Yes, God, Yes

Starring: Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, Wolfgang Novogratz, Francesca Reale, Susan Blackwell, Alisha Boe, Donna Lynne Champlin, Parker Wierling
Directed by: Karen Maine
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A Catholic girl (Natalia Dyer) struggles with her budding sexuality while considering that it might mean the eternal damnation of her soul.

Review:

Tim: I'd heard good things about Yes, God, Yes and being a Catholic myself, I was looking forward to the movie. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite live up to expectations. It's a decent movie and makes its intentions clear, but writer/director Karen Maine doesn't have the experience to execute on her ideas. There's some effective ideas here that were worth pursuing, but the movie itself needed to be better.

I grew up Catholic, so I have some frame of reference for the situations depicted in the movie. I never went to a retreat like the one shown here, but the mindset and worldview of many characters was relatable to me. Maine speaks from a place of experience and the funny, odd moments throughout the movie are relatable. I appreciated the idea of examining growing up in a strict Catholic faith and I also liked the exploration of the darker side, the hypocritical nature of many Catholics. That might seem bizarre for someone like me to say, but I've seen enough self-professed faithful people of multiple denominations who use their faith to conceal their own struggles. There's been no shortage of stories like that in the news over the last decade. Having this film dig into that was interesting and worth doing.

My only issue with this is that Maine lets the message run away with the story. It's ultimately far too on-the-nose. We get it. She didn't appreciate her Catholic upbringing. It's surprising how many times the same message gets hit, over and over. Maine could have used more subtlety in her her script. The message was worth sharing, but the delivery was flawed.

I was excited to see Natalia Dyer in the lead role here. I've enjoyed her work on Stranger Things and was interested in seeing her as the protagonist. She's good here. She has this relatable quality to her that makes her likeable. Her character was frustrating, but that's due to Maine's script. I think Dyer has a real future and could be a star. This was obviously a bit of a risky role and I'm sure opened her up to some criticism (a masturbation/Catholicism movie will do that) but it showed off her ability. She gives a worthwhile performance. Timothy Simons was perfectly cast and delivers a strong supporting performance. Wolfgang Novogratz was fine, he had some good moments, but he also had some forced ones. Francesca Reale added a nice supporting role, too. I wasn't familiar with her before this movie, but was impressed.

The movie itself is fairly watchable. The movie is brisk- it's a very short 1 hour and 18 minute runtime. There's not much fat in this exceptionally lean movie. To some extent, this is a benefit because it's focused. That being said, it probably could have used a few extra minutes to more fully flesh out some of the characters. The movie itself has some memorable moments, but it wasn't exactly funny. I might have laughed once or twice, but the humor isn't strong. It really is a comedy/drama heavier on the drama side. The storytelling is a bit too on-the-nose. The message gets lost some in the continuous pounding home that message. At certain points, believability is sacrificed in an effort to deliver the message. That hurts the viewing experience.

Yes, God, Yes is a flawed movie and while those issues are frustrating, Maine does some interesting things as well. Her debut film is a coming-of-age story that takes a look at hypocrisy, faith, sexuality, and sin. That's an ambitious first film. I thought this was a decent movie and I'm interested in seeing where Maine goes from here. I might not have loved her debut, but there's enough here to suggest her next film could be much better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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