Alice is both amusingly naive and curious. Why is it risky for teens to share intimate content online? There's a lot to unpack, all of it unfavorable to the church and the patriarchy, and, while witty, the movie also seems almost safe by Gen Z standards. What to Watch, Read, and Play While Your Kids Are Stuck Indoors, Common Sense Selections for family entertainment, Stoke kids' love of reading with great summer stories, Teachers: Find the best edtech tools for your classroom with in-depth expert reviews, 6 formas de usar los medios para que los niños mantengan el español, Wide Open School: recursos para el aprendizaje a distancia, Which Side of History? We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. Yes, God, Yes is set around the year 2000, with Titanic obsession, one classmate's love of Blink 182's 1999 album Enema of the State, and the old-fashioned technology (desktops, dial-ups, and AOL Instant Messenger) serving as the main clues to the timeline. Totally unacceptable to use the Catholic faith and its culture of raising teenagers in a mocking fashion of humor. SXSW Film Review: ‘Yes, God, Yes’ Karen Maine’s naughty but nice coming-of-age story showcases an exceptional performance by Natalia Dyer. Does this mean she’s going to hell? A standout scene is Alice’s random encounter with an older lesbian (beautifully played by Susan Blackwell), where Alice realizes for the first time that there’s a big world out there, and being an adult doesn’t mean you have to be an uptight hypocrite. She doesn't want to be labeled or judged, but she's undeniably interested in sex and arousal -- within the safe confines of a hot classmate. An AOL chat room leads Alice (Stranger Things' Natalia Dyer) to discover what it feels like to get turned on for the first time, and unlike in countless other tales about teen girls, her sexual satisfaction comes not from sleeping with someone, but from self-pleasure. Writer-director: Karen Maine Families can talk about how Yes, God, Yes depicts sex. "Yes, God, Yes" takes place in the dark ages of the early ‘aughts, where AOL chat rooms provided teens with sketchy flirtation possibilities, and if you had sexy urges when watching a video you had to manually rewind over and over again. This is a sweet sincere film about a girl getting all twisted up because of the mixed messages passed down to her. Many of today's high schoolers are more progressive and understanding regarding everything from gender identity and expression to sexual orientation to women's rights, so it's unclear who the ideal audience is for Yes, God, Yes. A character lowers herself to perform oral sex, but camera focuses on voyeur who's aroused by the sight and masturbates (clothed) with mop handle. “Yes, God, Yes” shares some similarities with films about kids getting “gay conversion therapy” (“But I’m a Cheerleader,” “Boy Erased,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”), particularly in the scenes showing repressed uptight adults shame teenagers for having perfectly natural feelings. Because of her newfound reputation, she's invited to attend a spiritual school retreat, where, instead of rededicating herself to abstinence, Alice falls in lust with her heartthrob small-group counselor (Wolfgang Novogratz). How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives, Participate in DigCit Week with your kid by using curated activities from Wide Open School, Online Playdates, Game Nights, and Other Ways to Socialize at a Distance, Keeping Kids Motivated for Online Learning, Set limits for violence and more with Plus. Father Murphy means well in teaching his students about the sanctity of marriage and sex, even as he struggles privately with his celibacy. Things escalate from there as a rumor goes around her high school that she “tossed the salad” with her crush Wade (Parker Wierling), who has a girlfriend. Superb, smart teen comedy has drinking, strong sex talk. by Several discussions about sex, masturbation, abstinence. Terms of Use | Cybersex, including shared photos of partial nudity, a topless woman in panties with a man's torso and arms on top of her. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes when you use our links to make a purchase. Alice is encouraged to be open with herself about her desires and not be too hung up on rules and regulations of church. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free. It centers on Alice (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things, a Catholic high school girl who accidentally ends up having a sexual internet chat with a stranger the same week that rumors spread at school about her and a classmate. Producers: Katie Cordeal, Colleen Hammond, Eleanor Columbus, Rodrigo Teixeira Two teens discuss partial-birth abortion video they had to watch in class. Costume designer: Brittany Loar Unlike one of its filmic peers, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Catholicism and the mostly hypocritical Catholics in the movie are the butt of nearly every joke. Alice is so innocent that when faced with a rumor about the sexual act she supposedly performed at a party, she has to ask her best friend what the term even means. Alice is a curious, intelligent young woman who's understandably unaware and naive about sex and how to reconcile her thoughts with her religion. EMAIL ME. I went on a couple of Catholic retreats in high school and some of the scenes in "Yes, God, Yes" made me cringe in recognition: the disarming friendliness, the novelty of seeing your classmates out of a school setting, the weirdness of talking about serious subjects with your peers, the pressure to cry when you’re “sharing” (it’s so bizarre, but it’s definitely a “thing” that happens on these retreats and Maine nails it). rather than real life. Meanwhile, at school, Father Murphy (Timothy Simons) teaches an abstinence lesson explaining that God's plan for sex is limited to one man, one woman, one marriage -- and that any sexual activity (including masturbation) before marriage goes against God's plans. | Cookie Settings. 