My conclusion on Kevin Smith: If you are between the ages of, say, 17 and 25, then Smith’s films are staggeringly important. If you were between those ages in the late 1990s (as I was), then he is a touchstone of cinema. His sexual banter, immature humor tempered by honest romantic angst, and casual approach to filmmaking will inspire anyone.
Welcome back to CraveOnline‘s The Series Project, wherein I have been trekking through the interconnected films of Kevin Smith, a series of six movies often dubbed The Askewniverse (after his production company’s name View Askew). These films may not necessarily overlap in terms of story, but they clearly all take place in the same universe (events and supporting characters from one film are referenced in another), and each of them feature the characters of Jay (Jason Mewes) and the rarely-spoken Silent Bob (Smith) as a pair of energetic stoners. Only one of the films (which I’ll get to below) feature those two at its center, but they always play an integral role in the story; Silent Bob will eventually chime in with some words of wisdom.
After the critical success of Chasing Amy and the growing popularity of his three films to date (especially on college campuses), Kevin Smith began touring schools, giving lectures and talks on how to make films, often skewing into long-winded stories about how his films got made, and just on his views in general. Smith is a raconteur of the highest order, and can expound endlessly on movies, culture, and other things that interest him. Many of his lectures are available on home video, and if you have many hours to kill, they make for a wonderful viewing experience.
Smith, it must be noted, interacts with his fans more than any other filmmaker ever has. He was one of the first major online celebrity presences in the early days of the internet, and he seeks out and reads just about every one of his reviews. He responds to critics with enthusiasm, defending himself from attackers, and spreading the word of his proponents (indeed, last week’s Series Project on The Askewniverse, was re-Tweeted by Smith). You can see this constant fan and critic interaction eventually leak into his movies, most obviously in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, but most meaningfully in Clerks II.
But to Dogma, Smith’s comment on religion.
Dogma (dir. Kevin Smith, 1999)
This is Smith’s most ambitious film. It runs 130 minutes (most of his films speed jauntily through their 95) and has the most characters and plotlines of any of his movies. The result can feel a little loosely assembled and crowded, and not all of the jokes necessarily land, but I greatly admire that Smith is stretching himself as a filmmaker. He’s never been known for his visual styling, and most fans and critics respond more closely to his screenplays. Dogma is his first film to have a look. An aesthetic.
I would love to see someone else direct one of Smith’s screenplays sometime, just for juxtaposition’s sake. If Richard Linklater and Smith teamed up, they could save the world.
The main character of Dogma is Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) a divorced abortion nurse and Catholic who seems to be in the first stages of being properly lapsed. One night The Metatron (Alan Rickman), an angel sent by God, appears to her an assigns her a task. She must stop a pair of angels from entering a certain church in New Jersey in four days time. These two angels in question have found what is essentially a loophole in Catholic dogma. If they are to enter a church, their sins will be absolved, and they’ll be let back into Heaven after millennia of banishment. This will prove that God is fallible, and such an act will essentially undo all of creation.
There is talk about how that’s church law and not God’s law, and how there is indeed a difference between to two. The angels in question are Loki and Bartleby played by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and they act like, well, wiseass twentysomethings. They cuss and banter casually, and tool around in hoodies and t-shirts. “I love fucking with the clergy” Loki announces early on. These are not the noble seraphs of the Bible, but trickster hipsters. When Loki learns that he’ll be back in Heaven pretty soon, he announces that he wants to have a good old Catholic cleanse of sinners (like in the old days of Sodom and Gomorrah), and the two of them go on a road trip killing spree. Evil murderous angels that seek to undo creation, and they’re funny and relatable. Thank you Kevin Smith.
Bethany, meanwhile, accumulates numerous helpers on her own road trip. She’s very cynical about all this, and is questioning everything as she goes. When the 13th Apostle Rufus (Chris Rock) falls from the sky, she only thinks to grill him about some of the more frustrating parts of the New Testament; turns out Jesus was a black man. She seems overwhelmed when she meets a Muse named Serendipity (Salma Hayek). She confronts a demon named Azrael (Jason Lee). She even gets to outwardly confront a Catholic bishop (the also-raised-Catholic-but-now-notoriously-anti-religious George Carlin) about the mistakes made by the Catholic church in terms of some of their historically hateful laws.
Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith) serve as Bethany’s sidekicks in this film, and their dramatic role is more of peanut gallery than active participants. They are the comic relief in a film that’s already pretty funny. Although this is Smith exploring big topics like God and faith, Dogma still feels lighthearted and fun throughout. It’s ribbing and playfully satirical, rather than rejecting and hateful. Smith is clearly trying to reorganize his own personal faith journey in terms of comic book dynamics, and eventually – and rather hopefully – comes down on the side of having some positive ideas about God. In an age infused by overwhelming religious cynicism and outright dogmatic atheism, this more egalitarian view is refreshing and seems more peaceful.
God, by the way, does show up in the film. God can take any form, and in this film He (or She) eventually takes the form of Alanis Morissette. Why doesn’t God speak for Herself? Well, God is so majestic and powerful that the sound of Her voice will kill the average human. The joke here is, of course, that listening to Alanis Morissette’s voice will make your head explode. But I kid her; I like Alanis.
I dig Dogma. Overall it’s a little ungainly – it’s too long no matter how you slice it – but it’s smart and light and fun, especially given the earnest interest in the theological material. It feels mature. Well, as mature as a movie featuring a demon made of human feces can be.
His next film is easily his least mature and was, I think, intended to be Smith’s last hurrah with the Jay and Silent Bob characters.
