Dogma

For some reason I have never seen Clerks, the well-reviewed comedy starring the characters of Jay and Silent Bob. The director, Kevin Smith, has a cult following in several media, and this is a film he made not long afterwards. It is a satire on religion. All religion, I suppose, but the Catholic church comes in for most of the jokes. George Carlin is a cardinal who wants to jazz up the church with a program called Catholicism, Wow! Part of it is to re-institute plenary indulgences. Thus, anyone passing through the doors of this church in New Jersey has all his sins forgiven. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (not long after their triumph in Good Will Hunting) are fallen angels who see this as a chance to get back into heaven. Trouble is, if they get in, it proves God is fallible, and the universe ceases to exist. The Last Scion (the great-great-great … great-great-grand-niece of Jesus), played by Linda Fiorentino, is chosen to stop them, something she’s not to keen on. She’s accompanied by Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek, and Jay and Silent Bob. There’s a lot of theological discussion along the way, a lot of it pretty funny. I’d say most of the jokes work, but some carry on a little too long and get a little too pedantic. However, there is the pleasure of seeing something whose Biblical name I can’t recall, but is actually a Turd Monster, just about the most disgusting creature I’ve ever seen short of Pizza the Hut in Spaceballs.