Movie Review ~ Civil War

You don’t have to spend much time browsing your streaming services, changing your TV channels, or searching your local cinema for a depressing dystopian spectacle. Everything from The Walking Dead to The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games has kept audiences well-fed on the conflict that arises when society breaks down and turns on one another. Part of why I find it hard to watch an extended series like The Handmaid’s Tale is to expose yourself to that blistering breakdown of norms season after season wears on your soul and psyche in equal measure.

It’s easier to approach a film (or a franchise based on books like The Hunger Games and its sequels and recent prequel) because there is a finite number of minutes you can expect to stay within the post-apocalyptic framework. Well, it used to be easy before Alex Garland’s Civil War was marched into theaters by distributor A24. Carrying the most enormous production price tag ever for the indie studio (a whopping 50 million, compared to Garland’s previous film, 2022’s Men, which came in around 10 million), it’s a high-risk gamble of a tightrope act, and it’s unrelenting as it is mesmerizing.

Challenging not just our senses but our understanding of a nation in turmoil, Garland’s film is set some years in the future where the fabric of society has unraveled in large part due to a multiparty civil war. Warring factions have ripped the nation apart, and while middle America has retreated to their farms and the safety of their landlocked homesteads, the rest of the country has buckled down to defend the liberties they believe are slipping through the fingers. With a dictatorial President (Nick Offerman, Candy Cane Lane) serving a disastrous third term, the government is in shambles, taking away whatever Kevlar security blanket he thought he had in place.

Recognizing the President’s precarious position and that he may be in his final days, veteran war photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst, Midnight Special) and her colleague/confidant Joel (Wagner Moura, The Gray Man) risk their safety traveling to the current epicenter of the uprising, Washington D.C., to capture it all on film.  Accompanying them at least part of the way is a sage journalist from the New York Times (journeyman actor Stephen McKinley Henderson, Dune) who can read the writing on the wall and the tiny print below it. Also hitching a ride is Jessie (Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla), an aspiring photographer whose spirit slowly withers against the harsh struggles she sees on the road and through her lens.

Years of surviving in military hot zones have desensitized Lee to the cruel violence going on around her, at least on the outside. Inside, she’s been bargaining with the howling demons trying to break her. Already proving herself as a versatile actress across various genres since her first credited role in the 1990 fiasco The Bonfire of the Vanities, Dunst delivers a career-defining role in Civil War. It’s not hard to see how she got here, either. Introduced as a naif vampirette alongside Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in 1994’s Interview with the Vampire, she was up for laughs in teen comedies (Bring it On, Drop Dead Gorgeous), could handle serious dramas (The Virgin Suicides, Melancholia), and proved she could work wonders with a supporting role in films like Mona Lisa Smile, Hidden Figures, and her Oscar-nominated work in 2021’s The Power of the Dog.

For Civil War (which has an uncredited cameo by her husband, equally ferociously talented Jesse Plemons, Game Night), Dunst digs deep to trace her character’s journey as she confronts the atrocities happening around her and wrestles with the realization of her role in documenting it. As the film progresses, Dunst’s character and her companions encounter roadblocks that grow deadlier the closer they get to D.C. She sees her life reflected in Jessie’s aspirations, and something shakes loose. It’s only then she finds she has misplaced her moral compass when she needs it most. Watching Dunst walk us through a growing self-awareness is haunting, unforgettable stuff.

Garland, known for his analytical and visually stunning storytelling, first came to Hollywood’s attention by writing the Leonardo DiCaprio’s post-Titanic title The Beach in 2000 and the elevated zombie horror film 28 Days Later. Making his feature writing and directing debut with the striking Ex Machina in 2014, he followed it up with the complicated Annihilation in 2018 and an oddball attempt at modern folk horror with the misfire Men in 2022. With Civil War, Garland once again proves his mastery of genre filmmaking, delivering a thought-provoking and visually arresting film that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats, white-knuckled with suspense and tension for almost the full run time.

That can be a lot to take in, and, indeed, Civil War is often an overwhelming experience, from a nail-biting perspective and an emotionally taxing one.
The IMAX screening I attended amplified the immersive experience, and seeing Rob Hardy’s brilliant camerawork on such a massive scale was terrifically entertaining. I’ve seen several IMAX films lately where the sound failed to deliver, but there were moments in Civil War where I thought the roof, walls, and doors of the theater were going to be turned to dust by the ear-hammering sounds of blazing gunfire, whirring helicopters, and exploding bombs.

While Garland’s script has taken great pains to create a vision of North America that looks like ours, it isn’t as familiar as one we’d devolve into as quickly…but maybe that’s just my fingers-crossed wishful thinking taking over.  There’s an argument for saying that the movie’s politics don’t pan out and aren’t detailed enough to give audiences an idea of who the “good” and “bad” people are. Still, I’d say that as politically flat as the picture comes off, it makes it more believable. Years into a conflict, survivors would naturally forget the original argument, who started the fire, and why. When Civil War picks up, the battle has been going on so long that everyone on their individual “sides” has come too far to let go and walk away, even if it is the right thing to do.

We live in a world where, thanks to advances in technology, entertainment, and poor visibility from our elected officials, the line between reality and fiction feels increasingly blurred. Garland’s Civil War stands as a chilly reminder of the delicacy of democracy and what the human cost is when power goes unchecked. Will it inspire any action? Doubtful. Its lack of finger-pointing makes its overall message too general and packaged for all political appetites, but it can provoke emotion like few films I’ve seen. Bound to shake you to the core and linger long after the credits have finished. I had a hard time speaking after, let alone beginning to digest what the movie was saying about the moral complications of war. It is exceptionally well made and a phenomenal showcase of Dunst’s acting; it’s a mini-masterpiece.