Dogma

Kevin Smith established the basic elements of his style in his first three films, the New Jersey Trilogy: erudite monologues on esoteric subjects by quirky characters, an instinctive feeling for one-upsmanship in conversation, an unstinting embrace of grossness, a measure of pathos, and of course Jay and Silent Bob, two stoned slackers who always managed to influence the plot in some crucial way. In "Dogma," Smith's fourth film, he ups the ante by adding to all of the above a generous helping of social satire, special effects and violence, actors who can all actually act, locales outside of New Jersey (briefly), and a mixture of personal trauma and existential-agnostic angst on the part of the main character. The result is something to celebrate. After three giddily entertaining films, Smith has taken the next step. This film verges on being a masterpiece.

For starters, it's a sprawling, hilarious romp of a movie. Smith's humor, which in previous movies had taken romantic relationships and "Star Wars" as its main targets, here goes for the social jugular in taking on consumerism, hypocrisy, organized religion, and arcane issues of dogma, such as the one this film hinges on. As two banished angels, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have discovered a loophole that will allow them to reenter heaven. This, unfortunately, will destroy the world by proving that God is fallible. It's up to Linda Fiorentino as an agnostic abortion clinic worker, and a motley crew including Chris Rock as the missing 13th disciple, Salma Hayek as the muse Serendipity, and of course Jay and Silent Bob, to stop them. The film pulls no punches in its acid sendups of religious efforts to become more "relevant," children's entertainment empires, the impossible situations rigid ideology creates, and the racism and sexism embedded in the Bible (at least, according to Rock's and Hayek's characters). This succession of Big Topics could be irritating, but Smith has a genius for phrasing and structure of irritated monologues which must be seen to be believed. "Dogma" is convulsively funny, as funny as any film this year and more satiric than all of them.

It also includes a surprising amount of emotion. Fiorentino's character has to come to terms with a veritable deluge of revelations during this movie, some picayune (nineteen of the twenty highest-grossing movies were inspired by Hayek, except "Home Alone" which was the work of Satan) and some much more personal and unsettling. This film deals head-on with issues of faith, belief, and security in God. These are serious issues, issues most of us have struggled with at some point. While Smith does treat them with a bit of levity, he never acts like these are not important issues worthy of real thought. To do less would be dishonest. (In fact, Smith ends up affirming every central tenet of Christianity.) This movie frolics whenever it can, but at the core of the movie is Fiorentino's sadness, which Smith suggests she can only relieve by accepting God into her life. This movie is truly hilarious, but the issues it raises stay with you.

Of course, it helps that for once Smith has assembled a cast of competent actors. Too often, in past films, outstanding Smith monologues were delivered by low-paid actors in an incomprehensible rush or with an erratic rhythm that diluted their humoric impact. This movie has no such problems. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (who was in Smith's last film) have fun with finally being bad guys and manage to inhabit the Smith idiom so completely you can imagine them as the protagonists in a remake of "Clerks." Rock is his usual verbally hyperkinetic self, sinking his teeth into Smith's monologues (although it's hard to imagine Rock not having had a hand in some of them). Salma Hayek, as always flabbergastingly attractive, is finally given decent comic material and runs away with it. (Her strip club scene is worth the price of admission, too, for those of us who like that kind of thing.)

Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith himself), for once acting as know-nothings instead of the only people in the film who actually know what they're about, spew profanity and unwanted sexual invitations with their usual hilarious gusto. But the emotional core of the movie is Fiorentino, and she is simply brilliant: by turns incredulous, awed, bitter, sarcastic, fearful, and content, she takes her character's slim backstory and makes a three-dimensional human being out of it, someone whose disappointments and triumphs mirror and elevate our own.

What Smith ends up with is a movie so convincing that you won't blink when it turns out that God is played by Alanis Morrisette. This film amazes and stays with you for days. If you already love Smith, if you've never heard of Smith, or even if you hate Smith and everything he's done, you should go see "Dogma." After all, it's a very rare animal: a staggeringly funny movie that could change your life.

This film does not "verge on being a masterpiece" and it will not change your life unless you are very easily suggestible, as I apparently was when I saw it. I promise I stopped praising films in this overblown manner pretty quickly.

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