“M*A*S*H” meets “Mean Girls” on the way to “Office Space”? A pair of apolitical young female soldiers at an artillery base in the south of Israel long to escape their remote posting as well as the inanities of military bureaucracy in Talya Lavie’s smart, cheeky comedy, “Zero Motivation.” The comic results are mixed, but Lavie knows her way around the topic of boredom, and co-stars Dana Ivgy and Nelly Tagar’s expressive reactions to a world of tedium, without promise, offer wide-eyed relief as “Zero Motivation” grows increasingly dark. A prizewinner for Narrative World Cinema at the Tribeca Film Festival. With Shani Klein, Heli Twito. 100m. (Ray Pride)
“Zero Motivation” opens Friday, December 26 at the Music Box.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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