Al's Omniflick: Zero Motivation

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Zero Motivation

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Talya Lavie/Starring: Dana Ivgy, Nelly Tagar, Shani Klein, Heli Twito, Meytal Gal and Tamara Klingon

Israeli director Talya Lavie makes her feature debut with Zero Motivation; a charming and funny film that is anything but predictable. Set on a military base in Israel, Lavie's film focuses on women serving in a male-dominated, claustrophobic environment where lack of ambition, sloth and underachievement are the norm but hardly tolerated. The film shows how military life tests a friendship and often the sanity of those who find life in the army absurd.

Dana Ivgy and Nelly Tagar play Zohar and Daffi; two young women enduring time in the military, for which they are laughably ill-suited. Zohar's slacker attitude and disregard for authority doesn't escape the notice of her commanding officer Rama (Shani Klein), who is often exasperated at her office unit's lack of discipline and work ethic. Joining Zohar in her passive hostility is Daffi, who has even less business being on a military base than Zohar. Allergic to everything and categorically incompetent, Daffi's one duty in the base office is to shred documents; an ignominious task she executes with weary resignation. Also sharing office space is Irena (Tamara Klingon), a tough Russian/Israeli who is herself a willing participant in the office's commitment to slackitude. A pair of friends named Livnat and Liat (Heli Twito and Meytal Gal, respectively) annoy their office mates with duets a radio turned up to maximum volume can't drown out.

Daffi's contempt for the base is so acute she will do anything to be reassigned to Tel Aviv; a posting considered cushy and stress-free. Rama is angered when Daffi's written requests for the transfer go above her head. Daffi's earnest efforts to be reassigned also incur Zohar's wrath; who is loathe to be left behind. Daffi learns in time that Zohar has been holding her transfer-request paperwork to ensure her friend remains on the base--and with her.

As Daffi seeks other avenues to re-assignment and Zohar plays marathon games of Minesweeper on the office computer, Rama's zealous pursuit for promotion collides with her subordinate's ferocious indifference.

Lavie's film has been compared to M.A.S.H. for its blend of high-jinks, irreverence, and lampooning of military life and it's all that but it also takes a few darker turns, such as a scene where a young woman posing as a soldier sneaks on base to see her former lover; only to be jilted. Tragedy follows soon after as the young woman follows a grim, self-destructive course.

Though the story is about the women in the office, the story's narrower focus is Zohar and Daffi's friendship and how it is sorely challenged by their diverging goals. Zohar becomes resentful of her friend after Daffi joins the officer training program. Though being hysterically unqualified for command, Daffi believes the program provides a surer route to a Tel Aviv posting (after written requests fail). Meanwhile, Zohar's attempt to sleep with any man on the base (prompted by Irena's boasting about having lost her virginity) meets with near disaster when her would-be lover becomes dangerously aggressive.

In time, Zohar, Rama and Daffi find their goals (or lack thereof in Zohar's case) achieve varying degrees of success. For Daffi, said success comes in an ironic, roundabout way while Rama finds her efforts are mostly wasted.

Lavie shows a sure hand with her script; balancing comedic and dramatic tones.

Zero Motivation has garnered ample attention abroad, in Israel and elsewhere; deservedly so. It offers a twist on military life, with a female perspective that is refreshingly free of feminist agendas.

Unfortunately the film won't make it to most local cinemas; I was very lucky to catch it as part of Jewish film series at a theater close to home. I don't know how it will play on DVD, where most viewers will be forced to view it, but the film's appeal should make the transition intact.

Films like Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem and Zero Motivation alert the world to Israel's robust, cinematic output. But we're also made aware of a new talent, a director with strong, storytelling instincts and directorial command. If this is only her first film, I can't imagine what else she'll accomplish in the years ahead.

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On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.