Dogma

Dogma (1999) is about two angels cast out of heaven who find a loophole and try to get back. Bartleby and Loki have been exiled to Wisconsin. They find a newspaper cutting: a church in New Jersey is being rededicated and everyone who passes through its doors has all their sins erased. The plan is simple: go there, walk through, be cleansed, return to heaven. The problem is that this would exploit a loophole, and God's word being proved wrong means the end of the universe. A woman is chosen to stop them: Bethany, who works at an abortion clinic and has lost her faith. The method is to take the theology seriously and the telling not seriously at all. The characters argue at length about dogma, saints, a thirteenth apostle and the institutionalising of belief, and then a crude joke arrives in the same scene. Kevin Smith was raised Catholic and said the film was a reckoning with his own faith. Catholic organisations reacted sharply before release and screenings were protested. Under that pressure the company Miramax belonged to withdrew from distributing it and the rights were sold to another distributor. Alanis Morissette plays God and does not speak. The cast includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Linda Fiorentino and George Carlin. The film opens with a disclaimer, and the disclaimer is also a joke. It runs 130 minutes. Good for: religious satire, Kevin Smith, and contested comedy. Less good for: the swearing is constant, the humour is crude, and some will find the religious content offensive.