'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.' by Kelly Fremon Craig Review: Faith, growing up, and self-discovery

If there's a genre of films that just makes me mad, it has to be the coming of age genre. This may sound a bit ridiculous at first, but I just really struggle to connect with films in these genres mostly due to the highly stereotypical or just downright annoying characters that we unfortunately follow as protagonists. Now, I also must admit that this is likely an expected reaction to an intentional character design that has us witnessing the confusing times of our youth, where we made utterly stupid decisions and surrounded ourselves with fools in attempt to understand both ourselves and the world around us. Of course, as children we are heavily influenced by others. Other kids fall into this idea of what is cool and liked, and not knowing much better, they are followed. Regrets, mistakes, laughs, and confusion sum up this part of our lives. We aren't quite sure who we want to be or how we should act and pursue a reasonable life. What is reasonable, even when you look to adults and struggle to make sense of their own decisions?

To watch these mistakes and bratty childish characters will naturally result in an angry viewer. It's hard to not find yourself uncomfortable or frustrated at the characters and how the story progresses. You feel as if you could scream at the screen in hopes it goes through and reaches the characters in some other dimension. It's this discomfort and anger that these coming of age films often make me feel that results in my near complete rejection of the genre entirely. I very rarely will watch them, and I avoid them like they're plagued with a deadly disease. But lately I have been struggling to find things to watch, I've felt a bit bored of scrolling through lists. I've been rather content with just about anything. I came across this film the other day online, saw it had a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (which is hardly something to trust these days) and figured I'd check it out. I didn't really know what it was about, I didn't read about it, and I didn't know the genre. A nice unknown film that was watched upon the realisation that I had nothing else to watch, craving a film specifically.

Despite not being a fan of this genre, I found I actually enjoyed the film for once. It was an interesting exploration of youth and the search of identity, that went beyond the usual norms of such films and introduced something a little new: the idea of faith. Guidance in youth through religion, and the struggles to find God. Though this is hardly a religious film, it is one that handles the complexities of youth as a result of surrounding expectations, the adults that spread influence or even remove influence, leading to more of a lost feeling.

Margaret is a pretty well-behaved young girl that now has to move to a totally new location. Hating the idea of moving, she speaks to God and begs him to act in some way or another to stop the move from taking place; this request goes unanswered. Surrounding Margaret are both Christian and Jewish views. Yet Margaret doesn't belong to any specific faith despite speaking to God whenever she seeks some sort of help with something. Moving to a new location completely throws her understanding of life aside. Surrounded by new people, her influences change as the new Norms are thrown into her face, now growing similar to the lesser behaved children that attend the nearby school. For young girls, this includes talking about boys and parties with dares. Margaret always seems conflicted regarding these ideas, speaking against them or just not entirely present, sort of an awkward observer. It's clear her character has some idea of who she wants to be, an idea of general traditional values as a result of her upbringing. Around the same time, Margaret begins to question her faith, her parents not giving her any encouragement despite their own beliefs as to not control or cloud her own judgement. She begins to explore religion more.

Religion seems to play an important part in this story, but it doesn't seem like it's forcing any specific idea through the narrative. We see interest from Margaret in religion as a whole, even then as she begins to explore religion, she continues to talk to God as some generalised entity. Even going as far as saying he may not approve of her religious exploration, but hopes he understands. For a young teenage girl, Margaret seems to have a lot of maturity to her despite the poor judgement regarding the social life she holds. It was nice to see her character actually learning and growing from her experiences; going as far as even deciding to stop hanging around with the friends she had, which all seemed to just lie and encourage each other to do things none of them really wanted to do. It shows the stupidity of the youth in that regard, how easily they influence each other over dumb assumptions over what's cool or expected from each other. I think the way Margaret as a character was handled was done really well as a result, she seems human in having weaknesses, but a smart mind that shows actual self-awareness. Something other similar films fail to really address with characters much older. Typically these characters are just insufferably and making mistake after mistake without any idea of what they're doing.

But it is through these mistakes that Margaret continues to try to discover God. Assuming he may appear or answer her prayers at some point. This is done through some narration that gives us a glimpse into her mind as she voices her wants and worries to God. Margaret's character has some similarities to that of Matilda, even. Being good-hearted, surrounded by a mixture of good and bad, but still a bit lost and struggling to find direction. I think it was a really interesting character to have for this sort of story, and it had me thinking on religion and its values, and whether I myself had any of this influence growing up. For a coming of age story, the role of God seems highly influential. But is anyone actually there? We see Margaret's want to fit in and find her place in the world, and it comes in different forms, but we often fall back to religion as she believes she had to choose one or the other; not really aware that neither might also be a solution. But the film doesn't really promote this idea, and again I quite liked it for this. It doesn't look at religion as a negative or a positive. But as a part of life's many decisions to be made. Displaying a vulnerability that comes with youth.

This film is set in a 70s styled period, at a time where things are certainly still very much traditional for the most part. Where religion perhaps held more influence in the people, but a rebellious youth was most certainly beginning to form as a result of the 60s and its more free ideologies. It's a nice setting for the story, and made very beautifully with the directing and cinematography. The colours are warm, darker and pleasing to the eye. The camera is often fixed in one place, viewing with either some symmetry or just a still perspective. But with beautiful set design and tones, it's a very beautiful film that keeps on moving. Especially with the dialogue which is often soft and caring. Very little about the film feels stressful or harsh. I think through this it captures the innocence of Margaret really well. A girl that couldn't possibly cause any harm, nor wants to be something she clearly isn't. Much of this gentle nature comes not just from the colours, camera, or the script, but from the performances. I was quite surprised at how good they were. Margaret's actress, Abby Ryder Fortson, did an incredible job at leading the film. With Rachel McAdams surprising me quite a bit (as I admittedly am not much of a fan of her prior works). Kathy Bates, who is often quite excellent, played a very good role of a caring grandmother that seems to have a bit of agenda regarding Margaret's faith. Each of these main characters really sold the film to me.

I have been quite surprised by how good of a film this was to watch. For a coming of age tale, it held more innocence and intelligence than usual. I think this worked very well in its favour, creating a story that wasn't depressing and full of regret, but one that explored the idea of life to a young mind, as they themselves began to answer the questions of who they are and want to be.

I still hate this genre though.