YES, GOD, YES – A Review by Cynthia Flores
First off, if you are a devout Catholic or Christian, this is not the film for you to see. Stop here, turn around and look for another movie to watch during this COVID season. This is not a Christian film with a couple of laughs or a profound and moving film about someone’s crisis of faith. In fact, I’m not sure what this film is truly about.
Yes, God, Yes is the directorial debut of the successful writer Karen Maine that gave us the brilliant 2014 film Obvious Child. She co-wrote that critically acclaimed indie film as a scathing commentary on unplanned pregnancy through the eyes of a twenty-something comedienne played perfectly by Jenny Slate. However, in this film, her main character Alice (Natalia Dyer), is not so well defined. Things just happen around her, tossing her around like a leaf floating on the water. It’s not very compelling.
Alice is in a strict catholic high school in the early 2000s. She is a good girl who thinks she will go to hell for discovering cyberporn for the first time on AOL. She is tempted to masturbate and struggles with her new urges in the face of eternal damnation. At the same time, she’s battling a false rumor that she “tossed a boy’s salad” at a party. Everyone around her in school knows what that means, but she spends most of her time trying to figure it out.
At the urging of her friends, she goes on a church-sponsored teen retreat. There are four days of emotional exercises used to break the kids down and help them make a deeper commitment to God. All the while, Alice is questioning her faith as she sees hypocrisy all around. The whole do as I say and not as I do scenario. She finally gets to the point where she, pardon the puns, takes things into her own hands and comes into her own.
I’m not sure if the writer/director Karen Maine is a former Catholic or not. But she nails with precision, and a lot of surprising respect, the rituals and types of events that go on at church schools and youth camps. She paints them in a matter of fact way. It’s just the hypocrisy that is revealed to Alice that seems to have any bite to it. The cast for the film is full of good solid actors, and they did their parts well. If the writing had been done with more vicious humor or anger for Alice’s role, then maybe the film would have come together better. As it is now, the movie just left me wondering what the point of the whole thing was.
I give Yes, God, Yes a 2.5-star rating. It would have been a better short film rather than a feature.
Directed by: Karen Maine
Written by: Karen Maine
Rated: R
Selig Rating: 2.5 Stars
Running Time: 1hr 18min
Drama
Staggered Release: Virtual Cinemas and Drive-ins July 24th, Digital and VOD July 28th
Starring: Natalia Dyer, Christian Adam, Susan Blackwell, Alisha Boe
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
4 Stars – Good movie
3 Stars – OK movie
2 Stars – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
1 Star – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
