When it comes to coming-of-age comedies, the best ones of recent years have been centred on teenage girls (Lady Bird, The Edge of Seventeen, Eighth Grade et al) rather than their male counterparts. Comedies about teenage boys tend to portray them as one-dimensional horndogs whose only goal is to get laid before they graduate, whereas the female protagonists of such movies have far more complex concerns. It's a relief then to find that Lemonade Blessing is that rare teen comedy that offers us a well-rounded young male protagonist, one who isn't even all that bothered about losing his virginity.
That would be 15-year-old John (Jake Ryan), who has been under the thumb of his devoutly Catholic mother, the aptly named Mary (Jeanine Serralles), ever since she divorced from his deadbeat dad Pete (Todd Gearhart). Hoping it will keep him on a righteous path, Mary sends her son to a private Catholic school. The plan backfires however when John falls for the even more aptly named Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman), an atheistic classmate determined to rebel against her Catholic upbringing.
You might expect the bulk of the movie to be built around John trying to pluck up the courage to ask Lilith out, but John wastes no time and is shocked when Lilith agrees to become his girlfriend. There's a major catch however. To keep their relationship exciting, Lilith insists on blackmailing John into performing a series of increasingly blasphemous pranks, which range from burning a bible to urinating on a Eucharist wafer. This sparks an existential crisis of faith in the young man as he weighs up whether the object of his affection is worth risking eternal damnation for.
Lemonade Blessing is both bawdy and blasphemous, as upfront about teenage sexuality as a Porky's movie and taking its share of pot shots at the more ridiculous elements of Catholicism. But unlike typical teen sex comedies it doesn't shame or objectify its female characters. Instead we're asked to laugh at the blatantly misogynist messages John and his classmates receive from their teachers when it comes to the double standards of male and female sexuality ("Hands up if you want to marry a slut," one teacher commands in a hilariously inappropriate sex ed lecture). Lilith is as virginal as John, but she portrays herself as an inexperienced young woman as part of her teenage rebellion, which ultimately drives a wedge in her relationship with John, who has taken the awful teachings of his church onboard.
The central conflict here is within John's soul as he tries to find a way of staying true to his faith while respecting Lilith's independent nature. At the same time Lilith uses her disruptive ways to mask her true feelings for John, whom she is actually head over heels in love with. For their relationship to work, John and Lilith must make compromises and find a middle ground. You can't help but wonder if debut writer/director Chris Merola intends this as an allegory for the current state of America with its ongoing conflict between Christians and progressives.
While there are plenty of laughs mined at the expense of Catholicism, Lemonade Blessing takes a "don't hate the player, hate the game" approach to its critique of religion. The jibes are aimed at the church rather than the faith, and there's never a sense that John's Catholicism is something he needs to shake off. This isn't a story of a young man breaking free of religion, but rather of figuring out how to make his beliefs compatible with the world around him in 2025. Having attended a Catholic school myself, I can confirm that Merola nails the setting here. One thing he really gets right is how the most sensitive and intelligent teachers are the brothers whereas the lay teachers are often fundamentalist blowhards. John finds himself taken under the caring wing of Brother Phil (Michael Oloyede), who dispenses thoughtful wisdom that jars with the "don't marry a slut" preachings of his Sex Ed teacher.
Ryan, who has become something of a Wes Anderson regular early in his career, excels in his first lead role here. John is disparagingly described as "McLovin adjacent" at one point, but the character isn't simply your standard nerd. Ryan's Jason Schwartzman looks and nervy Jesse Eisenberg demeanour are in contrast to John's confidence, believing his Catholicism has given him all the answers to the sort of questions most people never even bother asking. John wears his faith like a shield, but at a certain point he's forced to ask just what it is he's guarding himself from.
Directed by: Chris Merola
Starring: Jake Ryan, Skye Alyssa Friedman, Jeanine Serralles, Miles J. Harvey, Michael Oloyede, Todd Gearhart, Keith William Richards
