Film Review: ‘Yes, God, Yes’

I was raised Lutheran, though I can’t say that I was ever “practicing” by any stretch of the imagination. Attending Sunday school and skipping church to play basketball before catechism class hardly qualified as a devout Lutheran. However, my high school girlfriend was Catholic and attended church, well, religiously and I frequently joined her, going as far as joining C.Y.O (Catholic Youth Organization) and even attending a C.Y.O convention or two. However, I participated strictly as an observer. I never received Communion or recited any of the numerous prayers with the congregation. I am providing this background because I have always felt that it gave me a particularly unique perspective on the Catholic Church. I became quite familiar with the practices and messages but wasn’t burdened with the Catholic guilt often associated with them.

It’s that Catholic guilt that is at the center of Karen Maine’s Yes, God, Yes. The film stars Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things) who portrays Alice, a Catholic teenager in the early 2000s who discovers masturbating after an innocent AOL chat that turns racy. Alice must suppress her newfound urges or face eternal damnation. She also must deal with being the subject of a rather unflattering sexually related rumor floating around school, one that given her limited sexual exposure, she doesn’t even really understand. These are confounded during the school’s Catholic retreat where Alice also contends with a falling out with her best friend (Francesca Reale), trying to gain acceptance from retreat leader , Nina (Alisha Boe) and a crush on a popular senior boy, Chris (Wolfgang Novogratz).

Yes, God, Yes, which is based on the short film of the same name, is semi-autobiographical, and I have no doubt these experiences were quite formative for Maine. However, these experiences are not all that unique. The hypocrisies of the wavering moralities of the Catholic church are handled nicely, but there is very little here that has not been touched on before. The notion of Catholic guilt, as well as the high school anxieties of fitting in, crushes, false rumors and turbulent friendships, have all been explored before in spades. Yes, they are relatable, but they are not dealt with in a manner that offers any unique perspective on them.

There are some nice performances in the film, particularly from Dyer, who also starred in the original short film. Veep’s Timothy Simons co-stars as Father Murphy, and he plays the role quite earnestly and manages to avoid priest stereotypes we have seen in the past. I knew Catholic Youth leaders very much like Simon’s Father Murphy, and I imagine many others have as well.

I’m curious to see if the film works as a litmus test for the audience. The practices and teachings of the Catholic Church are not presented with any real biased, but rather displayed honestly. I would imagine practicing or previously practicing Catholics will either not give them a second thought as they are so familiar to them, or it will evoke some sort of PTSD-like reaction. It’s also quite possible non-Catholics may have their view of the film tainted by their judgments or misunderstandings of said practices and teachings.

Yes, God, Yes is a well-made film, but I found myself rather indifferent about it. I realize that it may have to do with my own experiences with the Catholic Church growing up. That said, I believe the experiences of the viewer will play a role in their enjoyment of the film.