An immersive yet dispassionate war film

Damon Smith reviews the latest new releases to watch in the cinema

CIVIL WAR (15)

Patriotism burns in the heat of conflict in writer-director Alex Garland’s incendiary action thriller set in a dystopian, near-future United States of America where the political landscape is no longer divided across Republican and Democratic lines.

California and Texas have seceded from the union to form the so-called Western Forces.

Nine states that make up the

New People’s Army hold sway in the Pacific Northwest above a belt loyal to the president, which stands firm against Western Forces and a Florida Alliance comprising eight states that stretch eastwards from Oklahoma.

Garland began writing Civil War in 2020 before the acrimonious presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which culminated in an attack on the Capitol by supporters loyal to the defeated Republican candidate.

Tension is palpable from the opening frames of this nightmarish road movie, which champions the vital role played by journalists on the front line.

After one particularly harrowing sequence, Cailee Spaeny’s inexperienced war photographer reflects that she has never felt more scared or more alive.

Her adrenaline rush translates from the screen to the audience in terrifying, breathlessly staged battle sequences.

“What kind of American are you?” one soldier (Jesse Plemons) asks a journalist, standing beside a mass grave of casualties who presumably gave an unsatisfactory response.

Garland’s picture doesn’t flinch from depicting barbarity and Kirsten Dunst cuts a haunting, weary figure as the emotionally numbed war photographer in the eye of the storm.

Wide shots of highways littered with abandoned cars recall 28

Days Later but the monsters here aren’t the marauding undead, they are ordinary men and women on both sides, who feel empowered to protect the country they love with lethal force.

The President (Nick Offerman) orders air strikes on his own citizens to quell pockets of resistance to authoritarian rule.

Renowned war photojournalist Lee (Dunst) and journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) document the escalating conflict.

“It’s not a story if it never gets filed,” sombrely observes their mentor, veteran correspondent Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who believes lives are worth more than newspaper column inches.

When rumours circulate that Western Forces intend to storm the Capitol on July 4, Lee and Joel prepare for a circuitous 857-mile trek from New York to Washington DC via Virginia.

Sammy uses emotional blackmail to secure a place in the press vehicle alongside 23-year-old aspiring war photographer Jessie (Spaeny).

“The back seat is both a kindergarten and an old people’s home,” curtly observes Lee.

Civil War executes its bleak premise with cool detachment, despatching characters with ruthless precision. Compelling performances from the central quartet complement razor-sharp writing.

Garland allows sentimentality to flicker briefly in the heart of darkness, then promptly snuffs it out.

There is no time to mourn the fallen when bullets and mortars continue to fly.

A turbulent romance with Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell) courts media attention as Amy works in the recording studio with producer Mark Ronson (Jeff Tunke) on her second LP, which includes Rehab, Love Is A Losing Game, You

Know I’m No Good, and the title track.

BLEEDING LOVE (15)

7/10

Ewan McGregor and real-life daughter Clara replicate the relationship on screen in Emma Westenberg’s feature film directorial debut from a script by Ruby Caster.

A nameless father abandoned his daughter from his first marriage to battle the demons of alcoholism and raise a new family.

His teenage daughter has inherited his addictive tendencies and, one night, her heart stops briefly following a drug overdose.

Determined to make amends, he drives her to rehab in his old pick-up truck. As they traverse the beautiful terrain of the American Midwest, two generations confront a painful past and begin the necessary process of self-healing.

En route, father and daughter encounter eccentric characters facing their own crises.

Clockwise from left: Kirsten Dunst as Lee and Cailee Spaeny as Jessie in Civil War; Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Blake in Back to Black