Once you start asking those questions you can't stop - so we don't ask
Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2024
#18 : Civil War
A departure from his typical high-concept sci-fi flicks, Alex Garland’s Civil War is ostensibly a high-stakes road-trip movie. Following a cast of journalists (including Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny) as they travel through a divided America to try and interview the President (Nick Offerman), this is more a film about war films than a war film itself, exploring the ethics of war photography and caricaturing the political landscape of the US. Despite mixed opinions about its undefined worldbuilding, the film is undeniably immersive, with impressive set-pieces and some truly heart-palpitation-inducing action — it’s shot like a documentary, and punctuated by stunning still-images (supposedly taken by the characters). The use of soundtrack is notable too; headbanging to De La Soul while watching visuals of an organised execution may not have been on your 2024 bucket list, but it’s a great example of how Civil War muddies the morals of a scene. The whole thing serves to show us just how easily war can be portrayed as both exciting and horrific — it just depends what side you’re on.
This is another film on my "to watch" list that I've not got round to yet - it's got some great write-ups so I'm looking forward to it, but I do have a slight suspicion that it might feel a little too close to the truth. It's also the third film I've watched this week - I'm on a roll!
It's a neat set-up whereby Texas and California have seceded from the US which has resulted in - go on, guess! (Florida gets involved too somehow, but exactly how isn't overly clear). Lee (Kirsten Dunst) is a somewhat embittered and cynical war photojournalist in New York and she makes plans to head to Washington DC to interview the president (who's serving a third term, so that gives you some clue as to his motives). Travelling along with her are her equally embittered colleagues Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy Stephen McKinley Henderson) and, wouldn't you know it, a wet-behind-the-ears youngster Jessie (Cailee Spaeny).
And together they travel through an America that is both far-fetched and realistic (and also surprisingly unpopulated, but maybe they were just avoiding the towns) meeting various characters living very different lives. It's an interesting combination of normal people and places under extraordinary circumstances which results in tense situations and uncertain outcomes - you can't tell what's going to happen which makes it engaging.
However, whilst there are some beautiful, well thought out and well shot scenes, I wasn't convinced they hung together as a whole film. When I read Empire's introduction I was unsure what they meant when they said "mixed opinions about its undefined worldbuilding", but having watched the film, I think it basically means "it doesn't always make sense" - because it certainly doesn't. I really enjoyed the last scene from a dramatic point of view which involves (mild spoiler alert) the team trying to get into The White House, but it didn't really hang together for me from all that came before. The film definitely has a good ending, but it uses quite a few clichés to get there which really don't help matters.
All the main characters are well acted, but for me some of them aren't written particularly brilliantly and I question their actions, but I can't fault the actors for the way they display these questionable behaviours. Cailee probably takes the plaudits for me because she has the "best" journey - we last saw her in Mare Of Easttown, but she's won plaudits recently for Priscilla and Alien:Romulus, so she's one to watch. Wikipedia also confirmed something I suspected - one of the minor characters is played by Jesse Plemons (aka Mr Kirsten Dunst) but he looked different enough (aka surprisingly cool) to confuse me.
So, all in all, this was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It's a great central concept and there's a lot to admire about it with a lot of the scenes being incredibly impressive, but I just felt it needed a bit more thought to make it all hang together before I could consider it to be a great film. It's certainly worth a watch though - it's currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
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