Review 716: Civil War

  

With Civil War, Alex Garland crafts his best work to date. An intense, at times unsettling dystopian movie

In a dystopian near-future America, groups of dissident militias attempt to take the country into their own hands under the eyes of an extremist President (Nick Offerman). Amidst the chaos, a team of photojournalists, headed by the hardened veteran Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), embark on a road trip across the country to war-torn Washington, D.C. - all in the name of documenting the conflict as it unfolds.

Civil War is less a story about politics and war, it’s a film about media coverage, not where we point our guns where we point our cameras. 

The picture that Garland paints of America is one of indescribable chaos. It's a fight against Facism   At its core, Civil War is a road movie centring on journalists doing old fashioned reporting.  The cause of the titular war is not important, what is important are the effects of this war on the country and these people

The lack of music in certain scenes, the slow build towards big, explosive shoot outs, the use of hand-held camera and close ups give a sense of urgency which lend the film a great sense of pacing. The score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow is evocative and haunting, the cinematography is evocative and captures the  of the American countryside the journalist team travel through, the locations are stunning and the effect of the closing sequence is appropriately harrowing. 

Kirsten Dunst delivers a  Lee is the latest example of Alex Garland depicting strong women in his films following Alicia Vikander's Ava in Ex Machina and Natalie Portman's Lena in Annihilation. Lee is one of the best photojournalist in the business and it’s clear why Jessie is in aware with her. Lee has a responsibility and she's not afraid to tell the truth. Her experiences covering war zones have left her deeply traumatised and the fact that her home country has descended into chaos makes it even worse. As they go on this roadtrip, Lee begins to see Jessie's potential as a war photographer as she gets involved in photographing the war.

Cailee Spaeny (fresh off of Priscilla) is  playing Jessie Cullen, a young aspiring photography. Jessie has a lot of admiration for Lee. Jessie wants to snap a great photo at any cost and inset herself and her fellow journalists into the lens of history; she worships photojournalism as like art or punk rock and not public. Lee doesn’t want to bring Jessie along - war zones are not place for a young person - but she manages to charm her way into the good books. I hesitate to call the relationship that between Lee and Jessie maternal but Lee does take her under her wing and show her the harsh side to their jobs.

Wagner Moura  playing Joel

Regular Garland collaborator, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman and an uncredited Jesse Plemons round out the films impressive ensemble with memorable and noteworthy performances. 

Offerman is only in a couple of scenes but they're very memorable giving us a strong taste of very real world Trumpian vibes. Jesse Plemons is only in a single scene but it's a particularly unsettling scene.  

4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.