Yes, God, Yes

This movie is so spot-on about what it's like going to a Catholic School. I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much as I did if I hadn't been raised Catholic and gone to a Catholic high School. The humor is subtle, but it's good. Go into this movie open-minded and I think you'll really enjoy it.

This film really feels like one of those festival hits that plays best in the festival setting. It addresses some interesting things around religion and sex, and the main character is likeable. It's a bit slow at times though. Worth a watch, but it's going to appeal most to fans of indie and arthouse films or perhaps someone who has left the Catholic faith and deeply relates to the topic.

A great coming of age story. Natalia is a perfect fit for the role.

The writer/director Karen Maine went to a Catholic school in Iowa and made this movie based on her own experiences there in the 11th grade. I didn't attend a Catholic school but grew up being taught Catechism by Priests and Nuns so I can identify with a lot of it.

The movie points out a truth about religious education in general, the use of fear to try to motivate teenagers to stay on the straight and narrow. Watch porn and you'll go to hell. Masturbate and you'll go to hell. Lose your virginity and you'll go to hell. The problem with that approach is eventually kids get to a point where they realize what is going on and all that goes for naught.

Yet somehow most of us grow up to be good, moral people. And that is sort of the punchline of this story.

I watched it at home on DVD from my public library, my wife skipped.

Disappointing that it's sort of just another coming of age movie, taking the tropes and side characters that you usually see in those movies and using them pretty ordinarily here. With the premise it had, I really wish it had been funnier, crazier, edgier, or just a little less predictable.

It falls into that annoying category of dramadies where it's neither particularly funny or particularly dramatic (I call it Entourage Syndrome, named after how lazy that show could be when it frequently didn't commit to either comedy or drama).

Most of the performances are okay, and the brief length keeps it from being too dull, but it was a slight disappointment, even if not bad.

Oh: and it doesn't capture the time period nearly as well as something like Ladybird. Sorry to compare it to that, but overall that was a much faster, funnier, more emotional, and far better paced movie in general.