{"id":7689,"date":"2022-05-30T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T13:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/?p=7689"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:14:59","slug":"the-songs-of-war-and-alpha-yankee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/the-songs-of-war-and-alpha-yankee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Songs of War and Alpha Yankee"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAYDAY<\/a> – a film by Karen Cinorre<\/a> – SPOILERS<\/h4>\n
\"Mia<\/a>

Mia Goth as Marsha<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

This feminist fable is set in the psyche of Anastasia<\/strong> (Grace Van Patten<\/a>), and as the story begins we find Ana waking up after a friend (Dimitri<\/strong>, played by Th\u00e9odore Pellerin<\/a>) knocks on her car window. (She has been sleeping in her car outside the restaurant where she works.) The restaurant is preparing to host a wedding; a severe storm is approaching; and, for Ana, the everyday horrors of her existence will soon give way to the comparatively subdued horrors of warfare. Co-worker Dimitri, who will be performing at the wedding, points out to Ana that he still needs a singer.<\/p>\n

ANA:<\/strong> “Don’t look at me.”<\/em>
\nDIMITRI:<\/strong> “You’re a natural.”<\/em>
\nANA:<\/strong> “I’m not that kind of girl, Dimitri.”<\/em>
\nDIMITRI:<\/strong> “Never had much luck with the ladies.”<\/em> <\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/a>

Through an oven, Anastasia<\/strong> enters the world of the Sirens<\/p><\/div>\n

During preparations for the wedding we are introduced to The Headwaiter<\/strong> (the film’s primary antagonist, played by Frano Mascovic<\/a>), a kindly chef named Max<\/strong> (Zlatco Buric<\/a>), The Groom<\/strong> (Hyoie O’Grady<\/a>) who is fawned over by The Headwaiter, The Bride<\/strong> who is ignored by everyone except Ana, and a Wedding Photographer<\/strong> (Nathaniel Allen<\/em>) who takes Ana’s picture and asks her who she is. (“I’m nobody,”<\/em> she responds.) There is also a mysterious Bathroom Attendant<\/strong> (Juliette Lewis<\/a>) who comforts (?) the unhappy bride-to-be, saying: “I know it feels like a nightmare. That’s normal.”<\/em> <\/p>\n

The power goes out after a particularly unpleasant encounter with The Headwaiter, and Ana takes the opportunity to flee to the basement to throw the breaker. Sparks fly when she does, and she is drawn toward a kitchen oven by a woman’s voice repeating a distress call, and, like an unusually cooperative version of Gretel<\/a>, begins to climb inside. Almost immediately, she finds herself adrift in the ocean. <\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/a>

Marsha<\/b> teaches Anastasia<\/b> to shoot.<\/p><\/div>\n

She washes up on the rocky shore of an island populated by Sirens whose Mayday call has twofold use: to lure sailors to their deaths, and to save those like Anastasia from themselves. The Sirens are Marsha<\/strong> (Mia Goth<\/a>), Bea<\/strong> (Havana Rose Liu<\/a>), and Gert<\/strong> (Soko<\/a>). They are an organized, paramilitary group perpetually at war with an unknown foe. Of the three, it is Marsha who gets the most memorable lines. (e.g. after hearing that Ana has had a bad dream, Marsha attempts to reassure the newcomer: “All your dreams will die soon enough,”<\/em> she says.) We also learn that Marsha is an empiricist.<\/p>\n

MARSHA:<\/strong> “New stars are born all the time. Some girls say, if they become too powerful, they collapse and disappear, but I don’t believe that.”<\/em>
\nANA:<\/strong> “Why not?”<\/em>
\nMARSHA:<\/strong> “Because it’s never happened here.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Gert<\/a>

Soko as Gert<\/strong>. She and the other Sirens reside in an abandoned WWII submarine<\/p><\/div>\n

