Civil War (2024)

Dir: Alex Garland

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons

Alex Garland’s nail-biting dystopian thriller follows a team of photojournalists as they document civil unrest in the United States to harrowing effect

Having established himself in the industry for over 20 years, British filmmaker Alex Garland has never shied away from asking challenging questions of his audience, and his latest cinematic release may be his most provocative release to date.

Garland first rose to fame at the turn of the century, when his quasi-utopian novel ‘The Beach’ was adapted for the big screen by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. Following the success of both the novel and the movie, Garland was approached by Boyle to write the screenplay for his next project, the apocalyptic zombie film 28 Days Later (2002). Garland would go on to receive additional writing credits for critically successful movies including: Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010) and Dredd (2012), and eventually in 2014 he would write and direct his very own project, the sci-fi thriller Ex-Machina. The film was a huge success, garnering Garland his first Academy Award nomination for his screenplay and helping propel independent production company A24 to new heights. Garland has gone on to continue a long-standing relationship with the distributor, with his subsequent films Annihilation (2018) and Men (2022) also being released as A24 titles.

Garland’s latest project ‘Civil War’ is his biggest to date, and is the most expensive production by A24 with a budget of $50 million. Ever since its world premiere at South by Southwest in March, ‘Civil War’ has sparked plenty of debate and controversy amongst critics and audiences alike, with its bold and sensitive apolitical themes unsurprisingly causing a stir. Going into my screening of ‘Civil War’, I was well aware of the shock value Garland is capable of having seen, and enjoyed, of all of his previous work, but nothing could have prepared me for the harrowingly realistic experience that was about to unfold.

Garland has strongly stated during the film’s marketing campaign that he has purposely made the movie apolitical, in a bid to not alienate one political stand point from the other. This is conveyed narratively by having us follow a group of photojournalists, led by the stoic Lee (Kirsten Dunst), whose lifelong career of documenting global conflicts has left her emotionally distant from the civil unrest taking place in her native United States. Having narrowly avoided a suicide bombing in New York in which she saves aspiring young journalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), Lee and her colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) decide to set off on a road trip to the nation’s capital, in a desperate and dangerous bid to interview the President (Nick Offerman), before he is overthrown (and possibly executed) by a militant, presidential coup.

On their travels, Lee and Joel are joined by veteran New York Times journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and the naïve but eager Jessie, who idolises Lee despite her cold and hardened attitude towards her. We follow the group of journalists as they make the long and arduous journey to Washington D.C., with each town or city posing its own unique threats and opportunities as we see a western society as formidable as the U.S. crumble before our very eyes.

Despite the extremely serious and touchy subject matter running through it, the narrative of ‘Civil War’ remains relatively simple. The near-future dystopian thriller essentially plays out like an apocalyptic road movie, with our core cast of characters finding themselves in a series of increasingly tense and perilous set-pieces that leave the audience with very little room to breathe. This simplistic storytelling, primarily consisting of a sequence of traumatic vignettes, allows us as the viewer to pull back and explore the wider picture as we are shown what it may be like if the western world was exposed to civil war.

‘Civil War’ has a three-pronged central theme at its centre, that culminates in a bleak and daunting finale, which will no doubt keep audiences thinking and arguing for years to come. The first message that Garland is trying to convey is that of wartime journalism and the extreme situations these individuals put themselves in for what they believe is the greater good. Humanity has spent the majority of its existence at war in some way, shape or form, and despite being in what is considered to be the most civilised period in human history, we are still witnessing horrific military action and attacks on civilians in Ukraine and the Middle East. Visually depicted in the 2023 documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues put their lives at risk to let the world know of the horrendous war crimes taking place in Ukraine. Chernov believes by documenting footage of Russia’s invasion he is warning the world that war is hell and it needs to stop. Kirsten Dunst’s protagonist Lee even states that she has spent her career documenting conflicts oversees in a cautionary bid to alert the western world to the horrors of war, only for her to find it happening in her very own country years later.

The second and most prominent message of film is highlighting those who choose to remain oblivious to matters that do not impact themselves. As a westerner, living in the UK, I have grown up with little to no political unrest and no military operations within my nation in my life time, something that can also be said for the majority of Europe and North America. In my 30 years on this planet however, there has never been respite in conflict somewhere on the planet and as a UK resident I am thankful that I am an not directly exposed to such peril, unfortunately that is not the case for a lot of people my age across the continents. By depicting wartime in a country deemed ‘safe’ like the United States, ‘Civil War’ serves as an eye-opener as to what it would be like to experience the very prevalent acts of war we shy away from on a day-to-day basis. This is highlighted in one of the more sombre scenes in the movie, as our ragtag group of reporters find themselves in an idyllic American town which remains untouched by the war, as it continues to remain ignorant despite their very own country fracturing around them.

The third and final narrative of ‘Civil War’ is that of a gripping, edge of the seat thriller that refuses to pull its punches. There is no doubt that this film will divide opinion given its subject matter, but regardless of what one is to take away from it, there is no questioning that Garland has managed to deliver a visually stunning, nail-biting thrill ride that offers more legitimate scares than most modern horrors. With depictions of suicide, war, torture, executions and cold-blooded murder, ‘Civil War’ is not for the faint of heart, with its most brutal moments fittingly captured through the lenses of our protagonists, forcing the audience to focus on them that little bit longer.

All of Garland’s themes and set-pieces are brought together by the excellent cast, fronted by Kirsten Dunst who gives career best work. Dunst’s portrayal of Lee is pivotal in bringing out the best in her surrounding characters. Her career working behind enemy lines as evidently left her a shadow of her former self, a glimmer of which she sees in Cailee Spaeny’s Jessie, who almost personifies a younger version of Lee herself. Dunst has the difficult task to build an emotional bond with Jessie as well as her own mentor in Sammy, whilst maintaining her apathetic exterior. Lee is the beating heart of the film and serves as the catalyst for any emotional attachment, as the ambiguity of the war and violence that surrounds her gives very little away in telling us who we should be rooting for.

Garland has purposely avoided upsetting either side of the American political divide by leaving out the specifics surrounding the fictional civil war that plays out, and in doing so he has managed to create a compelling and hauntingly real experience that will no doubt continue to incite provocation for many years to come.