Yes, God, Yes

[StevePulaski]

Yes, God, Yes (2020)
Directed by: Karen Maine

Natalia Dyer.

Rating: ★★★

The fact that Karen Maine's feature-length directorial debut, Yes, God, Yes, got saddled with an R-rating is not only another scathing indictment of the MPAA's squeamishness when it comes to sexual content versus violence, but shows even Kirby Dick's revealing documentary and subsequent criticism of the board didn't phase them much either. No sex occurs in the film. A couple images of breasts are shown and the film contains but one PG-13 depiction of a blowjob. Granted we live in the day and age of media accessibility, so couple that with the fact that Yes, God, Yes is also not playing in many theaters around America due to the ongoing pandemic, it's doubtful the target audience for the flick will be inhibited by the rating. However, point still stands: the MPAA made another bone-headed move.

Onto the film since that's what I'm here for, as always. Yes, God, Yes is based on Maine's 2017 short film of the same name, and retains much of the same cast and general approach. It's a light yet humorous look at the conflicting and hypocritical nature in which many women are taught to think about their own sexuality. Set in the early 2000s, we see the world through the eyes of Alice (Natalia Dyer, Stranger Things), a shy teenage student at a strict Catholic school that treats sex and sexual exploration as the work of the devil, in so many words. Her school's hallways are lined with posts promoting abstinence and her sex-ed teacher is a priest, after all.

Alice's innocent participation in a trivia-centric AOL chatroom (remember those?) turns illicit when she gets a private message from a man soliciting naked photos of him and his wife. She curiously participates just enough to be aroused and is promptly wracked with guilt upon hearing that masturbation is apparently a negative in the eyes of the Lord. There's even a rumor going around that Alice "tossed the salad" of another classmate despite not even understanding what that means. I keenly remember that phrase being one of thousands of conversation points on bus rides to and from my middle school. Did all pre-teens naively discuss that phrase and try to define it amongst themselves?

Moreover, to redeem (punish) herself, Alice attends a school-sponsored church retreat — one of those unbearably awkward ones that involves a lot of praying, sharing feelings, sobbing, and congregating over who is more devout. It's also a hotbed for prepubescent sexual tension to play out. Alice tries to get on the straight and narrow while away from home, but can't help but be taken by Chris (Wolfgang Novogratz), a hunk whose hairy arms get her going. She even fakes a fall on a nature hike just so she can be whisked away in his arms to the nurse's station.

At a slight 75 minutes, Yes, God, Yes cutely details how young girls' perfectly natural, normal sexual feelings are clubbed into submission as dirty, unpleasant thoughts that have no business lurking in an unmarried woman's mind. Rather than have a person to talk to about her feelings, Alice encounters judgmental (brainwashed) classmates and lecturing adults who partake in the same tendencies they preach students to ignore. Some of the characters in the film, such as the goofball Father Murphy (Timothy Simons), remind me of the quirky souls found in a Todd Rohal comedy. Most are just total mooks who'd rather pass judgment than offer any kind of safe haven for students to talk about their feelings.

Maine's feature can occasionally feel underdeveloped insofar that she doesn't call out this hypocrisy as clearly as she could. At the same time, I do relish her ability as a writer to intently zero in on the world through Alice's eyes. She's a kind but timid teenager, obviously on the brink of an identity crisis due to the confines of her religious upbringing amidst a small, land-locked Iowa town. She's given great life by Natalia Dyer, who accentuates her character's innocence without ever overplaying it for laughs.

As is the case with Alice, there will be a time for more thoughtful examination of the holier-than-thou church's attitude towards carnality and human urges. But it's hard to dislike a film as wry as Yes, God, Yes, especially when you consider that it has the potential to be akin to But I'm a Cheerleader and The Diary of a Teenage Girl in terms of showing young girls they are not alone in trying to navigate their own respective sexual awakening.

NOTE: Yes, God, Yes is now available to rent via multiple streaming platforms, and you can view Karen Maine's 2017 short film of the same name on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC71TGkl9ws

Starring: Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, and Wolfgang Novogratz. Directed by: Karen Maine.