{"id":3744,"date":"2024-08-29T03:46:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T03:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:45:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:45:06","slug":"are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/29\/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret.<\/strong> (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic material involving sexual education, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kelly Fremon Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kelly Fremon Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tim Ives\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 28, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson, Elle Graham, Benny Safdie, Kathy Bates, Echo Kellum, Amari Price, Katherine Kupferer, Kate MacCluggage, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong, Landon Baxter, Isol Young, Simms May, Zackary Brooks, JeCobi Swain, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Mia Dillon, Gary Houston.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0My greatest concern upon hearing the news that Judy Blume\u2019s popular coming-of-age YA novel Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret.<\/strong> was being adapted for the big screen was how faithful the makers would be to the source. Specifically, I was worried they\u2019d try to update it in order to appeal to modern audiences. I can\u2019t even begin to conceive of a version of this story that didn\u2019t take place in the pre-Internet world of 1970. Life was different back then, especially where growing up was concerned. Certain subjects were a mystery to preteens. They didn\u2019t have a whole lot of access to information about sex and their changing bodies other than anatomy textbooks and purloined copies of Playboy. Girls on the precipice of puberty would sit around and theorize about rites of passage like periods and breast development. They\u2019d brag to their friends about milestones achieved and giggle about kissing boys. That innocence went away with the rise of technology. Now when kids have questions, they just hit up Google. I\u2019m so glad this isn\u2019t the case with Margaret Simon and her friends.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen) pulls off an amazing feat with her excellent adaptation of God \/Margaret<\/strong>. Fans will not only appreciate how closely she follows the book, they\u2019ll be pleased with the changes she makes. The basic year-in-the-life premise remains the same. It\u2019s still about Margaret (Fortson, Ant-Man), a young girl learning about life and its many complications in her final year of elementary school. However, Craig expands on the original material and gives Margaret\u2019s mother (McAdams, Mean Girls) a more substantial role. We\u2019re told more about her background, a creative choice that adds heft to Margaret\u2019s search for her religious identity. I\u2019ll circle back to this in a moment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s a year of big changes for Margaret starting with her family\u2019s sudden move from hustling, bustling New York City to the quiet New Jersey suburbs. This means going to a new school and making new friends, the first of which is her neighbor and future classmate Nancy (Graham, Secrets of Sulphur Springs), a bossy type who invites her to join her \u201csecret club\u201d with two other members, Gretchen (Kupferer) and Janie (Price). In their first meeting (over Oreos and diet soda), they establish rules that include wearing a bra and immediately informing the others when they get their first period. The latter is a constant source of worry to Margaret. She doesn\u2019t want to be the last of friends to have it. It\u2019s one of the things she talks to God about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Margaret isn\u2019t the only one struggling to adjust. Her mom Barbara is in a dilemma of her own. Having left her job as an art teacher to become a suburban housewife, she finds herself without purpose in life. She tries to fill the void by joining the PTA and volunteering for almost every committee. It goes pretty much how you\u2019d expect. It\u2019s not helpful that the head of the PTA, Nancy\u2019s mother (MacCluggage), takes advantage of her na\u00efve generosity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now here\u2019s where the film really departs from the source material. Craig adds a scene that fleshes out Barbara\u2019s character in a most brilliant way. As those who\u2019ve read Blume\u2019s book know, religion is an uncomfortable subject in the Simon household. Margaret, the child of a Jewish father (Uncut Gems co-director Safdie) and a gentile mother, wasn\u2019t raised one way or the other. She wants to know why. In a perfectly calibrated scene, Barbara explains that her devout Christian parents disowned her for marrying a Jew. This is why they never made her go to church. They figured she can decide for herself what she wants to be (if she wants to be anything) when she grows up. This, of course, does not set well with Margaret\u2019s very Jewish grandmother Sylvia (Bates, Misery).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I read and reread several Judy Blume books in my youth, God \/Margaret<\/strong> included. I know it\u2019s for girls, but I liked how frankly and openly the author discussed taboo subjects. Craig follows Blume\u2019s lead by dealing with the sensitive material the same way. She sees both the seriousness and the humor in situations like nervously buying sanitary napkins (male cashier, check!) and watching a graphic educational film about menstruation at school. She perfectly captures the inner life of preteen girls as Margaret experiences all the usual things- e.g. peer pressure, that first crush and finding out how complicated and messy family can be. She learns valuable lessons about friendship, being true to herself and the insidious nature of gossip, especially when it turns out not to be true which it usually does.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the title role, Fortson absolutely crushes it. She\u2019s terrific as Margaret, hitting all the right emotional beats at all times, delivering a performance of uncommon openness. Whether she\u2019s trying to be inconspicuous about looking at a boy she likes <\/em>or losing it during a family squabble over religion, none of it ever comes across as false or forced. McAdams is equally great as the mom. Has it really been almost 20 years since she played a high schooler in Mean Girls? She\u2019s the bohemian-type parent who makes a sincere effort to understand her daughter and let her find her own way in life with just a bit of guidance here and there. Bates is positively delightful as Sylvia, really the comic center of God \/Margaret<\/strong>. She\u2019s the consummate Jewish grandmother\/mother-in-law with lines designed to generate maximum guilt like \u201cI read that when you don\u2019t have any loved ones around, your life expectancy drops drastically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d also like to call attention to a young actress named Isol Young who plays classmate Laura Danker. She\u2019s the most developed girl in the sixth grade. As such, she\u2019s subject to rumors about her letting boys feel her up behind the A&P. In one of the film\u2019s most emotionally effective scenes, she runs off in tears after Margaret calls her out for her alleged promiscuity. The hurt she feels is palpable. Young may not be the star of the show, but she makes an impact nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love how period authentic God \/Margaret<\/strong> is with the vintage clothes, cars and interior d\u00e9cor. The soundtrack is spot-on as well with Craig\u2019s use of hit songs of the time. That\u2019s actually the perfect analogy for God \/Margaret<\/strong> as a whole. It hits all the right notes all the time. In just her second film, Craig shows she\u2019s a force to be reckoned with. She does incredible work here. Her adaptation is filled with warmth and humor. It assures her target audience what they\u2019re going through (or about to go through) is perfectly normal. How can anybody fault a movie for that? I\u2019m glad to see one of Blume\u2019s novels get the treatment it deserves.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret. (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic material involving sexual education, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kelly Fremon Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kelly Fremon Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tim Ives\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 28, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson, Elle Graham, Benny Safdie, Kathy Bates, Echo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Are-You-There-God-Its-Me-M.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4467,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions\/4467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}