Civil War

Bold and Prescient

Civil War (2024) might be the last Alex Garland film we see for a while. Personally, I doubt it, but if it’s true, it will be a shame; Garland’s voice feels uniquely forward-looking at a time when many movies look back. Civil War continues to work at Garland's seemingly preferred motif: the contrast between humanity and nature. Like all of his films, the subtext is clear: there is nature, and there is what man has done to nature. You can exist in nature's harmonious and serene moments or build a bunker on a virgin island to build androids. Or you can gun your way through a once-human-now-alien coast. Or you can slowly emerge from nature, casting off its order to take what you want. Or you can ignore the peaceful forests while driving between war-torn cities.

Civil War drops you right into the action as the United States of America seems to be nearing an end to a drawn-out internal conflict. An authoritarian third-term president is hunkered down in the White House while the Western Forces of California and Texas are closing in. Garland, screenwriting as well as directing, found a perfect entry point for a story likely to be viewed through the already polarized lenses of an American audience:  journalists. Not only does the film get behind characters who credibly walk the line between our divided beliefs, it bolsters an institution with record-low credibility: journalism. These reporters and photographers aren't out there pushing agendas; they're nuts in their own right, chasing personal glory and worldly truth.

The movie doesn't validate any worldview. It takes us on a brief tour of our internal conflict, ambiguous morality play after ambiguous morality play as a group of journalists led by Lee (Kirsten Dunst) make their way to Washington D.C. to try and get a quote from the president before his government falls. It’s a tableau of a future that feels frighteningly possible:  One group of people with guns going at it with another group of people with guns. Justice is doled out by the worst people you knew from high school. The power in your building goes out all the time, and the internet sucks. A large cohort of people is just pretending nothing's happening.

It's bold and prescient filmmaking. The film's final shot, when <REDACTED for SPOILERS>, is shocking on paper but feels completely earned by the end of the film. You wonder where the U.S. could possibly go from here. It feels more shocking the more you sit with it. It’s one of the best movies of 2024.

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Civil War
Written and Directed by Alex Garland
2024
109 minutes
English
Recommended way to watch (at time of publication): Streaming on Max
You’ll like this if you like: The Killing Fields (1984), Annihilation (2018)