The three Sirens are stylized versions of characters often seen in films about war. Marsha<\/strong> literally means “from the god Mars”. She remembers everything from her previous life, and fits the Crazed Colonel<\/em> role very well. Gert<\/strong> means “strong, like a spear” and is (fondly) described by her comrades as “thickheaded”, making her the Gruff Sergeant<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Bea<\/strong> (“blessed voyager”), whose past life experience is not spoken of by the others, makes a great Shell-shocked Grunt<\/em>, and Anastasia<\/strong> (The Cadet<\/em>), whose name translates as “resurrection”, finds it hard to fit in, and is increasingly conflicted about her new surroundings. (Mia Goth also portrays the downtrodden bride-to-be mentioned earlier, so Marsha is the only one of the three Sirens to occur in both of Ana’s realities. Bea and Gert only exist on the island.) <\/p>\n

\"Zlatko<\/a>

Chef Max<\/strong> (Zlatko Buri\u0107<\/a>) pays Ana<\/strong> a visit on Siren Island. While Anastasia is napping he is sent away by Marsha, reinforcing Ana’s alienation from the place.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anastasia’s alienation intensifies. Dead soldiers join her in an interestingly choreographed (by Petra Hra\u0161\u0107anec<\/a>) dance to an instrumental version of LOVE IS BLUE (performed by Liberace<\/a>), and Max shows up to offer her a drink and say: “I want to be someplace without a war”<\/em>, and then “maybe we should go home.”<\/em> <\/p>\n

When Ana explains to Gert that she now remembers everything, Gert tells her “you definitely don’t belong here.” Then Ana (who is monitoring the radio) gets a new response to the group’s perpetual Mayday, and she recognizes the responder as Dimitri because he repeats: “Never had much luck with the ladies<\/em>” (He said this earlier, outside the restaurant.) <\/p>\n

DIMITRI:<\/strong> “You should get off the radio now and just let me go.”<\/em>
\nANA:<\/strong> “I can’t do that.”<\/em>
\nDIMITRI:<\/strong> “Why not?”<\/em>
\nANA:<\/strong> “Because I’m not that kind of girl.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Present in both of Ana’s worlds are: he headwaiter<\/strong> (Franco Maskovic<\/a>), who is also the submarine captain; the bride-to-be<\/strong> (Mia Goth), who is also Marsha; and the Washroom Attendant<\/strong> (Juliette Lewis<\/a>), who doubles as the mysterious June<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For everyone but Marsha, Ana’s return becomes the mission. Marsha is quite upset that Ana wants to leave, and (even if one does not entirely agree with her) emphatically delivers the best lines<\/strong> of the film. “I made you into a hero,”<\/em> she screams, and when Ana responds “You made me into a psychopath,”<\/em> Marsha (still screaming) explains: “It’s the same thing.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Havana<\/a>

Bea<\/strong> (Havana Rose Liu<\/a>) and Ana<\/strong> (Grace Van Patten<\/a>) \u2014 Liu is also Bailey<\/strong> in Josephine Decker\u2018s musical romance THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

That’s the important stuff, but the ending is still some distance away. There’s a water ballet number still to come, and Ana must fight a riptide to make her (poetic) exit from Siren Island. <\/p>\n

Questions arise as to whether the island and its population continue to exist after Ana’s departure. Aircraft and weather balloons are involved, and Ana, who couldn’t swim when she arrived, leaves the Sirens’ world a “strong swimmer”. <\/p>\n

Writer\/director Cinorre wrote in the October 2021 issue of Harper’s Bazaar<\/a>: “My vision for making this movie was always clear: I wanted to show that even in a world saturated by violence, there are still new ways to examine it and the complicated role it plays in our lives. And I was determined to not give one more frame of film to the depiction of female bodies being brutalized. We don\u2019t want to die or be victimized onscreen over and over in horrific ways. We want films that speak to our own struggles with violence, and characters who surprise and inspire us. We are done with all the dreary cliches. We are ready for more.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

MAYDAY can be streamed on NETFLIX<\/a>, and is available on DVD & Blu-Ray<\/a>.<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAYDAY – a film by Karen Cinorre – SPOILERS This feminist fable is set in the psyche of Anastasia (Grace Van Patten), and as the story begins we find Ana waking up after a friend (Dimitri, played by Th\u00e9odore Pellerin) …<\/span> <\/p>\n

+<\/p>\n

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