Rent Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023)

Fantastic feel-good film - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. review by giantrolo

A funny coming-of-age story about Margaret, who goes on an exciting journey to find her faith. Great performances from the entire cast, especially Kathy Bates as the Jewish grandma! Definitely recommended.

Wonderful for teens ! - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. review by CS

This movie is a very watchable teen movie, especially for girls. It outlines all aspects of growing up,

street cred and the changes of the human body during 'teen years'. Very funny in places & informative

with a good storyline. Sadly, had nothing like this when I was growing up !

Undemanding adaptation of Judy Blume's novel - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. review by PD

Well, first off you'll have to have a heart of stone not to enjoy much of this one. But as an adaptation of Judy Blume’s landmark 1970 young adult novel it's rather too undemanding. That's not to say it isn't broadly faithful to the book, in which of course an 11-year-old girl talks freely to the reader, and God, about the anxieties, fantasies and contradictions tripping her up on the path to maturity, and preteen Margaret’s concerns are timeless — peer pressure, crushes, menstruation, faith, and so on. But Blume treated them seriously, neither passing judgment on her protagonist’s immature mistakes, nor over-dramatising, whilst this adaptation, written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, rather shies away from putting the funny, flawed and all-too-realistic Margaret on screen exactly as she is. Today, inevitably, it’s not enough to be representative: Margaret must be a role model, too, and the result is rather too much sentimental artificiality at the expense of the messy realities, although it's fair to say also that young audiences may not miss some of the original novel’s more honest truths, especially as they’ve been trained to expect tidy stories where protagonists fix their faults and here even (gasp!) assure the adults in the film that they’re raising them just fine.

Abby Ryder Fortson gives us a convincing performance as Margaret, who spends the entire film in flux, notably when it comes to religious faith, a vacuum she attempts to resolve by visiting various Jewish temples and Christian churches and chatting with her loose concept of a deity. “I’ve heard great things about you,” she says in her first prayer. On top of all this is the sudden adjustment to suburban lawns and sprinkler parties, and her new friends’ fixation with the signposts of womanhood. The bossy ringleader Nancy (Elle Graham) adds a welcome burst of energy to proceedings, insisting that Margaret and pals Gretchen and Janie must wear bras — even as Nancy meanly gossips about the one developed girl in sixth grade, a wallflower named Laura, who towers over the class like a poppy among dandelions (the erratic roll-out of puberty is well-depicted). The standout scenes are the ones involving the friendships, and there's a great and all too-brief scene involving a class film on “menstroo-ation,” as over-enunciated by its host. But here, annoyingly, the film snips out novel Margaret’s outrage to discover that the lecture was “like one big commercial” for a line of feminine products, vowing to never buy the brand when her period starts. Can't today's children absorb a little of Margaret’s anti-corporate cynicism? However, Craig does a good job cutting to each of the girls’ faces as they gaze at the presentation in horror, hope, and suspicion. Still, it only intermittently feels like we’re observing this world through a child’s eyes. Instead, the running time is padded with a wholly unnecessary subplot about Margaret's mother's struggle to adjust to becoming a stay-at-home housewife, especially since her daughter barely seems to register it at all. All in all, as charming as the film is in its best moments, it’s hard not to be frustrated as it backpedals from the book’s awareness that not all wrongs are righted. Sometimes, our heroines might stay friends with bullies. Sometimes they might run from conflict and never explain themselves. Sometimes, they might even hurt people without making amends. Welcome to life's realities.