With Dogma, Kevin Smith tackled religion and the Catholic Church specifically in his own special and unique way. Naturally, this led to bucketloads of controversy, with organised protests delaying the release of the film and Smith receiving at least two death threats. A quick overview of the plot certainly reveals why it might anger certain communities, but also shows that Smith approached Dogma with a previously unseen level of ambition. The plot follows two fallen angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) who have been cast out of heaven after Loki resigned as the Angel of Death. Through a loophole, they discover a route back into heaven, but given that existence is predicated on God being infallible, their successful re-entry would prove God wrong and, you know, undo all Creation. Therefore, Linda Fiorentino's Bethany (the last living descendant of Jesus Christ) must team with the Voice Of God (played by Hans Gruber himself, Alan Rickman), two prophets of God (Jay and Silent Bob!) and the thirteenth apostle (Chris Rock), who was omitted from the Bible because he is black. It certainly seemed like Smith was determined to rile people up with this one, but Dogma emerged as a funny and ultimately thought-provoking meditation on organised religion. That also featured a demon made of poo. Yep.
