Quick Reaction: Mayday

In her debut feature, Karen Cinorre has a cool idea that she doesn't seem to know what to do with. Grace Van Patten plays a mistreated restaurant employee named Ana who one day stumbles onto this fantasy world where a war of the sexes is raging. After crawling through an oven for some reason to get there and washing up on a beach, she's taken in by a trio of female soldiers led by Mia Goth's Marsha. These women work out of a washed-up U-boat where they send out distress signals to men on other vessels, eager to rescue helpless women. This is a trap though, and the women sink the oncoming vessels. Meanwhile, they have to fight men from around the island who come to assault and rape them. There's an obvious feminist message to the movie and I wish it was more subtle than its sledge-hammer-to-the-head approach. It plays like an older female version of Where the Wild Things Are but with no nuance. I got the message in about 10 minutes, and the rest was window dressing.

 

It's great window dressing though. This movie has a cool visual style. It really uses the beach and the army gear well. I'd love to visit this world for a different movie. Grace Van Patten, while not passive in the movie, is the least interesting character. I've seen her in a few movies and I'm still trying to figure out who she is. Right now, she's just someone you cast when Shailene Woodley is a little too old for the role. Frankly, I would've loved a lot more Juliette Lewis in the movie. She's the only one on the island who feels like she's lived a life. All the other actresses are just playacting by comparison.

 

I really wanted to like Mia Goth more in this. Marsha is supposed to be the breakout character of this. She's the charismatic leader and the dominant personality of the group. Goth just doesn't have that charisma on screen. Not yet, at least.

 

Mayday is not a bad movie. I had no trouble watching it. It often sucked me in with the visuals. There's an odd musical number in the middle that I want to watch several more times even though I don't get the point of it. Karen Cinorre has chops. I'd love to see what she could do with another person's script, or maybe with this first feature under her belt to prove she can do it, she'll expand her story for future screenplays. Either way, I'm interested in what she does next.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend