There wouldn’t appear to be any greater den of sin than the Catholic school where John Santucci (Jake Ryan) has been sent to set him straight in “Lemonade Blessing,” and despite hard-nosed instructors who insist on punctuality and an extraordinarily chaste lifestyle, the hormonal teens are bound to stream porn on their phones as part of lunchtime conversation and talk in general can be filthy when many of the students are suppressing some kind of urge. In Chris Merola’s delightfully depraved debut, John may have some wayward thoughts, but enrollment in such a strict institution is more likely to send him down the wrong path when the only reason he’s there in the first place is because of an overprotective and devoutly religious mother (Jeanine Seralles) who wants to make sure the fallout from divorcing his father (Todd Gearhart) leaves no impact on him and rather than the largely impervious faculty making an impression, he’s left to the influence of his peers who are all desperately in search of their true identity as much as he is.
All of the characters may be looking for direction in the caustic comedy, but first-time director Merola shows considerable command of what’s happening on screen as John stumbles his way into a relationship with Rachel (Skye Alyssa Friedman), a classmate he knows to be trouble from their first encounter when she sets him up to take a fall in front of the school’s headmistress for sitting at the wrong desk. It’s only the start of a precipitous slide that continues when he decides to ask her out, instantly overwhelmed by her Machiavellian mind and sexual urges when he thinks he’s the uncontrollable one, and it’s one of many questionable influences fighting for his attention when his parents are consumed with restarting their own lives. When Catholic guilt and a steady diet of video games are the only other things shaping his behavior, it’s an open question where he’ll end up.
If the coming-of-age tale inevitably is touched by nostalgia in all of its details from a not-so-distant past, it is tempered by a shadowy tint that shows how dangerous a moment John finds himself in where anxiety runs high every moment of the day and as he finds his own path towards exorcising his demons that may or may not involve religion, the film cuts across all denominations to reflect how treacherous being a teen can be. Ryan and Friedman are almost disconcertingly convincing as John and Rachel, who engage in very adult activities before either would be allowed into an R-rated movie, and get the mix just right of blissful ignorance and deep distrust that leads to a volatile first love, simultaneously thrilling and nerve-wracking as they realize they have only one another to get what they need at this particular moment in time.
Beyond the cast adding just the right amount of poison to the deliciously barbed repartee that rolls off their tongues, Merola also gets the full benefit of cinematographer Harrison Kraft’s lightly bruised lensing with just enough black around the edges of the frame to disabuse anyone of looking back at this time with rose-colored glasses. However, “Lemonade Blessing” turns any bitterness into something sweet as it reminds of what survival in that era entails and by the mere fact of being able to watch it, it’s seen as a miracle you or anyone else survived.
“Lemonade Blessing” will screen at the Tribeca Festival at the SVA Theatre on June 5th at 7:15 pm and the Village East on June 6th at 9 pm, June 14th at 6 pm and June 15th at 11:15 am.