Navigating a sometimes hostile world on the basis of sex can be a treacherous terrain for many young women. From an early age, many are forced to make choices as to how they’ll handle such hostility, with the carrot or the stick. A new film that plays out like a third wave feminist version of The Wizard of Oz delves into the different responses that patriarchal treatment drives women toward and the consequences of both.
Young hotel worker Ana (Grace Van Patten) finds herself transported to a dreamlike and dangerous land where she joins an army of girls engaged in a never-ending war of luring men to their remote island through radio transmissions, led by their intense leader Marsha (Mia Goth). The group teaches Ana to engage in combat and join them in their brutal game and she soon finds strength in this exhilarating world. Yet, after spending more time with the group and witnessing Marsha’s increasingly authoritarian hold over everyone, she soon realizes that she’s not the killer they want her to be.
Mayday is a highly metaphorical film, certain to remind some viewers of Zack Snyder’s polarizing 2011 film Sucker Punch. Borrowing elements from Homer’s Odyssey, the aforementioned Wizard of Oz, and fairy tales in general, writer/director Karen Cinorre has crafted a story that is one part feminist revenge fantasy, one part feminist wish fulfillment. The group of young women who attack every man who has the misfortune of landing on their island are not doing so for the pure brutality of it, but instead they are women who have been made to feel powerless within their circumstances and are now getting the opportunity to experience having those tables turned. In attacking these men, the group fields the opportunity to prey upon and mistreat men the way that they’ve experienced being treated for so long. This is of course alluring for Ana at first, coming from our own world where she is disregarded and mistreated as a young female service worker in a hotel, but Marsha’s sadistic and controlling streak coupled with the indiscriminate killing of innocents soon sours her on life on the island.
And thus, Ana’s conundrum is an attempt at a statement on what women in our own world face as they simultaneously must deal with the monstrous behavior of a minority of men that while small in number are powerful in the damage they can potentially cause their female counterparts and with the majority of men who are not that way but are impossible to discern from the others on the surface. Ana is at first seduced to cope with it in the same way as the thematic yang to her yin in Marsha, through violent, retributive misandry, but discovers that in embracing the hatred and brutality of misogynists, Marsha has simply become another oppressor, particularly for those who pose threats to her as Ana develops into. Through their juxtaposition, we’re presented through Ana and Marsha the two paths available to women in how they respond to the patriarchy and what the effect of each could be; clarity or growing to become that which you’ve hated. Van Patten and Goth portray the differences in both characters capably, Goth in particular who is incredible in an intense and at times terrifying performance, conveying the message clearly though not always interestingly.
Cinorre’s background as music video director is on full display in Mayday, both in positive and negative ways. The film is a delight visually, featuring very good, brilliantly colored, and eye-catching cinematography that captures the lush, pristine coastal landscape of its island setting. The way that Cinorre and director of photography Sam Levy also frame the actresses’ beautifully in both the light and in the film’s nightscape shots must be commended and mentioned. Despite the visual mastery here, the film’s narrative can be a bit tedious for large chunks of its runtime, lacking much tension until the ultimate conflict between Ana and Marsha and at times featuring some head scratching internal logic and timelines due to Ana’s numerous flashback dreams. Jumping straight into existential fantasy for your first foray into feature films is a tall task and Karen Cinorre largely does a decent job. Still, the film’s positive elements don’t outweigh its flaws enough to make this one a must see.
Image: Magnolia Pictures
