Civil War (2024)

Top comments

1. 

   mcmakattack

   Garland has a knack for story structure, Civil War has a good setup and hits the right narrative beats without being too cliche. The action sequences are also wonderfully directed, the climax of the second act with Jesse Plemons is just phenomenal. The dialogue and how some of the themes were tackled in this film were just lackluster though. Civil War barely explores what an actual civil war means, much less in the modern USA. I've read criticisms that this movie makes the statement: "both sides bad," but so much of this is so politically ambiguous that it doesn't make much of a statement at all. Garland seems to focus more on cool modern warfare on American soil set-pieces and the problems of journalism. (7/10) 3 weeks 2 days ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   Trying to decode the alternate history in Alex Garland's Civil War is a fool's task, as is trying to untangle some kind of direct message about American politics. It's not about that, and will probably be the most misunderstood film of the year, or even the decade, because that's the natural impulse here. What it IS about, on a thematic level, is showing us what's already happening in the world - in Ukraine, in Syria, in Palestine - and giving it an American face, within American landscapes, to make what is far away more immediate to its target audience. The iconography is recognizable as what is transmitted by war correspondents, and therefore, this is the story of journalists and war photographers, the dangers they face (to both body and soul), the techniques they use, and the ethics of the job. It's a vocation that, in the absolute, is apolitical, and so Garland's America is necessarily fuzzy on its politics, a remix of the contemporary USA and of war-torn countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and it's on purpose, I think, that you're never sure which side the journalists are following around at any given moment, or which side is "righteous". Kirsten Dunst is great as a dead-eyed veteran photographer, at the end of her rope even as a younger model (Cailee Spaeny) comes in to slowly replace her in the narrative. The cycle continues. A lot of memorable moments that strike emotionally true in spite of the fantasy setting, mixing the mundane with the shocking in a way that can be missing from real-world footage where the "otherness"of a place might create a distance. But even if you're not an American, Georgia has been in films so much by now, the familiarity should have its effect. 2 weeks 1 day ago
3. 

   yellowslug

   The action scenes feel like Stuntman for the PS2. What a vile film haha. 1 week ago

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