April 26, 2023
FILM: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET
DIRECTED BY KELY FREMON CRAIG
STARRING: ABBY RYDER FORTSON, RACHEL MCADAMS, KATHY BATES
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I know that many people who will see this film are familiar with its origins as a very popular 1970 novel by Judy Blume. That wasn’t the case for me when I saw it. I never read the book nor was it ever on my radar. Perhaps, I wasn’t the target audience as it centers on an 11-year-old about to enter sixth grade girl who meets new challenges when her parents decide to move out of New York City and into the suburbs of New Jersey. Even though young Margaret’s story doesn’t exactly parallel my own experiences, my family also made the move out of a big city (Chicago) and into the suburbs (Palatine) later in the 1970s when I was also in sixth grade. I could completely relate to the anger and anxiety of moving away from my friends to some far-off location that looked nothing like what I was used to. The tight small northwest side urban community I knew was being replaced with a seemingly very sterile environment filled with sameness. This is exactly what Margaret goes through in the initial stages of her uprooting. Like I did at the time, Margaret even prays to an unseen God hoping for each day to end without any strife.
Unlike me though, Margaret immediately becomes part of a small circle of friends who have very strict rules: you can’t wear socks with your shoes and you must rare a bra. This is the beginning of a conform or don’t conform theme that puts not only Margaret but her mother Barbara, played by Rachel McAdams, into a new way of living and being. They both initially decide to follow the “laws” of the new land to fit in. Barbara joins numerous school committees while finding little time for her own passions. This is, after all, what everyone dreams of, right? The perfect house in the perfect white bread community?
It is this and so much more that makes Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret such an interesting and resonate film experience regardless of gender. Both of these characters are trying to find their true authentic self in an environment that wants a certain order and structure. Barbara can’t decide what type of couch to put into her new living room because she’s not sure which era in which to settle: traditional or something more modern. Like Margaret, she spends much of the film trying to find herself. This also relates to the film’s religious themes. Barbara was raised Christian but her husband Herb (Benny Safdie) was raised Jewish. This had created so much tension within the extended family that Barbara became estranged from her own devout Christian parents. Meanwhile, Margaret talks to God but can’t decide which religion to follow or even if she believes in him.
These themes take the film away what could have been a very predictable and shallow coming of age story. It probes questions of conformity and authenticity. This is not a film about teens wanting to party or get laid but about real adolescent (and adult) searching. Margaret and her friends discuss menstruation and chest sizes but all of it is with a lot of vulnerability and wit. There aren’t any over the top slapstick moments here. Rather, the film takes its cue from the more introspective and revealing films such as Bo Burnham’s excellent Eighth Grade where the uncomfortableness of adolescence is palpable and emotionally driven. Perhaps most heartbreaking is the character who is much more physically developed than the other girls in their class. Sadly, she is alienated and taunted because of her early maturity. (I saw this occur on a daily basis when in junior high a more developed girl would get off the bus each day and kids yelled “slut” at her. Adolescents can be awful!)
The film’s era is expertly depicted with furnishings, clothes, props, music, and hair completely in line with the early 1970s. Perhaps it is the specific setting of the film but the school in which Barbara attends seems a bit more racially diverse than what I remember from my early days in suburban Palatine. This is but a minor quibble with the film though.
The cast is excellent, especially Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret. She has a very natural and relatable quality that easily expresses all of the emotions associated with this rough adolescent period. Rachel McAdams also gives a strong and level-headed performance as Barbara. It’s interesting to see her now playing the mother to a young girl almost twenty years after playing a teenager herself in Mean Girls (the period that Margaret is soon to enter.) There’s also no denying the power and presence of Kathy Bates as Margaret’s Jewish grandmother. Bates commands every scene that she is in while equally portraying sensitivity and a dominating matriarch. She is a treasure to have on screen.
If there are any other minor issues with the film it is the lack of development of the male characters. Some barely get a sentence while others (like Margaret’s crush Moose) aren’t given enough time or space to develop. But then this is a film from the point of view of mostly female characters and that is just fine. While I’d say that every mother and daughter and should see this film together, I also think that the tone, humor, and overall familiar situations would be right for male audiences too. The film takes us all into realistic yet often profound directions and that alone is very satisfying.
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret opens this week in local theaters.
