Yes God Yes (2020)
Directed by Karen Maine
Written by Karen Maine
Starring Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, Susan Blackwater, Alisha Boe
Release Date July 24th, 2020
Published July 24th, 2020
Yes God Yes is the sweetest little masturbation themed comedy I’ve ever seen. This debut starring feature for Stranger Things ensemble player Natalie Dyer pokes gentle fun at the hypocrisy of those who try to tell others what to do with their own bodies. The target is specifically religious but the prudish in general could learn valuable lessons about not trying to force your opinions or morality onto others from this odd, unambitious little comedy.
Yes God Yes stars Natalie Dyer as Alice, a teenager who is only beginning to learn about her body. Recently rumors have started that she had performed a euphemistically named sex act on one of her classmates and while she’s vexed over how the rumor spread so quickly when nothing actually happened, she’s more curious about what this sex act actually is and just generally curious about sex in general.
The film is set somewhere in the late 90’s or early 2000’s. We know this from the soundtrack featuring soundalike Christina Aguilera tunes, Alice’s old school Nokia cellphone and her dial up internet which she uses to scroll through chat rooms. One day while Alice is playing an innocent game of word association in a chatroom, she’s invited to a private chat by a fellow player. The man proceeds to invite her to what we used to call cyber-sex and she’s up for it, until she’s nearly caught by her mom with her hand somewhere it shouldn’t be if your mom is around.
Alice’s obsession with masturbation is consuming her every thought lately and with everyone speculating about her wild sex life via rumors, she’s grown only more curious. In an effort to put these impure thoughts out of her mind, she decides to attend a weekend school trip with her Catholic School. Alice hopes a weekend away from the internet and her school and the various temptations therein, she can reconnect with God and stop obsessing over touching herself.
This goes bad almost immediately as Alice becomes an accidental witness to some of her fellow students, supposed leaders of this ‘Christian’ retreat, committing many sins. The hypocrisy of her fellow students, and even one of her pastors, is the last straw for Alice who sets out to finally accomplish her goal of… well… self-pleasure would be a safe way to put it, she wants to touch herself or someone else as soon as possible.
That last paragraph might lead you to believe that Yes God Yes is explicit and R-Rated. That’s not necessarily the case. Yes, the film has explicit themes but the movie is much more clever than explicit. Writer-Director Karen Maine aims for sweetness and a lovely sort of authenticity tinged with a broad sense of humor.
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