In college, I was underage binge drinking with some friends, most of whom grew up in religious households. The late night conversation subject turned toward experiences in religion and how it shaped how we were at that moment. One of my friends, a Catholic high school grad, started talking about this “kairos retreat” which I knew zilch about, where the teachers encouraged essentially every teen to backstab and expose the “sins” their classmates were committing. My friend, a smart guy, knew this was coming, and kept his mouth shut, so the only “sin” they found him doing was giving a “thumbs down” to a vegetarian classmate. From that moment on, I was hoping someone would make a movie about this retreat, because there is SO much to mine from this insane “retreat.” Clearly Karen Maine must have been binge drinking with buddies too about kairos, except she had the follow through to make a brilliant movie about the experience.
Probably transferring from Hawkins, Natalia Dyer plays Alice, your run of the mill church going high school student in suburban Iowa somewhere. Natalia is having those horny teenage impulses that everyone does; however, when you get detention for having a skirt 2 inches higher than the knee, she’s not going to ask the teachers, or engage in an awkward parent conversation. So where does she go for sex advice in the 1997 to 2003 range (the movie makes this subtle, but clear), AOL Instant Messenger! That information is informative, but ultra conflicting from her Catholic School upbringing. Confused, Alice hopes that the upcoming kairos trip will prove illuminating to help her deal with these feelings and uneasiness growing inside of her.
Yes, God, Yes fulfills all my hopes at what a movie about kairos was going to be. I thought it would be more fun to have someone who knows about the kairos retreat system, and manipulate it for their advantage. Instead, Karen Maine’s story is better, having a relative innocent try to navigate themselves through the minefield of sin judgers. The hypocrisy scenes you know are coming are handled with a light touch, not passing judgment on the hypocrites but having Alice use this new information to aid her sexual and spiritual awakening (of sorts). The outwardly overly sincere conversations every mentor has with Alice never cease to be funny, and beautifully condescending. “I hate to do this, but I’m gonna have to report you to Father Murphy.” Nothing like being made to feel doubly bad for making a mistake. The best jokes might be around all the group behavior. There’s several events where various groups sit in large rooms, judging other people. One student uses their “awakening” to push a music career; another tries to one up a sob story my making up a worse one so as to not be called out for being too….normal I guess? I don’t know if the time period jokes will age well, but anyone like me who grew up using early cell phones or AIM or Now CD’s will appreciate their references being used for actual plot points and not just simply to appeal to the movie’s demo. Karen Maine clearly lived this, and her sharp eye for humor and understanding of Alice makes Yes, God, Yes, a really fun time while Maine slowly builds the inspirational story underneath it.
Poor Alice clearly has to take a lot of direction from the Bible at her Catholic School and on kairos. While there are lots of good lessons to learn in that book, perhaps the one I wish she had come across was while reading Hamlet, where Polonius said, “To thine own self, be true.” Yes, God, Yes, is Alice’s journey to that realization. In her small little town, secrets are currency. The rare social climber knows how to take secrets and use them to their advantage, whether it be a high school rumor starter to drop a rival down a few pegs, or a teacher/priest trying to get some bonus points with God. Living in a society like that forces you to adapt to it or reject it. Most choose the adapt option: bury and judge. While outwardly safer, this lifestyle is repressive and soul crushing, forcing every person to perpetually live double lives, lying to themselves daily. The rare bird learns to bypass this repressive system’s secrets by running towards them head on, taking away the power of the currency, flying free in body and soul, content in their understanding of who they are. To achieve understanding like that, Alice, and every teen for that matter, needs leadership figures to step in and guide them. Yes, God, Yes shows how hard that is going to be for Alice. You might be quick to judge her using AOL and barflies to have to learn about herself sexually, but where else was she going to turn? There’s no parent in the movie until the very end, and teachers refuse to teach real sex ed to her at her religious high school, telling her that her own thoughts are sinful. At least the parents just abdicated their responsibility: the school teachers and mentors teach Alice lessons that clearly are going to make her question what her teenage body is telling her to do. Thank goodness Alice can think for herself. Yes, God, Yes, reminds me of all those poor teens like Alice, but instead forced to bury their feelings in hopes of doing the right thing, getting consumed by their duplicity/guilt, with no one to trust with their true selves.
Clarity does not come easy. There’s lots of hard lessons along the way. Yes, God, Yes points out that, obviously. But it also points out that that search is universal, and more importantly, that you don’t have to search forever. So where would Karen Maine say we should look? She might say Matthew 7 Verse 1 states, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” She’d encourage all teens like Alice to keep an open mind, and an open heart, to the people around you to help open your perspective and find your personal truth. Once you get there, maybe rewind back to the Titanic scene where Jack and Rose get to the car. I mean, it’s hot right?