Grappling as nation perishes from the earth
“Civil War,” the latest film from British director-writer Alex Garland (“Annihilation,” “Ex-machina”), takes what many whisper about in these divisive, polarizing times and turns it into a smartly crafted, suspenseful, propulsive thriller that manages to make a statement without tipping Garland’s political hand too much.
Kirsten Dunst and Brazilian actor Wagner Moura (“Elite Squad,” “Narcos”) are Lee and Joel, a photographer and reporter working for Reuters, who are covering the war that has broken out in a near-future America as the country’s three most populous states, California, Texas and Florida, declare war on Washington, D.C.
The first two try to secede under the banner of the Western Alliance while the Sunshine State is heading the Florida Alliance.
The journalists decide to leave the relative safety of an unraveling New York City to travel closer to the heart of darkness in D.C. to attempt to snare the last interview with an increasingly embattled president (Nick Offerman) before he either surrenders, is forced from office or is assassinated.
To do that, they have to travel through areas that have fallen into anarchy and chaos. Complicating matters is that they’ve taken on two passengers who may be more liability than asset: young, eager but inexperienced photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeney, “Priscilla”) and experienced but ailing war correspondent Sammy (Stephen Mckinley Henderson).
Much has been made online about how unrealistic it is that Texas and California would be allies in a potential conflict, and Garland has even responded to the social media firestorm by explaining in the Hollywood Reporter that he conceived the story in this way “partly to get around a kind of reflexive, polarizing position that people might fall into, that’s one thing, but actually that’s not the main thing. The main thing is to do with how the president is presented and what can be inferred from that.”
In other words, the president (who is never given a name) is a fascist who has both ended the FBI and used air strikes on U.S. citizens, prompting blue-state and red-state America to erupt into spasms of ever-increasing violence. Some might criticize Garland for cowardice in not wanting to offend one end of the spectrum or the other or for simply being unrealistic. Still, his approach does allow all viewers to get on board with the premise.
It helps that Garland doesn’t bother to explain too much. The director drops you in the middle of the action and you’re left to piece together the events that have led to this moment. It just as well could have been contemporary Haiti, a collapsing Yugoslavia
in the ’90s or any country that has hungrily turned on itself. (It’s probably no accident that the soundtrack includes tracks from the band Suicide.)
Yet “Civil War” isn’t just about good guys versus bad guys. It’s not a reimagining of “Red Dawn,” John Milius’ 1994 drama about teenagers defending the U.S. against a Soviet invasion. Instead, it’s a much more nuanced look at people caught up in the middle of forces they are more and more finding difficult to comprehend. That they happen to be journalists just trying to do their jobs underscores the importance of good journalism in an increasingly fractured world.
As the four descend farther into the belly of this new America, Garland cranks up the tension and suspense, using his command of visuals and sound (the film is especially powerful in IMAX) to propel the outwardly simple story forward. If, at times, “Civil War” has the feel of a jump-scare horror movie, it’s worth noting that Garland wrote “28 Days Later,” one of the all-time great zombie films. (And the presence of Offerman brings back memories of one of the best episodes of the HBO zombie series “The Last of Us.”)
And in a brief but memorable turn, camo-clad Jesse Plemons is zombie-scary as a paramilitary militia member whose loyalties remain murky while his cruel nativism does not.
Yet it’s the versatile and impressive Dunst who holds the film together as a seasoned professional grown weary after a steady diet of death, despair and trauma as she and Joel try to write history on the fly. It’s something that she can’t really articulate to Jessie, an acolyte who wants to be just like her, or her gung-ho reporting partner, Joel. Still, it’s the film’s beating heart.
And it’s this internal war that just may be the toughest to win.
Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes Rating: R (strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images, language throughout)