After an innocent AOL chat turns racy, a Catholic teenager in the early 00s discovers masturbating and struggles to suppress her new urges in the face of eternal damnation.
Sexual immorality – one of the sins detailed by the Bible to consistently tempt humanity – becomes a sudden question of faith for Alice (Natalia Dyer) when she finds herself at her Catholic school retreat while struggling to contain her feelings of lust. But Alice is not alone. It’s not the first time that an adolescent teen, raised with religious values, becomes conflicted with the changes in their hormones – especially when it is their bodies that are preached as sinful. And Alice won’t be the last.
“Yes, God, Yes” is a poignant satire on how even the most revered religious institutions and its leaders fall short to the standard of perfection they seek to emulate, and that a coming-of-age tale could mean the very disillusionment of those institutions.
Natalie Dyer stars as 16-year-old Alice, who is first tempted by lust on an AOL chat gone rogue. Dyer steals every scene with her timid demeanor contrasted with Alice’s bold and quirky moves such as using a phone as a vibrator, a duality that entertains despite the film’s simple premise. In fact, it’s not just Dyer who acts with such duality, but almost all the other actors in the film demonstrate a character with a holy demeanor hiding sinful desires.
As Alice discovers one character after another in the throes of their sexual passion, her increasing trauma creates a desperate need for guidance. There is only one secular entity who contrasts the Catholic students and priests but she is, ironically, the saving grace to Alice’s confusion against the hypocrisy of their religious institution.
“Yes, God, Yes” is a hoot to those who grew up religious but lost touch with their faith because the institution betrayed their trust. The film is comical enough to shame religious leaders that preach about sexual purity and then watch porn, but not dramatic enough to trigger a serious conversation about the serious allegations of molestations of young choir boys by religious priests. “Yes, God, Yes” introduces what it is like to grow up choked by religious values to those who do not understand its struggles, but the film also has enough nostalgia to entertain those who do understand.
Available on Digital and VOD Friday, July 24th
