Finding truth in the absurd and writing what you know are so often two rules that filmmakers adhere to, and both apply heartily for writer/director Chris Merola, who speaks his veracity in Lemonade Blessing, a coming-of-age dramedy centred around religion and how one responds to its pressures.
Inspired by his own childhood growing up under the education of a Catholic High School, and the sexual shame that can come with wanting to explore an aspect your very institution wants you to deny, Merola laces Lemonade Blessing with an awkward relatability, wholly embodied by Jake Ryan as emerging teenager John. Unable to even explore his blossoming hormones in the comfort of his own home – his devout mother (Jeanine Serralles) seemingly watching over him with a discomforting concern – John immediately responds to the defying mentality of fellow student Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman), who confuses him just as much as she excites him with her sexual confidence.
As much as she seems to be initially painted as “the bad girl”, Merola’s script is far kinder and weightier towards Lilith’s psyche, and Friedman throws herself wholeheartedly into portraying a young woman who is just as confused as John, only with a more outward projection of anger and faux confidence she can hide behind. Despite some of the borderline cruel things she makes John do – “lemonade blessing” makes much more sense in context – we understand why the lad buckles to her will, and because Merola allows us to also understand her point of view, their push and pull has a genuine sense of authenticity to it beyond a mere comical set-up.
High school-set films around sexual awakenings and the pressure of losing virginity is not a new road travelled, but Lemonade Blessing, whilst not reinventing the wheel, is aware that taking a different route never hurts, and so in a narrative that easily could have adopted an American Pie/Superbad-type temperament, Merola chooses to be more grounded, even as the situations lean on comical exaggeration; what it does have in common with those aforementioned films, especially Superbad, is that Ryan and Friedman hone an undeniable charm and spark that makes you feel like you’re watching the emerging of a duo of major stars in the making, ala Michael Cera and Emma Stone.
Proudly standing against the toxic environment of masculinity that many teenagers are falling prey to, Lemonade Blessing ultimately becomes less about the sexual exploration of its characters, but if they’ll transcend the wounds of their youth that can so easily tie them to an institutionalised way of thinking. It’s a film to make teenagers feel better about their own skin and their curiosities, and for those of us that survived the cumbersome existence of such to reflect upon coming out the other side of it all.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Lemonade Blessing is screening as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, running between June 4th and 15th, 2025. For more information on the festival, head to the official site here.
