'Yes, God, Yes' Review
R: For sexual content and some nudity
Production Companies: Maiden Voyage, RT Features
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Runtime: 1 Hr and 18 Minutes
Screenwriter/Director: Karen Maine
Cast: Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, Wolfgang Novogratz, Francesca Reale, Susan Blackwell, Parker Wierling, Alisha Boe, Donna Lynne Champlin
Release Date: July 24th, 2020
In the Midwest in the early ‘00s, sixteen-year-old Alice has always been a good Catholic girl. But when an AOL chat turns racy, she discovers masturbation and becomes guilt-ridden. Seeking redemption, she attends a mysterious religious retreat to try and suppress her urges, but it isn't easy, especially after a cute boy starts flirting with her. Alice’s sense of shame is spiraling when she uncovers a shocking truth about the retreat's most devout. Desperate and confused, she flees and meets an unlikely ally who offers an alternative view of what it means to be good. For the first time, Alice realizes she can decide for herself what to believe and finally gets the release she needs.
Back in 2017, writer/director Karen Maine made a short starring Natalia Dyer called Yes, God, Yes where a teenage girl finds her sexual awakening thanks to AIM. Now, in her directorial debut based on the short of the same name, is impressive proof of the fact that she has a keen eye for comedy in a form that we don’t see too often. Set in 2001 during the AOL/AIM era where you didn’t know who the hell you were chatting with, Alice, a Catholic schoolgirl, reaches her sexual awakening through the power of AOL. You know when a spam chat ended up in your inbox as a kid but you were an inept idiot and clicked on anything in bold? Well, once Alice opens that chat and sees a sexual act, her hormones scream out:
That awakening is immediately followed by guilt as a child of God and translates into her school life, which is not only full of hypocrites, but also very gossipy where Alice becomes the target of a rumor involving a sexual term that she has no awareness of.
Out of the many comedies released this year, Yes, God, Yes hits three primary targets that made me fall in love with it: it’s short, it’s smart, and it gets to the point in the span of 78 minutes. One of my major gripes with comedy genre features regards the running time. Despite the strength of the feature itself, I find it so frustrating that most comedies border the two hour mark. Bless Karen Maine’s Yes, God, Yes for being 1 hour and 18 minutes long.
Besides the film being short, Maine’s script is superbly strong. Maine dives deep into the parts of our adolescence we’re often afraid to express and share. If you’ve been raised in religion, it’ll strike you in a very relevant manner. Similarly to Nick Kroll’s beloved Netflix series Big Mouth, the film is very open with delving into this authentic group of awkward and inept teenagers, but the difference that makes the film even more hilarious is the religious aspect. It’s a religious Big Mouth but it’s not so explicit and doesn’t aim for raunchiness. Whenever raunchiness is applied, it’s an authentic surprise to progress the story and the results are hysterical while never sacrificing the film’s charm.
This movie reminded me of so many parts of my adolescent years that I tried to shut off, in between the time of my sexual awakening and being a Jehovah’s Witness, which resulted in the immediate guilt that often comes with my urges. Hell, I’ll share a funny story. Back in 2014, the Sunday before my 16th birthday, I went out to the movies with a close friend of mine to go see Mr. Peabody & Sherman and 300: Rise of the Empire. Just beforehand, I had been at church - or “The Hall,” as they would call it - and was fast asleep (hey, I was forced to go to church against my will for years. I was napping on the daily). So, I tell my mom I’m leaving and I simply walk out in my church attire to head to the theater with my friend. If you’ve seen 300: Rise of the Empire, then you know of the sex scene with Eva Green. Because I was in my church clothes, despite me being an atheist, I felt a rush of guilt and walked out during the scene. Then, word got out to my high school and I was ridiculed for it for several years and blah blah blah. But in that moment, I experienced religious guilt and one of the best things Maine captures with this film is the relatable religious guilt that Alice feels and it serves as the primary character arc for Alice to overcome as she finds her freedom. Part of the humor stems from that, but it’s mostly rooted from the sexual ineptness and the contradictory notions of her peers and supervisors as you’re along for the ride with Alice.
Capturing the relatable awkwardness and curiosity of adolescence, Dyer provides an incredible performance that brilliantly showcases her talents outside of her known area. If you thought Velvet Buzzsaw was a taste of Dyer’s comedic abilities, Yes, God, Yes encourages those talents and Maine uses them to their full potential. With this being Dyer’s first leading performance in a comedy, she exhibits a powerful demonstration of silent comedy that’s influenced by Chaplin and Atkinson. Maine incorporates a ton of silent visual humor through Alice and her exploration of her own awakening, along with the hypocrisies she uncovers from her peers that results in huge laughs. Dyer’s comedic timing is impeccable, for her performance is mostly driven by her facial expressions. With her expressive curiosity, you anticipate each action Alice makes and, while you can predict her motives, it’s hysterical watching the progressive journey she goes through. I know she’s on one of the biggest series on Netflix right now, but I would love to see Dyer star in more comedies because she has a great natural talent for the genre and this has been her year of displaying it.
Another aspect I love about the movie is the era Maine sets the story in. It’s self-contained in the early ‘00s with some of the inventive humor and the time period, but thankfully it’s not really shoved in your face. It serves more as a backdrop that adds significance to the story’s message while showing the kind of stuff people were using the internet for and how indiscreet they were about their sexual desires. You think you can get away with shit nowadays because of an incognito window? Try using a Windows 98 desktop computer and having to click the power off on the monitor but forgetting to turn off the processor case. Yeah, moments like that in the film just strike a chilling aura of relatability.
While Yes, God, Yes provides a great amount of material to tell a swiftly-paced story, I did find a shortcoming, which is the originator of the rumor about Alice. The film places you after the events of a discussed party and a part of me was so damn curious about the party itself. I would’ve appreciated some incorporated flashbacks or… I don’t know. I’m very passionate about the notion of showing, not just telling, and that rumor that Alice becomes the center of is talked about a lot. Then, after a while when it deviates from Alice’s conflict, it’s placed with a long-winded joke involving a sex term.
Karen Maine’s impressionable directorial debut, Yes, God, Yes, stretches its short story into a feature-length film with a smart, short, relatable, and hilarious script and an incredible comedic performance from Natalia Dyer fitting the bill. It’s truly one of the best comedies of the year that I encourage all to see.
Rating: 4/5 | 87%
