‘We pretended each marshmallow was a different mortal sin before burning it. Yours was lust…’
Films about teenage sexual awakening are usually either very serious (Fish Tank, Mysterious Skin) or very unserious (American Pie, Porky’s). Yes, God, Yes, the debut film from writer-director Karen Maine, falls awkwardly in the middle…
Alice (Natalia Dyer) is a reluctantly sexually curious girl who attends a strict Catholic high school and is made to feel extreme guilt for having totally normal adolescent stirrings. Timothy Simons plays Father Murphy, a well-meaning but hypocritical morality teacher, while the rest of the young cast fail to make much of an impression at all.
As previously alluded to, Yes, God, Yes is neither consistently funny nor hugely emotionally affecting. It flirts with portraying powerful adolescent emotion but never fully commits. This is a shame because Dyer is excellent, delivering a subtle and nuanced performance that gradually wins you over over the course of the film. At a skinny 78 minutes, however, and with no release at the end (no pun intended), Maine’s debut effort feels too slight to really leave an impact.
This is far from a bad film; what’s frustrating about it, however, is that it feels like it wasn’t far off being a great film with a few minor tweaks. Still worth seeking out for fans of the coming-of-age genre, but not compelling enough to recommend to everyone.
