Zero Motivation tells the story of young women performing their mandatory service with the Israel Defense Forces, stationed in the administration office of an isolated desert base. In an effort to make their time more tolerable, they resort to singing, finetuning their Minesweeper skills, and keeping their treasured staple guns well hidden, among other things. The film, which is divided into three stories, swings between dry comedy and impactful drama. It is well written, beautifully photographed, and well-acted, but could have had more punch had the characters been more clearly developed. Despite this minor criticism, Zero Motivation is a solid debut for promising first-time director Talya Lavie.

This is writer-director Talya Lavie's Israeli answer to M*A*S*H, a dark comedy more about bureaucracy than war, except insofar as it includes an epic staple-gun battle. Dana Ivgy and Nelly Tagar put in fine performances as friends in a desert camp's administrative unit.

amazing. amazing. amazing. totally unforgettable. loved every moment of it.

The Rotten Tomatoes description for this film is inaccurate, and the film is highly overrated. Neither I nor my two friends found the film funny at all, there was nothing "quick witted" about it, and overall it was dark and depressing. We stopped watching it about half-way through. None of the top critics' reviews raved about it either. We would give it a rating no higher than 40%. It was neither entertaining, humorous, nor gripping.

So much potential wasted on two bratty leads.

A darkly comic military satire that offers new dimensions and exciting characters.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!!

excellent, precise, wonderful actresses

Portraying several sides of the Israel Defense Forces not often seen, I feel like this one has a good amount of wasted potential. Odd storytelling choices mask the solid underlying metaphor and a few narrative miscues blunder some beautiful mini-arcs. As enjoyable as this was, it feels remarkably incomplete. Still, highly watchable.

You need a cock, ASAP. Zero Motivation depicts life as females in the Israeli military being trained to become soldiers. Once they complete training, they can be released back into civilization, but they just need to survive the constant harassment from their sergeants. Life amongst each other can get testy too. "You want to ruin your life?" "You already have." Talya Lavie delivers Zero Motivation in her directorial debut. The storyline for this picture is interesting and unique. The characters are well written and placed in some interesting circumstances. The acting is also solid and better than you may anticipate. These films can often be carried by one or two solid performances but this cast was fairly solid. "Eat standing up like a horse." I recently came across this on Netflix and decided to give it a shot. This was okay and worth a viewing. I enjoyed the character interactions and ultimate conclusion. This may not be a must own, but it's worth seeing once. "You thought you could fuck anything?" Grade: C+

Non-Israelis may not understand everything that goes on here, but it does paint a different picture of the experiences women have during their compulsory military service in Israel. It's funny, serious, odd, and not at all kind to powers that be.

Supposedly a comedy, but didn't find much that was funny. More mean spirited than I was expecting, several of the characters are at least mostly unlikable throughout, and for this type of movie I don't think that was a good idea in terms of drawing the characters. The characters are kind of in the army version of purgatory, and I felt a little too much like I was as well watching them. It feels like most of the ideas it tries to portray are just too thinly drawn.

Been three days since my last review. Essentially, here's the deal, not that it matters in the long run, I watched a film that I stopped watching halfway through because I was tired. Then after that I watched a film, that I did finish, but it turns out that the film isn't available to review on this site. It's a film that's called Cross, it's on Netflix, but it was a terrible movie. I'm unhappy that it isn't available to review on here, because it was gonna be one of those therapeutic reviews. But, I digress, that's the reason there's been no reviews for 3 days now. It's also probable that I may not even really have much to say about this film, hence why I'm explaining all of this. With all that out of the way, I really, really enjoyed this movie. Talk about an apropos title for a film, particularly when you're talking about the Zohar character. What I like about the film is that it gives off the appearance that nothing is really happening in this remote military base, but it's anything but. While the film is, partly, about the boredom of being in a pretty uneventful division at this base, and trying to find something, anything, to break that boredom, I do also think that the film is actually very meticulously scripted. I don't think it's just a series of 'skits', again, despite giving off that appearance, every action in this film has a reaction. There's no filler whatsoever as it relates to this film, nothing where I went 'eh, they could've cut this or that' because it's all relevant to the film and where the narrative is heading. Daffi heading off to train to be an officer has relevance in how Zohar's behavior plays out throughout the rest of the film. Essentially, Zohar is undermining Rama, her supervisor, pretty much at every turn. Lacking discipline, Zohar is pretty much looking out for herself regardless of the trouble that may get others in. But her increasing 'sabotage', perhaps a strong word, and misbehavior also has relevance in how the film plays out. It's not like it's being done just for the sake of it. It, pretty much, forces Rama out of the military after her 2 years are up, even though she wanted to stay on and do great things in the military, and opens the door up for Daffi's return, even though she wanted to be stationed in Tel Aviv. It's real impressive how tightly scripted the film really is. Nothing is wasted, even though the characters themselves, for the most part, are wasting their time. The acting is top-notch. Dana Ivgy as Zohar is pretty excellent and she perfectly encapsulates that rebellious spirit that wouldn't ever mix with a more uptight and self-serious military system, but that's what makes her character so interesting. How she interacts with those above her and how many fucks she clearly does not give. I think the movie really starts clicking once Daffi comes back. And that's the climax and it's where you start to put two and two together and how this thing led to that thing and so on and so forth. There's a pathetic, in a funny way, staple gun fight between Daffi and Zohar that's real entertaining because it's played fairly seriously. Some people might not like that the fact that this isn't a conventionally funny film, or a fast-paced one, but it's a really damn good war comedy. It's just really well-made and written. The acting form the women is also top-notch. I wouldn't say it's a great movie, but, honestly, it's not really that far off. I'd definitely recommend it, but it's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea, for sure.

Whoa, that was a much different film than what the preview showed. I kind of wish it was as more like the trailer, actually. The trailer is a masterpiece but it put me in a completely different mindset going into it. Definitely still worth a watch though! The dark comedy and comedic timing is on point, but the drama in it was surprisingly unwanted.

So this explains why they do not have Minesweeper in Windows anymore.

Ótimo filme israelense que aborda as dificuldades encontradas por garotas que servem o exército de uma maneira tragicômica. O filme é simples, mas a direção é correta e as atuações são boas.

Darkly funny and absurd, Zero Motivation gives a refreshing perspective to the inanity of a soldiers life .An irreverent war comedy like M*A*S*H was .

This film depicts life at an Israeli military base for women in a comedic but also real way. The humor is subtle yet you jump quickly to feelings of sadness whenever things seem to go terribly wrong for one of the girls. Zero Motivation has everything you look for in a dramedy. It's all but unfortunate that there has not been a wider audience to experience such a masterpiece.

Two friends are stationed at a desert base and they both hate it. Makes fun of army and office life. Full of surprises. "To the panoply of films that explore the banality and inanity of army life, here's a worthy addition told from a refreshing perspective: that of young women conscripts in the Israel Defense Forces." - Bruce Demara, Toronto Star

Great performance of three Israeli women with tree different stories. Impressive picture with a great witty humor.