Five years after she explored unwanted pregnancy with her 2014 debut Obvious Child, writer/director Karen Maine returns to similar territory with this similarly insightful, early 2000s-set tale of a devout Catholic high-school girl whose recent discovery of porn and masturbation sees her butting up against the strict doctrines of her faith.
Even at a brisk 77-minute running time the story is slight, however, it’s well executed.
Like Obvious Child, Yes, God, Yes is adapted from a short film by Maine but, unlike its predecessor, feels stretched to its limit as a feature, even at a brisk 77-minute running time. While the story is slight, however, it’s well executed. Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things) is excellent as Alice, the naive, likeable teenager undergoing a somewhat stilted sexual awakening, and Maine’s screenplay focuses on the awkward humour of the situation — Alice’s time at a small-town Catholic retreat for adolescents is fraught with brilliantly awful moments, including a cringeworthy group rendition of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Your Eyes’.
Yet, as Alice attempts to navigate her burgeoning sexuality without any guidance beyond ‘sex before marriage is a sin’, and with rumours circulating about her supposed promiscuity, the film also targets the draconian morality of the faith, and hypocrisy of those who would govern Alice’s desires or besmirch her reputation. While some of these moments feel somewhat on the nose — the group’s Father Murphy (Veep’s brilliant Timothy Simons) watching glitchy AOL porn in his open office or Alice finding wisdom and strength from the owner of a lesbian bar — the message is clear. As Alice herself says, everyone has secrets, and the only person with the right to your body is yourself.
With her first two films, Maine is making a name for herself as a filmmaker unafraid to tackle supposedly taboo subjects. And while Yes, God, Yes undoubtedly holds most value for its intended teen audience, it is a strong stablemate for recent films such as Make-Up and Saint Frances which are unafraid to run the full gamut of the female experience.