Alex Garland is one of those directors who you either like or don’t like. I fall a little bit in the middle, two of his films I’m not a fan of, and the other two I am a fan of. That brings us to his fifth feature-length film Civil War. It’s going to be another polarizing movie from him, but not like his other films. It’s going to be one of those movies that divides the country. When I say divides I mean into blue and red. As in, some people are going to be seeing red after they’re done watching it. I on the other hand didn’t have much of a problem with it, but I’m more of a blue kind of a guy, so that might be the reason why.

The President of the United States (Nick Offerman) in the near future is preparing to give some kind of message to the American public to listen to. At this point, he has been the president for three terms and a lot of the country has rebelled against him and his politics.  This seems a little too on the button to me regarding what almost happened three years ago on January 6th, 2021. Add in the fact that Texas almost seceded from the country at that time as well and Garland is really pushing the buttons of Americans if you fall on the red or blue side of the aisle.

About seven hundred miles north in New York protests are going on and a bunch of photojournalists from Reuters are right in the thick of it. Lee (Kristen Dunst), Joel (Wagner Moura) Jesse (Cailee Spaeny), and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) are all caught up in the fighting in the Big Apple. As a last-ditch effort to try to get an interview with the President before Western Forces kill him and take back the country if you will, they decide to drive to Washington DC through hostile territory to get their story. Along the way, they face various obstacles that get in their way to the White House.

Cailee Spaeny is just coming off of a big role in Priscilla where she played the King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley’s girlfriend/wife. She has been in a few smaller roles in On the Basis of Sex and Bad Times at the El Royale before that, but she has shown me a lot in that role with the range she had playing opposite Jacob Elordi as Elvis. In this film, she is doing something completely different, but it’s not as good as what she did in Priscilla. She is a newer photojournalist and she gets in over her head asking to join this journey to Washington DC. She doesn’t understand the danger she’s in on this road trip. When she ends up going with the Western Forces to take back the White House her character acts like she’s a seasoned pro. I felt like the writing was a little underdeveloped regarding her character’s journey from the beginning to the end of the film. She’s still a good young actress though.

Kirsten Dunst is a seasoned actress who has been acting since she was a little girl in roles in Interview With a Vampire, Little Woman, and Jumanji. The latter two are the previous installments. She has progressed from being Spiderman’s/Peter Parker’s girlfriend Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi’s Spiderman Trilogy and playing a cheerleader in Bring It On as an actress. Roles in Melancholia and Power of the Dog have shown she isn’t playing around. The role she’s playing in this film is a very serious character for her. She’s mentoring a young photojournalist and she’s trying to be a strong presence in the group due to her character’s experience as a wartime journalist. She carries this movie on her back figuratively and emotionally. She does quite a bit of the heavy lifting regarding helping to move the plot forward. She may be an early frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress at next year’s Academy Awards.

This film has a very good cast and some of them I already mentioned. Some cameos or smaller roles are played by Karl Glusman, a man the foursome meet who is trying to kill a sniper hidden in a house. He has a funny exchange with the group. Jesse Plemons is a man from a militia group who happens to be burying bodies in a pit and throwing lye on the bodies when the journalists come upon him. They find out firsthand what these types of people are capable of. It’s not pretty either. Jin Ha plays Tony, another journalist who races behind and eventually catches up to the others. He’s a fun guy to be around until the proverbial S#!T hits the fan. Then he’s a total crybaby. This cast were all fantastic though in the big roles and the small roles alike.

Garland does two things in this film that I was perplexed by and loved. The thing that I loved was the sound design. I felt I was literally embedded with these journalists in war. The gunshots, cannon shots, and various other explanations felt real to me. I was jumping at times from all the sounds all around me. This is an amazing sound design that should get some love around awards season. The thing that perplexed me was the use of a songs that sounded lighthearted and not meant for a war movie. There were many difficult scenes I had to watch in this film and most of the music didn’t fit the vibe of what Garland was going for. I just don’t understand these song choices.

There are a lot of cringe-worthy moments in this movie. I mean that in a good way. Garland uses these moments to elicit a genuine reaction from those watching the film. The main theme is death and bloodshed. He has characters kill indiscriminately for no reason except to show they have no care in the world. Blood spewing from some of the characters the audience has invested a lot of their time with shows he doesn’t care about those watching the film. He wants to send a message that in war anybody can be a casualty. He succeeds at that perfectly. Along with the other political messages he’s sending.

Garland wants us to believe that because the characters are photojournalists they are impartial. Even though they are with one group trying to take back the country they aren’t on anyone’s side. I beg to differ. He is clearly taking sides by the way he chose to write the script. The President is easily a copy of Donald Trump in 2021 and even though this is in a dystopian or near future it’s obvious whose side he’s taking in this regard. This film will divide audiences based on its subject matter. It’s similar to Top Gun Maverick in a way. It’s not as patriotic as that film is. You will either love it or hate it all depending on which side of the isle politically you fall on.  It’s going to be a hot button topic this election year that’s for sure.

Civil War is a film that will divide audiences.  It’s one that I liked quite a bit, but the song choices threw me for a loop. Other than that it is a well made film, with great sound design, great acting from Dunst and a solid supporting cast. This is clearly Garland’s most accessible film to date yet it will divide the country quite a bit. The themes he chooses to dwell on were in the past now he brings them up once again. At the wrong time I might add. With this being an election year and the events that happened not that long ago still looming over the country, this movie is going to be on people’s minds for months to come. I was glad Garland made it though because we as a country need to face the future before in becomes our present once again, and we can’t do anything about it. This is as real a film and story I’ve seen in quite some time. My congrats goes out to A24 Garland and his entire cast and crew on a phenomenal movie.

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen