Lemonade Blessing firmly announces Chris Merola’s arrival as a new and exciting writer and director whose unfiltered approach to storytelling and character development is a joy to watch, so much so that as the credits roll, we aren’t ready to leave John or Lilith’s electric but painful, and always awkward, first love.
In 1993, the mighty Meat Loaf sang “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” If only someone had shared Mr Loaf’s nugget of wisdom with teenage John (Jake Ryan), a whole lot of inner turmoil and confusion may have been avoided. First love, or should that be first lust, is confusing, exciting, uncertain and hormonal for most of us. It is the moment we dip our toes into a new world of sex, love, partnership and experimentation, and for the majority of us, it ends in tears. But for those who grow up in strict religious schools, homes, and communities, first love or lust can be even more of a mind fuck. John is one of those kids.
John’s mother is a devout Catholic who loves him deeply but has already mapped out his future as a church leader and is determined to ensure John follows her version of scripture at every turn, even waiting outside the bathroom to prevent him from engaging in any sinful self-pleasure. At the same time, his school is determined to keep a lid on any discussions of sex, and his new friends have formed two distinct personalities to fit the world around them, one public and the other private. Meanwhile, his dad, who separated from his mother when he was a boy, is far more interested in his new life, work, and meditation than in spending time with John.
John lives in a world of controlled Catholic guilt, his life a series of rules that must never be broken in fear of a god who picks and chooses who walks through the pearly gates of heaven and who ends up in the fiery pits of hell. But that world is about to shatter into a million pieces when John meets Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman) in writer and director Chris Merola’s wickedly funny and joyously blasphemous debut feature Lemonade Blessing.
Lilith, like John, is trapped between a faith that seeks to control her, a school life based on conformity, and a home life built on obedience rather than self-expression. But unlike John, Lilith is ready to rebel and wants the life she envisions inside her head to be the life she actually leads. Initially, Lilith doesn’t take a second glance at the awkward but forward John; in fact, their first meeting is somewhat of a disaster. But it’s not long before she sees a potential partner in enacting the rebellion brewing in her mind. John is initially unaware that he is part of Lilith’s plans, but she enthrals and excites him, and it’s not long before sexual experimentation and intimacy come with conditional dares John must commit to, from saying, “Fuck Jesus!” in the school corridor to burning a bible.
It would be easy to view John as a victim of Lilith’s rebellious sexual games. However, Merola’s film never falls into this trap, as he explores what happens when two isolated and uncertain teenagers meet, each seeking belonging, sexual connection, and companionship as they question the world around them. Both John and Lilith understand that the world they now inhabit is fraught with contradictions. It’s an environment where male students discuss sex freely among themselves, based on porn rather than experience, while girls attempt to navigate a community that routinely shames them and encourages young men to openly use labels such as “slut”.
The school environment fosters division when discussing virtue, as adults encourage emotions and feelings to be suppressed, creating a fragmented reality that is confusing, dishonest, and emotionally and socially harmful for young people who are simply attempting to find belonging, meaning, and acceptance.
In exploring this fragmented reality, Merola’s screenplay carries the wickedly sharp humour and insight of films like Brian Dannelly’s Saved! 2004 and Michael Dinner’s Catholic Boys (Heaven Help Us) 1985. But it also carries some of the emotional complexity of Fred Schepisi’s groundbreaking The Devil’s Playground (1976). In the latter, we followed thirteen-year-old Tom through a maze of repressed sexual desires, stifled emotions and uncertain feelings as he was enrolled at a Catholic boarding school for boys in Victoria, Australia. Although John’s journey may differ from Tom’s, the feelings of confusion, uncertainty and doubt are the same, as the rules he accepted freely as a boy face the harsh realities of teenage life that no adult acknowledges due to the generational cycle of guilt and repression at play.
Lemonade Blessing doesn’t tread new ground in exploring Catholic guilt or the fragmented world of sin and virtue so many Catholic kids question as they become teenagers, but it does further dissect these themes through a richly observed and cutting screenplay held aloft by the outstanding central performances of Jake Ryan and Skye Alyssa Friedman alongside a sizzling ensemble cast. Lemonade Blessing firmly announces Chris Merola’s arrival as a new and exciting writer and director whose unfiltered approach to storytelling and character development is a joy to watch, so much so that as the credits roll, we aren’t ready to leave John or Lilith’s electric but painful, and always awkward, first love.
Lemonade Blessing premiered at Tribeca Festival and is awaiting a UK release date.
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