4. Dogma

Kevin Smith’s best script yet and certainly bound to be his most controversial also has the potential to break his name into the mainstream. If you loved Chasing Amy you’re gonna be amazed by what Smith has in store for you with this one. If there is an Alanis Morisette, Kev’s name will be among those called to be considered for Oscar consideration in February 2000.

“Ben Affleck radiates a charming, make-it-look-easy, smart-alecky screen quality that allows him to play the sort of “average guy” who isn’treally very average at all. The role he cowrote and chose for himself in Good Will Hunting is the perfect example: as a consruction worker who knows his blue-collar limitations without necessarily having made peace with them, he pulled of the high-wire act of playing abrasive yet likeable, ingenuous yet calculating, resigned yet roiling with discontent. Affleck also aces at projecting the kind of funny, hip, mordant and self-deprecating presence Hollywood thrives on. Like Steve McQueen before him, he exudes a big-galoot cool that effortlessly takes the curse off gimmicky action scenes…..”

(within a flick by flick retrospective of his roles…..which seems to have forgotten Mallrats, they mention CA with the following:)

“In Chasing Amy, he turned a heartbreaking outburst of yearning for an unattainable lesbian into a staple for acting classes and auditions all around town.”

“But despite success in mainstream Hollywood fare, Affleck is likely to stay close to the indie world. Upcoming, there’s Kevin Smith’sin-your-face Dogma, in which he and Matt Damon will play angels booted out of heaven.”

…and so on and so on with his other upcoming flicks…..

Finally…

“Clearly Affleck gets off on variety. Perhaps before too long he’ll pump up the pissed-off, wild-hare quality he possesses and play the spectacular bad guy he’s got in him. Imagine him as a coolly amoral type like Richard Gere’s villain in Internal Affairs. In the meantime, on the evidence of their chemistry in Good Will Hunting, it would be worth it for Affleck and Damon to test Hollywood’s good will and brave the sophomore curse to collaboate on either Halfway House, their project about workers in a Boston home for the mentally impaired, or Like a Rock, their buddy project. These two ought to be paired on-screen as often as they’ve got material to run with. Together, they could be a Paul Newman and Robert Redford for our scrappier, dressed-down, irony-drenched era.

Ben’s also pictured in Vanity Fair, where his feature film is listed as “Dogma”, surpisingly, and NOT “200 Cigarettes” or “Forces of Nature”.

And speaking of Afflecks, brother Casey was interviewed today on a Philly radio station. He mentioned his own bit part in “Dogma”, the test screenings in Philly, and gave a nice plug for the flick.