Dogma: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play falllen angels who try to get back into heaven by using a loophole in church dogma. They've been living in Wisconsin for nearly 2,000 years, so life has been dull -- until they start shooting sinners they catch in acts of commandment-breaking. In the company of an abortion-clinic counselor (Linda Fiorentino) who may be a descendant of Jesus Christ and a smartass named Rufus (Chris Rock), unheralded as the thirteenth apostle because he's black, the angels head to a New Jersey church for an audience with God, who's played, as a mute, by Alanis Morissette. This comic brainchild of Kevin Smith, the twenty-nine-year-old writer and director of Clerks, Mall Rats and Chasing Amy, is boldly funny without ever being blasphemous. But not everyone is laughing -- especially not William A. Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax had to buy the film back from their parent company, Disney, which wanted no part of this hot potato, and arrange alternative distribution. Good for Miramax. Despite the rantings of Donohue, who is notably irked that "God is played by a singer known for her nude videos and songs about oral sex," Smith says he intends no offense: "The central messages of Christ were 'Love one another' and 'Tell other people.' Dogma was my way of spreading the word. Granted, Christ wasn't a filmmaker, and he didn't trade in d--k and fart jokes, but he did tell stories to get a point across." Here's Smith's parable to explain his intentions: "The way my film treats the church is kind of like the girl you really like in first grade, and you don't know how to express yourself, so you pull her pigtails. It's like that. Affectionately, this film pulls the pigtails of the Catholic Church." Smith believes that Donohue is raising a ruckus to "increase his own profile" at the expense of a movie he hasn't even asked to see. "My film is irreverent," says Smith, "but it's not cynical. At the end of the day here, faith saves the world."