FILM: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET
DIRECTED BY KELY FREMON CRAIG
STARRING: ABBY RYDER FORTSON, RACHEL MCADAMS, KATHY BATES
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I know that many people who will see this film are familiar with its origins as a very popular 1970 novel by Judy Blume. That wasn’t the case for me when I saw it. I never read the book nor was it ever on my radar. Perhaps, I wasn’t the target audience as it centers on an 11-year-old about to enter sixth grade girl who meets new challenges when her parents decide to move out of New York City and into the suburbs of New Jersey. Even though young Margaret’s story doesn’t exactly parallel my own experiences, my family also made the move out of a big city (Chicago) and into the suburbs (Palatine) later in the 1970s when I was also in sixth grade. I could completely relate to the anger and anxiety of moving away from my friends to some far-off location that looked nothing like what I was used to. The tight small northwest side urban community I knew was being replaced with a seemingly very sterile environment filled with sameness. This is exactly what Margaret goes through in the initial stages of her uprooting. Like I did at the time, Margaret even prays to an unseen God hoping for each day to end without any strife.
Unlike me though, Margaret immediately becomes part of a small circle of friends who have very strict rules: you can’t wear socks with your shoes and you must rare a bra. This is the beginning of a conform or don’t conform theme that puts not only Margaret but her mother Barbara, played by Rachel McAdams, into a new way of living and being. They both initially decide to follow the “laws” of the new land to fit in. Barbara joins numerous school committees while finding little time for her own passions. This is, after all, what everyone dreams of, right? The perfect house in the perfect white bread community?
It is this and so much more that makes Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret such an interesting and resonate film experience regardless of gender. Both of these characters are trying to find their true authentic self in an environment that wants a certain order and structure. Barbara can’t decide what type of couch to put into her new living room because she’s not sure which era in which to settle: traditional or something more modern. Like Margaret, she spends much of the film trying to find herself. This also relates to the film’s religious themes. Barbara was raised Christian but her husband Herb (Benny Safdie) was raised Jewish. This had created so much tension within the extended family that Barbara became estranged from her own devout Christian parents. Meanwhile, Margaret talks to God but can’t decide which religion to follow or even if she believes in him.
These themes take the film away what could have been a very predictable and shallow coming of age story. It probes questions of conformity and authenticity. This is not a film about teens wanting to party or get laid but about real adolescent (and adult) searching. Margaret and her friends discuss menstruation and chest sizes but all of it is with a lot of vulnerability and wit. There aren’t any over the top slapstick moments here. Rather, the film takes its cue from the more introspective and revealing films such as Bo Burnham’s excellent Eighth Grade where the uncomfortableness of adolescence is palpable and emotionally driven. Perhaps most heartbreaking is the character who is much more physically developed than the other girls in their class. Sadly, she is alienated and taunted because of her early maturity. (I saw this occur on a daily basis when in junior high a more developed girl would get off the bus each day and kids yelled “slut” at her. Adolescents can be awful!)
The film’s era is expertly depicted with furnishings, clothes, props, music, and hair completely in line with the early 1970s. Perhaps it is the specific setting of the film but the school in which Barbara attends seems a bit more racially diverse than what I remember from my early days in suburban Palatine. This is but a minor quibble with the film though.
The cast is excellent, especially Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret. She has a very natural and relatable quality that easily expresses all of the emotions associated with this rough adolescent period. Rachel McAdams also gives a strong and level-headed performance as Barbara. It’s interesting to see her now playing the mother to a young girl almost twenty years after playing a teenager herself in Mean Girls (the period that Margaret is soon to enter.) There’s also no denying the power and presence of Kathy Bates as Margaret’s Jewish grandmother. Bates commands every scene that she is in while equally portraying sensitivity and a dominating matriarch. She is a treasure to have on screen.
If there are any other minor issues with the film it is the lack of development of the male characters. Some barely get a sentence while others (like Margaret’s crush Moose) aren’t given enough time or space to develop. But then this is a film from the point of view of mostly female characters and that is just fine. While I’d say that every mother and daughter and should see this film together, I also think that the tone, humor, and overall familiar situations would be right for male audiences too. The film takes us all into realistic yet often profound directions and that alone is very satisfying.
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret opens this week in local theaters.