Civil War Movie Review
Nathan Swank
April 11th, 2024
CIVIL WAR is a powerful new film from Alex Garland and it might be the most anxiety I’ve ever experienced in a movie.
A journey across a dystopian not-so-distant future America, CIVIL WAR follows a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach Washing DC. Their goal is to interview the President of the United States before rebel factions descend upon the White House. Our press team includes famous photojournalist, Lee (Kirsten Dunst), journalist and majority driver of the press van, Joel (Wagner Moura), precocious young and aspiring photographer, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), and elder journalist, Sammy (Stephen McKinley). All four lead actors deliver strong performances with a couple of small vitally important and scene stealing roles by Nick Offerman and Jesse Plemons.
The horrors the crew come across are beautifully shot jarring images of destruction that feel unreasonably familiar. The audience is sort of thrown into the situation with the team, but they all seem a bit seasoned and prepared for the things to come. However, as the journey gets closer to their destination, their lives seem to be more at risk. Even though they are fully aware that their lives are at risk from the beginning as they are up close following soldiers and photographing violence as it happens.
While the cinematography from longtime collaborator Rob Hardy is exceptionally exquisite, the focus on photography drifts the focus of story at times. In general the characters work, but my one criticism is that the photography driven story overtakes moments causing the film to lag in the center. Garland definitely finds beauty in the destruction. But drawing attention to the incredible photography and visual framing, diminishes the effect a bit. Letting the visuals speak for themselves is more powerful without talking about them or in some cases highlighting them for the audience. Like one of the many themes, the hardened and jaded individuals in the story can’t retain sympathy from the audience when focused on imagery. It’s not until the second half of the film when the stakes and emotions begin to hit harder and that jadedness comes to fruition reaching the most effectiveness emotionally.
The IMAX screening and theater sound definitely deepened the impact for this particular viewer. I squirmed in my seat, had to turn my head at the brutality, and jumped with startled reactions at sheer shock and volume of gunfire. I can’t quite express the unsettling effect CIVIL WAR had on me, but Garland’s vision of war happening in suburban life within the United States hits close to home in a visceral way. I was reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s FULL METAL JACKET at times in how uncomfortable the film made me feel.
After seeing 2014’s EX MACHINA and knowing that the writer/director also wrote 2002’s 28 DAYS LATER, I have been all in on filmmaker Alex Garland. While I haven’t quite loved all of his work since then, I have respected and admired some of the ambition and themes within his unique vision. Much like his 2022’s wildly strange MEN, CIVIL WAR has a lasting effect. CIVIL WAR is a hard film that serves as a warning shot reflecting an angry and hateful human nature in some of our current world events and current national political events. It is not easily recommendable, nor a film that will probably be revisited often. But as I said before, CIVIL WAR is powerful and I believe it should be seen.
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