12:20 PM PST 3/9/2019 Yes, God, Yes is masturbatory in the best possible way. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here. Devout followers of Catholicism, however, will probably bristle much of the way through as the pic just stops short of being a full-on mockumentary of the Catholic Church. I watched this with my young teen. A teen apologizes for his erection after brief kissing. (The story is largely based on Maine’s real-life experience growing up in Iowa in a Catholic family. There’s nothing here that would shock a teenager. An earnest, repressed priest named Father Murphy (Veep's Timothy Simons) and a pregnant, snippy teacher named Mrs. Veda (Donna Lynne Champlin), along with a group of youth pastor-types, lead the retreat. It’s the kind of pic conservatives would hold up as a perfect example of godless liberals mocking the faith of people with sincere religious beliefs. It centers on Alice (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things, a Catholic high school girl who accidentally ends up having a sexual internet chat with a stranger the same week that rumors spread at school about her and a classmate. Posters promoting abstinence line the hallways. About Our Ads She swoons just from a glimpse at his hairy arm. Hilarious teen sex comedy has lots of raunch, drinking. Parents and caregivers: Set limits for violence and more with Plus. Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Narrative Feature Competition) Movie has progressive, sex-positive themes about how it's natural for adolescents to have and explore sexual feelings, attraction, curiosity, how none of this is something to be ashamed of or repress. Sitemap | Also "dammit," "s--t," "c--k," and "a--hole," and "Jesus Christ" and "Oh my God.". What role does the internet play in Alice's story? After the racy session, Alice's sexual feelings start blossoming. Maine has a good feel for comedic rhythm—there’s one particular cut that almost made me laugh out loud—and she is really good at finding those quiet moments when big internal shifts take place. Maine keeps a light touch throughout. The film settles into a particularly joyful groove as Alice finds some much-needed clarity that propels her toward her personal truth for the first time. There Alice develops a reputation as a slut and ultimately spends much of the movie trying to overcome her scarlet letter while at the same time still hungering for sexual gratification. Join now. Nina is depicted more hypocritically, preaching one thing but doing another when it comes to premarital sex acts. She's inquisitive and searches for answers. Alice (Natalia Dyer) is a teenager attending a strict Catholic school, and her world has not prepared her for the (perfectly natural) maelstrom of puberty. The bulk of the pic unfolds on a school retreat where Alice and her peers are encouraged to deepen their faith and be vulnerable in a group setting. Find more movies that help kids build character. Between the soundtrack (TLC’s “Unpretty,” Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle”) and the film’s original score, the presence of music feels all-pervading, which sometimes undermines the performances of her strong ensemble cast. Her desires to crush her impure urges fly out the window the second she arrives at the retreat and gets a look at a teenage hunk named Chris (Wolfgang Novogratz). Common Sense and other associated names and logos are trademarks of Common Sense Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN: 41-2024986). Also explores how young women are chastised for sexual experiences while young men are praised. A major plot point is that Alice is accused of "tossing Wade's salad" when she doesn't even know what that means. Mostly, though, those retreats were a hotbed of teenage romance! The script proves effective at inserting simple elements of dramatic tension into scenes that would have otherwise fallen flat — as when Alice hides in a broom closet with a handful of food fished out of a garbage disposal and nowhere to toss it, or the sight of a hugely pregnant Mrs. Veda throughout the film, a visual nod to the ever-present elephant in the room (sex). Alice is so innocent that when faced with a rumor about the sexual act she supposedly performed at a party, she has to ask her best friend what the term even means. Moments like these add up to something powerful, and that is a feat in a movie whose subject matter could have easily made for disaffected navel gazing. What's changed in the past 20 years in regards to how teens view and deal with sex? An adult administrator forcefully enforces a school dress code, confronting students in a way that could be perceived as shaming. Despite being 25, Dyer is still youthful enough to believably play an older teen whose experiences with sex are mostly through pop culture (the Titanic car scene!) Adults drink at a bar Alice walks into, and she (who is underage) successfully orders a wine cooler. Is the idea of a "bad reputation" still relevant? Parents need to know that Yes, God, Yes is a semi-autobiographical teen comedy set in the early 2000s. as Student / Altar Server, CIFF 2020: Black Perspectives Program Highlights Diverse Voices, CIFF 2020: The Roger Ebert Award Returns to Champion New Voices, Immerse Yourself in Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project #3. Music: Ian Hultquist Teen Scarlet Letter update is smart but risque.
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