This is quite the week for female filmmakers putting their stamp on the world we live in, circa 2021, and in particular how our global society considers women. There is Titane (full review here) from writer-director Julia Ducournau and Karen Cinorre’s Mayday. Cinorre also wrote and directed the fantasy/action/look at gender wars film that lands in theaters.
When we meet Ana (Grace Van Patten), she is working as a server for a locale that hosts weddings and events. Her boss is less than kind to her, even insinuating she needs to put on makeup for him to be able to even look at her.
Before you know it, she is “transported” to a seaside landscape where she becomes part of an army of women of seem to be fighting a never-ending war against men. She surprises herself with how she is able to inhabit the soul of a soldier in a kill or be killed world. This particular quartet of women—led by Mia Goth’s Marsha—utilizes the radio to lure men to their deaths, like a Fab Four of 20th-century sirens. There’s also the random paratrooper that has the misfortune of falling into their web.
Not once do we the viewer question the world that Cinorre has created. We are firmly embedded with Ana, Marsha, Gert (Soko), and Bea (Havana Rose Liu) as they fight the good fight and never wonder what or where this world is, much less how it fits into reality—whatever that means. They live and operate out of a beached German submarine from World War II. This is a war. That aspect drives the narrative, but at the same time, there are numerous connections between the world we were quickly introduced to at the beginning of the film and the one where we spend a majority of our time. Characters appear in both worlds. Could there be a Wizard of Oz thing going on here?
Mayday doesn’t provide all the answers, nor do we expect it to—but it should have an anchor. Cinorre has a ball with the women at war aspect of the film. There is a get lost in this world feel to this land the filmmaker has created. Almost to a fault. The movie meanders while it’s establishing bonds between four women. Yes, it is enjoyable to witness. But that punch to the gut that could have occurred with the entire concept—particularly timely with the #MeToo movement and the rights of women being threatened in a very real way from Texas to Afghanistan—never quite happens.
Van Patten (probably most recognized by Under the Silver Lake) straddles a line here that finds her questioning why she’s been thrown into this war. Perhaps she isn’t the warrior these women want her to be—even though she is good at it. The film also explores the concepts of what is expected of us and how that does not jive with who we are at our core. There is an awakening and a payoff that should have been seismic emotively. Instead, it just kind of is… what it is. Van Patten does a remarkable job with what she is given. One can sense her urgency through body language, and much is delivered by how she even holds herself. But it does not come through with what her character says via the script.
Goth (Emma., A Cure for Wellness) is an interesting choice to serve as the de facto leader of this quartet. That urgency that should be felt from the subject matter alone, doesn’t even come through via the group’s head. She too does her absolute best to channel the overall message of Mayday, but the lines she’s tasked with delivering don’t add up to moving that audience emotive meter one inch.
This film is a perfect example of what happens when a concept is seemingly custom-made for our current cultural landscape and something gets lost along the way. Somehow, the impact of its potential power was muted. Cinorre shows that she has a creative mind that knows no bounds. Somehow, the promise that was on the page failed to materialize. Don’t get me wrong, Mayday is an enjoyable film, it’s just there is potential for it to be so much more.
Grade: B-