By Jason Guyer
By Jason Guyer
One of the biggest staples of American culture is growing up with religion. It is nearly as common as apple pie.
The thought of growing up with religion now makes me cringe a little but there was a time when this was not the case. For me, it was the years before my 17th birthday. This is a broad time frame as it is not often one thing that moves someone away from religion. The reasons are often the same for many, or at least similar.
One of the newest and best films to come out this year explores some of these reasons.
“Yes, God, Yes” is the story of a Catholic girl, Alice, is a teenager who, like any other teenager, is trying to figure herself out.
Alice is starting to feel the first stirrings of innocent teenage lust. She is intrigued rather than disgusted by herself as the church and those around her would seem to want.
“Yes, God, Yes” is a coming-of-age film that takes place in the year 2000.
The year makes the film hit home even more as I was the age of the character at the same time the character is in. It brings back memories and makes me feel as though I was there.
This is something not all films can accomplish but making audience members feel as though these experiences are their experiences.
It is a surefire way to get people to connect with your film and the films I connect with are the ones I tend to enjoy just a little bit more.
There is one scene where Alice comes home from school gets a snack and dunks her Dunkaroos at the kitchen counter.
For me and my five siblings this was a daily after school ritual. Ask them even now and their favorite snack was Dunkaroos.
This is not the only connection those of us who were around Alice’s age will feel. Anyone remember playing snake on your Nokia phone? How about the screech while connecting to AOL?
The audience members taking a trip to a simpler past that wasn’t all that simple to begin with may be just what is needed to feel a little bit better about our present.
For Alice, though, the majority of her time takes place at a Christian camp and not at home where the majority of Nostalgia moments came from for me.
Alice is played by the very likable Natalie Dyer from “Stranger Things.”
Dyer is charming in a sheltered and somewhat naive teenager kind of way and for the story the film is telling it is delightful.
When a rumor goes around about Alice at her prim Catholic school that she’s committed a certain sex act,Dyer’s Alice is so sheltered that she is genuinely mystified as to what that sex act even is.
Alice is well aware that it’s all considered wrong in her Christian school and community and that any sexual activity outside the confines of heterosexual marriage leads to eternal damnation (or so children are told).
As the movie progresses so does Alice and her understanding of herself and her own community.
The unfairness shown to Alice by religion and those around her is met (by Alice) with the exact empathy and respect the very religion teaches you to meet others with but few often do.
All the characters around Alice insist on telling her who she is and what she’s done and where she’s going without giving her a chance to chime in herself.
Some may inevitably feel that “Yes, God, Yes” is anti-religion. It is not.
Alice’s experiences with religion and the religious people and community she is a part of is done with empathy and care and not judgement on those who are religious in the film.
There is real irony there as that empathy and care is not often used in the reverse scenario in judgement of a person like Alice who questions and is trying to find her way.
Especially when those questions are on the subjects of lust and sex and how religion treats both.
The first time director Karen Maine, clumsiness and naivety in regards to teenage self discovery.
Maine’s filmmaking style does not bring anything new to the table camera or ascetic wise but is charmingly sentimental in its source material.
Source material that is based or loosely based on Karen Maine’s own adolescent experiences.
Maine’s best comes in the form of her lead character Alice and the understanding Alice comes to with herself and those around her.
Alice never treats others judgmentally and never allows others to do the same to her (at least in the end) even though this is often how those around her are talking about certain subjects in her religion.
The overriding lesson in “Yes, God, Yes” is that everyone is human, everyone is just trying to figure things out.
Alice finds this out about her youth pastor and about her peers who are doing things she herself is feeling bad for being curious about.
This leads Alice to her biggest self realization.
Alice learns along the way aren’t exactly mind-blowing and this realization is the heart of “Yes, God, Yes” and the empathy in which her character and the film treats religion and those in it.
To be quite frank too, most (not all but most) adults watching this movie will have figured out these same points already.
I connected with this film for many many reasons. I grew up religious, not specifically like Alice, and I look back fondly on many of the time specific and dated references in “Yes, God, Yes.”
There is one other big reason.
The only remnant of my religious childhood is a tattoo on my left arm. It says 1 John 4:19-21.
This particular passage says “ We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
The above is word for word from the bible and the sentiment is entrenched in the story and message from “Yes, God, Yes.”
The sticking point is “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
This means everyone including but not limited to (because again EVERYONE), LGBTQ+, Black lives, Immigrants, and even Alice a teenager finding herself even if it is a way one doesn’t “approve” of.
“Yes, God, Yes” is a heartfelt and meaningful film that I hope audiences members can find meaning in.
This film hits all the high notes (and in a brisk hour and 18 minutes) and does so lovingly and empathetically to everyone and it is all held down and relatable because of the films lead, Natalie Dyer.
IRATE SCORE: 4/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected].
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