(Courtesy Ain't It Cool News)

Jake Ryan takes a gander at DOGMA up in New York
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Review by Jake Ryan

Mon August 4th. US premiere of Dogma at the NY Film Festival. Review by Jake Ryan.

You gotta hand it to Kevin Smith. Only he would make the beloved cult characters of Jay & Silent Bob prophets who are necessary to escort Jesus’ great great great great great great great great great great great niece in her quest to prevent the destruction of mankind. Wait, you didn’t know Jesus had brothers and sisters? Neither did I, but just go with it. And if you go with it, you will get a major major rush from seeing Kevin Smith deconstruct catholic mythology (but as one of the characters in the film espouses..I hate when they call it mythology).

As per usual, Kevin’s writing is dead on, though this time he saves most of the biggest jokes for the stoner Jay, and yes they are of the usual fart and dick variety, but face it you are going to laugh anyway and you are going to laugh hard. However, mixed in with all the scatological humor is a heartfelt message that Kevin crystallizes in the character of Bethany, portrayed by Linda Fiorentino with the perfect amount of heartfelt emotion and sarcastic ‘what the fuck am I doing with these bozos?’ aplomb. Fiorentino, along with Kevin Smith as Silent Bob, and Jason Mewes as Jay, are the glue which keeps this film together.

Somewhere mixed among all this craziness are two fallen angels Loki and Bartleby, portrayed by the Matt and Ben duo respectively. These two share most of their scenes and you can tell they love the words Kevin S. feeds them. Their characters are the murkiest in the film, literally, as it isn’t always clear if they are good or bad guys (or a little bit of both) but what is clear is they usually are funny, some of the looks and cutaway shots of expressions on Affleck’s face are priceless. Incidentally in a panel following the film at the NY film festival this evening, Matt D. said the only reason he did this movie is because he was tired of Affleck telling him how cool my friend Kevin Smith is to work with.

This plot heavy film eventually has all the major characters converging at a Red Bank, NJ church for an action packed finale where we get to see Ben Affleck fly and Matt Damon drunk off his ass. But the film takes it sweet time getting to this finale, and the movie really is about the journey of both the human and immortal characters. As an added bonus though, the end of the film features a downright dopey but sweet Alanis Morrisette as God, doing handstands and smelling flowers.

Kudos also to Chris Rock, who is also a major scene stealer, and his entrance into the film spawns major laughs (lets just say he makes a big ass entry), and his character, Rufus the 13th apostle, is also quite important to the quests of all those involved.

Anyone who grew up on 80’s flicks like I did and Kevin Smith obviously did, will get a major kick out of an instant classic Kevin Smith scene, where Jay & Silent Bob give their take on the classic John Hughes films. Well, of course, its mostly Jay’s take because Bob is being silent, but Bob’s silence as always speaks volumes. It can't be disputed that Kevin knows his pop culture and the film is full of references for our generation, and I have to admit it, I too always wondered how come their were so many hot chicks in Shermer, Illinois.

While I cant quite rank this as highly as Kevin’s classic Clerks, or as highly as Chasing Amy even, Dogma is a consistently funny film. It does cover much more serious topics than Kevin has touched upon to date, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he takes on next. (Mallrats, while a cult classic in its own right, and one that grows on you after millions of video rentals, shouldn’t even be considered next to Dogma because it has neither the independent film quality of this movie, nor the big laughs that this one does…the opening disclaimer before Dogma is probably more laugh out loud funny than anything in Mallrats…and hey I really dig Mallrats.)

I do feel Kevin Smith is one of the few directors of my generation (for the record I’m 30) with his own voice and I know when I see a Kevin Smith film it will not fit in a cookie cutter mold. Go see this movie, don’t be scared of the controversy regarding its catholic themes, have some laughs, think a little, and learn if stoner Jay has gay fantasies when he masterbates. You’ll leave smiling after spending 2 hours in this universe.