Movie Review: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

With an instantly catchy title, you know this movie will, at worst, be safely entertaining and at best, feel-good fun to watch.

Set in 1970 New York (briefly) and New Jersey, Are You There, God?, tells a smartly-written and instantly engaging coming-of-age story of a pre-pubescent girl confronted by the existential issues of bras/boys, period/parents and friends/faith peculiar to that defining age-bracket.

Newly-relocated from her familiar settings of New York to the less-desired suburbs of New Jersey, these issues confront our protagonist with a starkness both teens and adults can relate with.

The period-authenticty of the movie's story timeline is heightened by the costumes, nostalgically-detailed set pieces and music.

It's script is simple, shorn of overly-wrought complexity and distracting socially-conscious issues (like today's non-binary and gender-inclusive soap-box fodders) but brilliantly written.

To complement the script, the cast delivers honest and winsome performances that are as endearing as they are relatable.

Stand-out performances came from Abby Ryder Fortson who portrayed the titular Margaret with engaging and relatable aplomb.

As her mother, Barbara, Rachel McAdams delivered a deliciously-nuanced performance that almost displaces Ryder Fortson's Margaret as the movie's focus character.

Appreciative mention goes to Kathy Bate's smart-quipping but doting grandmother, Sylvia, delivered in Bate's signature commanding tone.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is an honest, relatable and endearing rendering of the universal existential issues that confronted virtually everyone's pre-pubescent years in the halcyon days of simpler times past. 7.5/10