Review of Dogma (1999) by Dany C — 17 Apr 2014

Metatron (Alan Rickman): Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.

Kevin Smith has an unusual sense of humor, even by Hollywood's standard, and one has to have a definite appreciation for his kind of humor to be able to enjoy his films. A few years ago, I probably wouldn't have cared for any of his projects but now-a-days, listening to his multiple podcasts, I have a greater appreciation for his wit, if not his humor. Sure, there's the usual sophomoric dick-jokes and a fair amount of seemingly misogynistic portrayal of women or the down-right blasphemous views towards religion but in the heart of everything that was loud, profane, obnoxious and/or vulgar about his films, lies a kernel of truth and (dare I say) wisdom the likes of which we've never ever seen or heard of in movies before the advent of "Kevin-Smith-style-stoner-comedies". In this particular film, Ben Affleck's Bartleby's rant to Damon's Loki about God's tolerance for human beings was absolutely profound. The speech about sexism in the Bible Serendipity (Hayek) gives to Bethany (Fiorentino) was surprisingly enlightening. Even the conversation between Fiorentino's Bethany and Liz (Garofalo) was simply hilarious and everything that came out of the mouth of Alan Rickman's Metatron just plainly inspired! (But then again, he's always brilliant). Granted the ending was a bit of a let-down and a bit cheesy; it almost seemed like a compromise to appease the studio heads rather than Smith's usual "F-U-take-it-or-leave-it" message in his earlier films but overall, this movie was really interesting (it's kind of funny how, the plot was so similar to the Da Vinci Code which was another aspect of this film that I thoroughly enjoyed). Any fan of Smith's would adore this film, non-fans may find a it a bit crude but it really does have its merits, you just have to take it with a grain of salt and keep a very, very, very open mind.