“Yes, God, Yes” Review by Josh Davis : Pop Culture Leftovers

“Yes, God, Yes” Review by Josh Davis

July 30, 2020 7:34 pm |

After an innocent AOL chat turns racy, a Catholic teenager in the early 00s discovers masturbating and struggles to suppress her new urges in the face of eternal damnation.

Unlike the title implies, “Yes, God, Yes” isn’t about having sex with a divine power. Nor, is it a terribly silly or skewering movie.

Karen Maine, who co-wrote the prodigious 2014 feature “Obvious Child,” starring Jenny Slate, makes her directorial debut here. Also, like “Obvious Child,” the film is based upon one of Maine’s short films of the same name.

Natalia Dyer (Nancy from “Stranger Things”) plays Alice, a teenage girl in the early 2000s coming of age while attending a Catholic high school and coping with all the guilt that implies.

She’s naturally curious about sex, having watched the love scene from “Titanic” multiple times, and she wonders what “tossing salad” means after someone starts a nasty rumor about her and a male student.

Alice is also envious of some classmates who attended a religious retreat, and much of the film’s brief 78-minute runtime is spent watching her try to fit in there. Only, she discovers that — shockingly — things are not what they seem. Some of those who seem the most chaste are far from it, as Alice bears witness to some minor debauchery, including two people who fool around in the woods, and another who masturbates while watching early 2000s internet porn.

The movie has a lot of fun with the technology of the time — boxy computers running awkward chatrooms and instant messenger, and cell phones that can’t do much other than answer calls and vibrate.

Dyer, in her mid 20s at the time of filming, is wholly convincing as a 16-year-old who doesn’t quite buy into the pious-ness of those around her, but also isn’t quite ready to be a terrible rebel.

Those expecting a black comedy or a skewering of religious zealotry like “Heathers” or “Saved” may be disappointed. The film toes the line between coming-of-age and satire without committing too much to either side.

Rather, it’s an earnest look at what a teenage girl growing up Catholic in the Midwest around 2000 might have experienced — with plenty of curiosity, shame, fear, confusion, arousal and loneliness.

In one scene, near the end, Alice finds herself at a bar not far from the retreat, frustrated and lost, and asking the barkeep for a wine cooler. One of the patrons drlivers a “Silent Bob” speech and gives her a ride back, and that experience becomes a quintessential part of her maturity.

“Yes, God, Yes” is just that — a microcosm of what it’s like to be a teenager in all its funny, awkward glory.

Maine, after just two features and two shorts, is building quite the resume for herself as a writer and filmmaker. There’s no massive special special effects spectacles or great left-turn twists here — just funny, true moments that feel genuine and are genuinely entertaining.

Dyer also deserves great credit for headlining a well made and compact film largely with her performance as a teenager coming to grips with all the weird, awkward, strange and laughable things that happen to so many of us.

“Yes, God, Yes” is a movie devoid of frills, but packed with plenty of heart and wit.

PCL Rating: High Taste It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