardinal Glick, played by none other than George Carlin in an inspired bit of casting against type, announces with great fanfare a new "buddy Christ" figurine to replace the tired, depressing old crucifix. Along with the church's new upbeat icon is a fresh marketing campaign with the theme of "Catholicism Wow!" Now, you can see why Disney was worried about protestors and boycotts.

The cardinal is a pragmatist to whom success means filled pews. When asked a question about the tobacco industry, the cardinal laments, "If only we had their numbers."

Two angel outcasts, Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and the infamous Angel of Death, Loki (Matt Damon), have been sent, not to Hell, but to Wisconsin. They've been wandering around while trying to find a way back into Heaven. They discover a loophole in Catholic dogma which will let them reenter heaven but will obliterate all human existence in the process. God's forces, aided by selected humans, try to prevent this cataclysmic tragedy.

As the angels make their way to New Jersey, where the loophole lies, they go looking for sinners to punish along the way. You can just imagine how the Angel of Death deals with transgressors. It's not pretty, but most of the violence, thankfully, happens off-screen.

Typical of the show's serious side, the two angels, acting like a couple of seminarians, get into a heated argument on the precise meaning of freewill and religion. This occurs in a vacant parking garage just outside of New Jersey. Generally nothing good happens in a parking garage in the movies and certainly nothing profound.

Two stoner dudes, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (the director Kevin Smith), hang out at an abortion clinic where Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) works, since they figure that they can find loose women to pick up there. Acting like they have a collective IQ of 50, the guys start hanging out with Bethany, mainly hoping to have sex with her. Bethany, who confesses that she would give anything to get back the intensity of the religious faith she had when she was a kid, learns that she has been chosen to stop the angels.

Along the way the three meet Serendipity (Salma Hayek), a muse who claims she's responsible for 19 of the 20 high grossing films of all times. She emphatically claims that she had nothing to do with HOME ALONE, however. All of the characters possess both a serious and a comedic side. "You people don't celebrate your faith, you morn it," Serendipity complains.

One scene of really gross bathroom humor features an evil guy known as Poopyboy. He will leave you thanking your lucky stars that Smell-a-Vision never caught on.

A whimsical, violent, hilarious and perceptive motion picture, DOGMA asks great questions. What is the eternal question that you've always wanted to ask God? "Why are we here?" Bethany wants to know. God, who doesn't speak, has a perfect answer for her. DOGMA, a motion picture destined to be hated as sacrilegious by large numbers of people, most of whom won't see it, isn't for everyone. But if you can approach it with an open mind, I think you'll find it an extremely funny and quite rewarding film.

DOGMA runs 2:05. It is rated R for strong language including sex-related dialogue, violence, crude humor and some drug content and would be acceptable for older high school students.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews