Film Review: Memorial DayUnpleasant concoction attempting to link soldiers on a drunken, sex-filled holiday beach leave with their horrific, sadistic behavior at an Abu Ghraib-like Iraqi prison is literally nauseating, no thanks to camerawork gone wild.Feb 3, 2009, 02:24 PM ET
Where to begin? There’s no story. Instead, the film is bifurcated into two equally unwatchable parts. Part one has a wild bunch of young men and women drinking, cursing, bragging, mating, bashing, talking real dirty and abusing others at a beach resort, apparently as they film themselves home-movie-style. There’s an abrupt changeover to part two, wherein we rediscover these lovelies as American soldiers in the Iraq War, as they put Iraqi prison captives through the demeaning rituals familiar from the Abu Ghraib reportage and visuals. At least these kids can grab some r-and-r time playing with toy weapons. The non-story aside, Memorial Day also delivers no character development. Names are never mentioned, though a “Nick” does pop up. As lazy as a film can be, it offers characters that are no more than the sum of their infantilism, sexual outrageousness, cruelty, lumpenness, narcissism and sheer stupidity. If the filmmakers insist on giving us soldiers as monsters, shouldn’t we get at least a little insight, a teensy clue into how such affronts to our species happen? The film’s most egregious failing is its cinematography, so relentlessly jumpy, nervous and random it makes that of The Blair Witch Project look positively, serenely Steadicammed. Yes, the film’s gimmick is to present its visuals as if they are home movies. But viewers, leaving their seats with a fetid aftertaste, will also take home a headache and feelings of nausea. The film is about torture, but it is torture to watch. The Mondo Cane approach of Memorial Day goes no deeper than superficial, porn-like shock and titillation. Qualities most valued by intelligent filmgoers have gone AWOL here. Film Review: Memorial DayUnpleasant concoction attempting to link soldiers on a drunken, sex-filled holiday beach leave with their horrific, sadistic behavior at an Abu Ghraib-like Iraqi prison is literally nauseating, no thanks to camerawork gone wild.Feb 3, 2009, 02:24 PM ET
The press invitation for the feature film debut of “New York theatre artist” turned director/writer/cinematographer/editor Josh Fox alerted that Memorial Day is “from the producers of Maria Full of Grace and Half Nelson.” Well, nuts to that. While the latter two films were critically hailed indie hits, Memorial Day, a superficial, violent collision of “Girls Gone Wild” and Brian De Palma’s failed faux war doc Redacted, is a whole other film-in-the-can of worms.
Where to begin? There’s no story. Instead, the film is bifurcated into two equally unwatchable parts. Part one has a wild bunch of young men and women drinking, cursing, bragging, mating, bashing, talking real dirty and abusing others at a beach resort, apparently as they film themselves home-movie-style. There’s an abrupt changeover to part two, wherein we rediscover these lovelies as American soldiers in the Iraq War, as they put Iraqi prison captives through the demeaning rituals familiar from the Abu Ghraib reportage and visuals. At least these kids can grab some r-and-r time playing with toy weapons. The non-story aside, Memorial Day also delivers no character development. Names are never mentioned, though a “Nick” does pop up. As lazy as a film can be, it offers characters that are no more than the sum of their infantilism, sexual outrageousness, cruelty, lumpenness, narcissism and sheer stupidity. If the filmmakers insist on giving us soldiers as monsters, shouldn’t we get at least a little insight, a teensy clue into how such affronts to our species happen? The film’s most egregious failing is its cinematography, so relentlessly jumpy, nervous and random it makes that of The Blair Witch Project look positively, serenely Steadicammed. Yes, the film’s gimmick is to present its visuals as if they are home movies. But viewers, leaving their seats with a fetid aftertaste, will also take home a headache and feelings of nausea. The film is about torture, but it is torture to watch. The Mondo Cane approach of Memorial Day goes no deeper than superficial, porn-like shock and titillation. Qualities most valued by intelligent filmgoers have gone AWOL here.
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