Did anyone have a weirder 1990s than Kevin Smith? A quick recap: He makes Clerks for nothing and becomes an indie film darling, scoring trophies at Sundance and Cannes. He follows it up with Mallrats, a box office bomb that still has its fans and the proto-Stan Lee cameo. Chasing Amy comes next, a comeback hit that tells the world that perpetual screen bully Ben Affleck is actually a leading man.
What’s next? How about an end-of-the-world comedy that takes on the Catholic Church?
So about that. Smith himself swears the film is deeply religious. “At the time we were making Dogma, I was a very devout man,” he says. “I went to church every Sunday. Dogma is a naughty Catholic kid’s take on the faith. It may have been smirking at the Catholic faith, but it believes it all. It’s not Monty Python’s Life of Brian because it’s completely earnest about the existence of God.”
But yeah, the smirking part. Before Dogma even screened, it caught the attention of the Catholic League, which rallied its troops to protest the film. Things got so bad that Disney, which owned Miramax, refused to release the movie. Miramax eventually found a work-around, but suffice it to say, most people missed Dogma at the theater.
There’s never been a Smith flick with more star turns, including Affleck and Matt Damon charming everyone’s pants off as fallen angels in their first movie after Good Will Hunting. Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek, and Linda Fiorentino rip it up. Jay and Silent Bob as prophets? We’re in. Come on, how can a movie not be funny when it features George Carlin, Chris Rock, and a strip-club poopmonster?