SKYE ALYSSA FRIEDMAN AND JAKE RYAN IN LEMONADE BLESSING (DIR. CHRIS MEROLA)
TRAILER
Catholic school drollery
Chris Merola's very funny and sharp coming-of-age-Catholic comedy is in a class with with Wes Anderson's Rushmore or Burr Steers' Igby Goes Down.. Avi Offer commented that "John looks a lot like Max Fischer from Rushmore," referring to the central character, John Santucci, played by the excellent Jake Ryan. Ryan played Gabe in Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade and was in three Wes Anderson films, Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Isle of Dogs (2018) and Asteroid City (2023). He could even be a slightly less nimble Kieran Culkin. The difference is that John is in a Catholic school, and everything consequently is a lot more blunt-instrument: the penalties are reinforced by the Pope. Not that there is no crossover: for example, Kieran Culkin played a Catholic school misfit in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Lemonade Blessing may not be as subtle as those other films, but it's a serious confrontation of Catholicism in the life of a sexually developing 15-year-old boy in 2012, and it plays like gangbusters.
John's hilarious and fiendish girlfriend Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman) is a quiet handful. She elicits constant demonstrations of love from him before she'll put out, like saying "Fuck Jesus" and burning a Bible; only the foulest blasphemies will please her and he grants them - and yet he's a believer, if with occasional doubts. John is glad to oblige her but the wages of sin makes it a strenuous effort.
We're laughing, but they're not playing. Even the most rebellious Catholic must struggle to blaspheme, and face hell. This is what gives an edge to Merola's comedy but also an innocence. Unlike Igby, who respects nothing, John is not rich and privileged, though his divorced parents can afford to send him to a private parochial school. The common thread: the youth is in revolt against a world that's unfair. He will stand his ground, with the ultimate weapon the author's wit and our sympathy. This may be challenged as Lilith's extortions of blasphemous actions from John to gain more and more intimacy become more extreme than funny and alter the tone. "Didn't know you were that kinky," John writes back (they negotiate by note). Then she modifies her request, but it's still a serious sacrilege.
In front of the hall lockers at school Lilith shows him a book entitled I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You saying "It's a little cheesy but, I don't know, I really like it" and he says "I like the title." It's thrown out there.
Lilith's demands work the relationship up to a fever pitch. "Why can't I just love you"" John asks. "Why do I have to steal and burn things?" (She makes him pee on a communion wafer.) "That's the only time I'm doing anything!" she replies. If this starts to feel over the top, John's relationship with his mother also is very intense, borderline inappropriate in its level of intimacy. The more intimate scenes are heightened by being shot in extreme closeup. We don't see very much of John's father, Pete (Todd Gearhart). That's the point: he's a largely disconnected, passive, and inattentive parent who isn't a very strong opposing force for the boy, though John reaches out to him.
Despite variations in tone, the film works very well from scene to scene. These sparkle with their background: the world created by the Catholic Church: the teachers; the helpful Brother Phil, played by Nigerian drummer Michael Oloyede; the smug and distant school supervisor Mrs. Groff (Barbara Rosenblat); John's several male buddies in class, especially the glib, fast-talking Antonio (Miles J. Harvey), who constantly give him advice on how to proceed with Lilith when they're virgins whose primary knowledge of sex comes from porn. Jake Ryan is a strong actor who rises above the noise around him staying focused on his own inner struggle, while in more intimate scenes with Lilith and his mother he reveals successively deeper layers. The last scene with his mom shows. she accepts him whether he's who she wanted or not. The final scene shows John breathing deeply in a chapel and waving to Brother Phil, who has been his guide. It stops there. No resolution: life isn't an unfinished business. Some of the humor that brightened the earlier scenes of Lemonade Blessing is undermined by these serious later scenes and elements, but they're obviously intentional. A very promising feature debut for Merola.
Lemonade Blessing,, 100 mins., premiered at Tribeca Jun. 5, 2025, showing also at Newport, Mannheim, and Stockholm. US theatrical release begins Aug. 16, 2026.