Dogma

Dogma is about nothing less than the Fate of human existence. The film is a kind of religious road movie, that would be not appreciated everywhere in Catholic circles thanks to its earthy, unorthodox approach – larded with Smith’s familiar sharp and nimble dialogues. Bartlebly and Loki are two angels who were kicked out of paradise centuries back for bad behaviour and banished to Wisconsin. The only way to return to heaven is through the church of New Jersey, that since the Catholicism Now! Movement interprets the dogmas slightly more loosely. Bethany, who works for an abortion clinic and is a distant descendent of Jesus Christ, can however thwart these plans. She is assisted by several prophets in the form of two adolescent skaters, the thirteenth apostle Rufus and a stripper muse. This strange company is, like Bartleby and Loki on its way to New Jersey, where the decisive and bloody confrontation takes place in the portals of the church. Dogma is an enervating mix of comedy, action and splatter in a film that can be described as blasphemy, but in fact assumes a strong notion of a divine power. It is not so much God who is attacked (at the end she takes the form of a winsome fairy, in a special role played by Alanis Morissette), but organised religion and its dogmas.