Dogma (1999)

Written and Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring Linda Fiorentino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman

My Advice: Don't Miss It.

Meet Loki (Damon) and Bartleby (Affleck).  They make look like ordinary average guys, but they're not.  They're angels.  Fallen angels to be precise.  Fallen to Wisconsin, to be even more precise.  However, thanks to a Catholic loophole provided by a cardinal (George Carlin), they have the chance to go home, back to Heaven.  But there's a snag, you see.  If they go home, they will unknowingly negate all of existence.  So therefore Metatron (Rickman), the voice of God, charges a woman named Bethany (Fiorentino) with a quest—stop them.  Along for the ride are two prophets, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), and the 13^th apostle, Rufus (Rock). 

Who would have thought that a film could balance theological discussion with fart jokes?  Not me.  But what Smith has done is given us just that—a religious road movie that manages to call into question the blind and dumb followers-to-the-letter of religion but not the religion itself.  It manages to entertain at the same time it provokes thought. And laughter.  No wonder the Catholic Anti-Free Thought League was hacked off.

Smith assembled a great cast to do the deed.  Standing out from the rest is the team of Affleck and Damon with classic scenes ranging from the comedic to the downright disturbing.  Comedic--I think of Damon using Lewis Carroll to belittle a nun's faith.  Disturbing--I think of Affleck in a parking garage going off and revealing his lovely little plan for the angels' next move.  Another scene in which they invade a corporate boardroom to dispense some divine justice is as witty as it is satirically brutal.  Also providing some hilarious moments is Chris Rock, whose insistence that he was kicked out of the Bible for being black is just the tip of the iceberg for his schtick as Rufus.  One of the casting decisions that bothered many, that of Alanis Morissette as God, works very well here as she brings a noble childlike quality to the role—it actually works, people.

And they have great material to work with.  Smith isn't screwing around when it comes to the spiritual world.  He covers things like the reason for Metatron having the job he does, how an Angel of Death can lose his job, and whether or not angels have sex organs.  What's better is that even practical, down-to-earth (no pun intended) issues are addressed, ones that we can all relate to, such as what's the point of going to church anymore?  All of this and more makes for a very original and very daring film, not just because it deals with the issues it does, but also because it has a message that anyone with a brain and a sense of humor can deal with—namely, that there is still a reason to have faith.  Go see it not just because it will hack off the protestors, but because it's a classy film.