BY PAUL WUNDER

Bartleby Ben Affeck
Cardinal Glick George Carlin
Loki Matt Damon
Bethany Linda Fiorentino
Serendipity Salma Hayek
Azrael Jason Lee
Jay Jason Mewes
Metatron Alan Rickman
Rufus Chris Rock
Silent Bob Kevin Smith
God Alanis Morisette
Clinic Girl Janeane Garofalo
Writer/Director/Co-star Kevin Smith
Director of Photography Robert Yeoman
Production Designer Robert "Ratface" Holtzman
Film Editors Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
Visual Effects Supervisor Richard "Dickie" Payne
Special Make-Up & Creature Effects Hank Corwin
Music Howard Shore
Producer Scott Mosier
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PROLOG- Disclaimer: 1) a renunciation of any claim to or connection with; 2) disavowal; 3) a statement made to save one's own ass.

Though it'll go without saying ten minutes or so into these preceedings, View Askew would like to state that this film is from start to finish a work of comedic fantasy, not to be taken seriously. To insist that any of what follows is incendiary or inflammatory is to miss our intention and pass judgement; and passing judgement is reserved for God and God alone (this goes for you film critics too...just kidding).

So please before you think about hurting someone over this trifle of a film, remember: even God has a sense of humor. Just look at the Platypus. Thank you and enjoy the show.

P.S. We sincerely apologize to all Platypus enthusiasts out there who are offended by that thoughtless comment about Platypi. We at View Askew respect the noble Platypus, and it is not our intention to slight these stupid creatures in any way.

Thank you again and enjoy the show

The latest battle in the eternal war between Good and Evil has come to New Jersey in the late, late 20th Century. In Kevin Smith's comic fantasia DOGMA, angels, demons, apostles and prophets (of a sort) walk among the cynics and innocents of America and duke it out for the fate of humankind. In what can only be deemed a comedy parable, two renegade fallen angels attempt to jerry-rig the entire cosmological system B unless a rag-tag group of humans can stop them. Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) are searching for a way out of everlasting exile in Wisconsin when they stumble upon the perfect return-to-paradise plan: a loophole in church dogma that will allow them to re-enter Heaven if they pass under the blessed arch of a New Jersey cathedral. There=s only one minor drawback: should they succeed, they'll also obliterate all human existence.

So it is that the fate of the world comes to rest upon a woman who just happens to be having a crisis of faith. Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), the heroine of DOGMA, is a woman who feels her prayers haven=t been answered when, out of nowhere, a heralding angel appears in her bedroom and declares her the potential savior of humanity. This abrupt meeting sets her off on an extraordinary journey of mystery, comedy and suspense as she is transported to a fantastical world of celestial characters and spirited adventure. Along the way she will meet up with a heaven-sent messenger (Alan Rickman), an apostle with a 2,000 year old beef (Chris Rock), a hotheaded demon (Jason Lee), a heavenly Muse (Salma Hayek) and two unlikely Prophets known as Jay and Silent Bob as they each discover the power of their own individual faith.

Talented, intelligent, comedic and wickedly evil comic book writer and fan Kevin Smith, along with friend and producer Scott Mosier formed the New Jersey based production company, View Askew in the early 1990's. With Kevin making his directorial debut, the pair created the surprise critical and commercial hit, CLERKS. The award winning comedy was little more than a series of verbal interactions between to sales clerks in a New Jersey shopping mall. Shot in black & white, in 16mm and for almost no budget, the film succeeded on the strength of the dialog, the keen truthfulness of the content, the perceptive wit of the script and mostly, by its outrageous sense of irreverence. I believe that this sense of irreverence, and its related indecent language might have caused the film to receive an NC-17 rating, rarely given to films with no explicit violence or sex. In any case, it was clear that the possibility of a provocative and exciting new film maker and social comic was afoot.

Then came MALLRATS. That film seemed, to my utter disappointment, to prove my theory that every human being on the face of the earth has the passion to produce one brilliant feature film. It is the second or third film that proves the director. In an interview some years ago, I asked Kevin Smith about this. He admitted that MALLRATS was a disaster and blamed the mess of the studio/distributer for forcing too much money on him (six million $). The implication being that the responsibility attached to the larger budget put creative and/or ethical restraints on his creativity. I'm not sure that I believe this, but in the end, it did not matter. Kevin got to make another film, CHASING AMY, which was truly delightful and utterly charming. At that time, Kevin had just written the script for the next Superman movie, and was bitter over the fact that the project, given to director Tim Burton, had virtually eliminated everything that he had written. Ironically, the Superman project has been on hold for years now although Warner Brothers is insistent that the film will eventually be made.

The thing is, that neither MALLRATS or CHASING AMY exploited what writer/director/producer/actor Kevin Smith was best at: that sense of daringly outrageous irreverence whose beginnings struck such a chord in CLERKS. Well, if one is going to be irreverent, the most obvious target is The Church. Although occasionally sassed by Monty Python and George Carlin, no one has really gone all-out in a comedy film targeting the infinite number of silly and outrageous concepts contained with The Bible and Church DOGMA. Written at about the same time as CLERKS, Smith clearly had the intelligence, wit, skill and balls to create the screenplay for DOGMA, but with a topic that was so obviously destined to create an enormous controversy (most ticket buyers believe in god), who would finance it? The world depicted in DOGMA was not simply a 16mm black & white shoot. In addition to a keen, clever and perceptive script, DOGMA would need time, money and special effects.

The obvious incentive for a studio to take this risk would be a bankable cast. That's exactly what Smith has assembled. Thanks to the success of his previous films, and probably with even more thanks to the fact that he executive produced GOOD WILL HUNTING, which, presumably gave him access to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Smith has assembled a cast that made the risky project worth a try. Thank God!

In the process of telling his simple story, Smith crucifies virtually every Holy aspect of religious dogma. Thanks to Smith's wit and intelligence, it is the comedy rather than the irreverence that becomes central. Even this, though, would not work except for the splendid cast. In addition, DOGMA has a mainstream sensibility about it that makes it both accessible and acceptable to the average movie goer. One must really give credit to, and appreciate Smith for being able to pull this project off.

Kevin Smith's approach is to go all-out from the very beginning so that everyone involved(from backers, to actors, to distributers and, finally, the audience) will come to expect the outrageous rather that shy away from it. Most people would draw the line at saying, Fuck God. To a certain extent, we all feel that if we went that far, a hand would reach out of the sky, and crush us. In the film DOGMA, the Fuck God line is crossed a thousand times. Of course, it is not God that the film is commenting on, but rather that silly HUMAN structure known as The Church. Ironically, DOGMA is actually a very spiritual film. Underneath the irreverence, is a sense of warmth and humanity that God would be proud of.

I saw DOGMA at the press screening for The New York Film Festival, where two notable events remain with me. First, at the end of the film, when God (Alanis Morisette) appears, the critic sitting next to me asked, AWho is that (Character)? God, I said. I marveled at how even though the film mentions God as a She a hundred times, when She actually appears, we don't recognize the character because God must be a HE! Second, the film got a tremendously loud positive response from a very tough audience of critics, who are usually silent at the end of press screenings.

One cannot help but think about what kind of shit will hit the fan between now and the day the film opens.

Probably the most outrageously funny satire in the history of the genre. Irreverent, witty, intelligent, entertaining and on the mark with deadly accuracy. Kevin Smith is not just a comedic genius, he is a hero! * * * * Don't miss it!

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