Civil War
As the United States President (Nick Offerman) practices what he assumes will be a victory speech both denouncing the California/Texas Western Forces alliance rebelling against the U.S. military and inviting them back into the union, veteran war photojournalist Lee (Kirsten Dunst) pulls a green photographer out of the path of an explosion in New York City. Jessie (Cailee Spaeny, "Priscilla") is awestruck, noting that Lee shares a name with the legendary war photographer Lee Miller, as Lee presses a safety vest on the young woman. But after Lee agrees to take aging New York Times reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson, "Fences") along on she and Joel’s (Wagner Moura, TV's 'Narcos') planned route to the White House she’ll learn Joel agreed to take Jessie, too, two wards during a “Civil War.”
Laura's Review: C+
Since it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, many of been somewhat disingenuous describing writer/director Alex Garland’s ("Ex Machina," "Men") latest as not taking a political stance. With a near future U.S. president described as being in his third term, having disbanded the F.B.I. and being so antagonistic towards the press that ‘journalists are shot on sight’ around the White House, the comparisons to a certain former president are clear, as are the ideologies on display by civilians and soldiers we may assume support him. That said, though, there is little to orient ourselves with here, Garland utilizing the bravery of wartime journalists to essentially say ‘wake up,’ a warning given with no root cause for the mayhem he depicts on screen.
Garland’s center here is the contrast between the green, fresh-faced newbie and the exhausted, battle-hardened veteran, but while we get some indication of Lee’s past, horrific memories drowning her peace in a hotel bath, we don’t even know if Jessie has an actual job with a media outlet. Both women hail from farming backgrounds, Jessie’s in Missouri, Lee’s in Colorado, both families noted as being apolitical, ‘pretending this isn’t happening.’ The film’s main through line has us watch Lee take Jessie under her wing until the young journalist shoots an ironic series of photos during the film’s climax, embracing the hardened professionalism that has worn Lee down. Spaeny’s performance is not to blame, but I didn’t believe a second of that moment.
Other than the mentor/protégé relationship at its core, “Civil War” may as well be a season of ‘The Walking Dead,’ its episodic structure a series of encounters with friends and foe, the difference sometimes hard to fathom. The very first image we see as the foursome leave New York is a highway littered with abandoned, burned out vehicles (yet not so many Joel can’t drive through). They will encounter creepy dudes torturing two men at a gas station, a shootout between what appears to be civilians (Western Forces, one presumes, given their diversity) and the military around an office park, a sniper shooting at a rural Christmas farm, a small town seemingly unaffected by war yet menacing and an organized camping ground community. An initially threatening, rapidly approaching vehicle will offer a chance to blow off steam, as Joel’s colleague Tony (Nelson Lee, 2020's "Mulan") climbs from one car into the other and Jessie follows suit in reverse, joining ‘mad crazy’ driver Bohai (Evan Lai), but the incident leads into the film’s most infamous, an armed Jesse Plemons in red shades and fatigues taking time off from dumping bodies into a mass grave to demand what kind of American each is.
As the depleted team approaches D.C., joining up with the Western Forces, Garland’s film revels in the destruction of American monuments, military helicopters firing otherworldly tracer rounds, cinematographer Rob Hardy ("Annihilation," "Men") employing hand held cameras to amp up the chaos. The last stand in the White House itself does eerily evoke January 6, albeit on a smaller scale, with intruders in its hallowed halls.
Dunst will make several weighty pronouncements, at one point despairing with Sammy about all her unheeded warnings from abroad and the actress really delivers the soul sucking exhaustion of a grueling and life-threatening career having failed to move the needle. But while Garland’s tribute to the free press (he fails to address the fear-mongering kind) is admirable and Dunst, Spaeny, Moura and Henderson are all affecting, “Civil War” left me underwhelmed.
Robin's Review: B
In the maybe near future, the country has divided into armed camps and neither side will back down. This is treatise on what will be for our country if reason and rationality do not prevail: a second American “Civil War.”
America has descended into a dictatorship and the country is, literally, torn apart. The President prepares a speech, declaring that the nation is on the verge of “the greatest victory of mankind” as cannon fire can be heard in the distance. Shift to NYC and a press hangout for war correspondents where respected photojournalist Lee (Kursten Dunst) and her colleague Joel (Wagner Muora) plan to make the 857 mile journey through war zones to Washington DC to interview the beleaguered President of the United States (Nick Offerman).
This decision begins an episodic, almost Homeric odyssey as Lee and Joel, with eager young photojournalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) tagging along, prepare to leave the relative safety of the city. Their friend and mentor Sammy (Stephen McKinley Harrison), hitches a ride with them as far as the front lines in Charlotte. they have to face danger after danger as they make their way to DC with the miles counting down – 508 miles to 289 to 176 to finally arriving at the city under siege.
The trek is fraught with various, malevolent situations and the intrepid journalists use their press credentials to accompany troops during their actions. When these firefights take place (I saw it in an IMAX theater), the cacophony of battle is intense and LOUD! This, and the IMAX format, puts the viewer in the action and there are many surprises.
The small principle cast of characters, led by Dunst in a stellar performance as stalwart journo Lee, are all fully developed. I was especially impressed by Cailee Spaeny as Jessie as she makes her own metaphoric journey from cub reporter to seasoned veteran willing to put her life on the line for the picture. At one point Lee tells her, “It is not a story if it isn’t filed.” That is just one of the lessons learned.
“”Civil War,” with its release at this particular time, will likely garner vastly different PoVs of the movie’s meaning. Those on the right will likely perceive it as the demise of a corrupt liberal president. On the other side of the equation, the left will see it as the end of a future, corrupt dictatorship. I choose the latter interpretation.
A24 releases "Civil War" in theaters on 4/12/24.
