Kevin Smith
Dogma

I follow this religious journey of mine, traced despite myself by a series of my previous reviews, to talk to you about a film that is quite different, original, and disorienting at the same time that, at the time of viewing, almost made me shout "masterpiece."

An eclectic and almost "comic-like" film due to the enormous amount of parody and satire present in practically every scene, this "Dogma" (2003) by the young director Kevin Smith is a film that is courageous in its own way for how it manages to handle delicate and complex themes from a theological, human, and religious point of view, addressing them with a light and happy touch, treating the story with a comedic angle, avoiding to shy away from exposing his unconventional and in many ways bizarre theories on strong themes such as the Advent, Judgment Day, Heaven and Hell, the figure of the Messiah, and, believe it or not, the sexuality of God. All of this in a continuous play of ambiguous jokes, linguistic games (excellently translated), double entendres, and cinephile quotes (do you remember the 'Jay & Silent Bob' saga?), which the director is a fanatic of.

In short, there would be enough to shout excommunication by our most intransigent Catholic Paladins, but the secret, or slyness if you will, of the author and his team was to treat religious themes as if we were in a big comic, with very coarse and often caricatured stereotypes, removing any doubt that "it's all just a joke", thus making the vast amount of irreverent sarcasm (against a certain church and false deities engaged here!) digestible, which permeates every single frame of this work that, in my opinion, represents a voice outside the choir in the vast range of religious or pseudo-religious films.

In short, it talks about two slightly idiotic and dazed angels (splendidly played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, very different from the golden dimension with which angels have always been depicted), who due to a strange twist of fate fall to earth in American Wisconsin and devise every trick to return to Heaven, although two unlikely prophets and a revived 13th apostle (!) will do everything they can to prevent their return. They exploit an ancient divine prophecy to unleash Hell on earth with a thousand plot twists and truly "acidic" jokes (on the verge of blasphemy!) just to achieve their purpose.

A sacrilegious but in many parts hilarious film above all limits in confusing the lines between the sacred and the profane (during the screening, the figure of GOD was scandalous, seen as a somewhat ditsy female played by Alanis Morissette), where the "New Superhero" cut and the overwhelming special effects often make you believe you're watching a full-fledged Marvel movie, while you expect Superman or Spider-Man to pop up at any moment (let's not forget that the director was born as a comic book author to which he dedicated much of his professional activity before moving on to the big screen!).

An excessive, defiant, exaggerated, politically incorrect film, at times coarse and over the top, which has some moments of fatigue due to the excess of "messages" that the director insists on imparting, but which can only appeal to those who love to be amazed and astonished by things that are finally original and not seen and seen again in cinema.

P.S. Even my colleague Lesto BANG would like it: I am super sure!