A comedic exploration of self-pleasure and guilt from the co-writer of ‘Obvious Child’
Adolescence is hands-down the most perilous part of our development as human men and women, it is a time of hormonal turbulence as our bodies morph from children into adults and our mental and emotional faculties struggle to adapt at the same pace. The most fraught facet of this experience is one’s sexual awakening, which comes complete with social, moral, and for some even spiritual ramifications.
Now, without being too indelicate, the way a lot of us start to discover our sexual selves is through masturbation, that strange combination of pleasure and confusion, indulgence and guilt. And occasionally, young folk can become a little too obsessed with the act, resulting in, well, all sorts of weirdness.
This is the thematic jumping off point for Yes, God, Yes a genuinely hilarious and delightfully awkward short film from writer-director Karen Maine, who’s name you might recognize as the co-writer of Obvious Child and the short film upon which it was based. Maine is working solo this go-around and the results are outstanding. Yes, God, Yes stars Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer as a 15-year old good Catholic girl who thanks to a racy AOL chat – remember those? – discovers the act of self-pleasure and all the confusion and emotional turmoil that comes with it (pardon the pun).
Dyer, as she was in Stranger Things, is the perfect blend of innocence and burgeoning personal awareness, she personifies an intelligence that’s just a little ahead of her emotional development, and her experience here feels both natural and comical, which is pretty much how adolescence goes.
Yes, God, Yes is a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere, and Maine is said to be working on a feature-length adaptation, so keep an ear out for more news.
Related Topics: Obvious Child, Short Films
