Ok. No disagreement that Dogma had a higher budget. I just think Clerks, even with the lower budget and basically no name cast, is a much better movie. It’s seriously rewatchable. Try rewatching it. Dogma might be a bit slicker in terms of production, but the jokes fall flat and the whole thing feels wandering, like Smith thought he had something to say about Catholicism, the church, modernity, but it ends up aimless and more pointing at the idea of profoundness without actually saying or doing anything profound. Clerks in the other hand has real points to make about consumerism, working life, absurdity of everyday experience, and what something like friendship really means. Smith understands the point he’s trying to make and makes it well. He even front runs the kind of nihilism that’s become dominant in (especially Internet) humor today.

Clerks is easily in my top 100 films of all time, maybe even top 40. And I don’t think it would be improved with higher production budget. Dogma was definitely in my top 100 20 years ago, but these days, prob wouldn’t even crack the top 500. Dogma is pretending to be a smart movie, but us actually kinda dumb. Clerks is a smart movie pretending to be dumb.