It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from here,
‘Civil War’ Is a Victory for Pop Filmmaking, Independent Cinema, A24 and Writer/ Director Alex Garland.
By Will Hume
I decided to go see Civil War at the encouragement of a friend. It seems the best A24 Films (the distributor of the film) are the ones I’m pushed to see like Lady Bird and Hereditary. Although I did pick our family to see The Iron Claw last Christmas. What do these movies have in common besides their film label? Its the same thing Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese films lack nowadays- the edginess of a modern touch. Not necessarily youthfulness. The Fabelmans and Killers of the Flower Moon have more energy to them than a lot of young made films today, but they equate modern metaphor to modern relevance. Spielberg sees the Best Picture winning Spotlight and decides make The Post, using the historical lens of the Nixon era to criticize the Trump era, when he is one of the few directors who could get the resources to make a high end modern newspaper film and one that would probably be less boring than The Post. Scorsese watches Watchmen and sees our fascination with how the Tulsa massacre effects economic and race relations to this day. His response? Make a movie set 100 years ago during the Tulsa Massacre which is only mentioned in a news reel. Both movies are a waste of time.
There is something to be said about the world of today even if it is obvious, that can only be said in a modern setting. We used to get major movies set in contemporary times much more often until the streamers came along and started chasing “prestige”. There is nothing fancy or respectable about the world of today. The last contemporary-ish film Scorsese made was The Wolf of Wall Street which is set 30 years ago, the last contemporary-ish film Spielberg made was Ready Player One set 22 years from now. They were also their last proper hits. You’d think they’d adjust their angles to meet the moment. However, in these rapidly evolving times it is just as important to be right, as it is scary to be wrong.
The Old Guard in this movie are played by Stephen McKinley Henderson and Kirsten Dunst. Sammy (Henderson) is an elder journalist working for the failing New York Times and Lee Smith (Dunst) is a War photographer who decades ago was a young prodigy and is now is hardened and uneager to take a new girl Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) under her wing. Together they, along with veteran Reuters reporterJoel (Wagner Moura), find themselves on a 500 mile road trip to the D.C.; hoping to score an interview with the president (Nick Offerman) who is known to shoot journalists on site. On their way there they encounter looters, shooters, protesters, private armies and people just trying to stay out of it. Do they have the skills and experience to beat their contemporaries in a literal race to the white house? Will the government or America fall before they get there? All they know is its their job and they aren’t capable of doing anything else.
When this movie was announced by this director I was worried it would rely less on action and more on metaphor & the written word. One of his previous films Annihilation was that way and was ‘just okay’. The premise of a near future America that erupts into a second Civil War is too good to waste. The action in the trailers looked good but I’ve been duped before. The label I mentioned earlier has a dedicated fan base and is known for putting out movies that have a high critic ratings and low audience scores. And I consider myself a member of the audience. It is hard to get anything made in Hollywood, especially for over $20 million, and especially not involving any of the major 5 media companies; Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount and Sony. This movie takes that gamble further and doubles down by having an R-rating and costing $50 million. All the while risking alienating its core fanbase by making a more broadly appealing action film that doubles as a political thriller. This movie is a RISK. I am here to tell you that gamble pays off.
Kirsten Dunst is great as the world-weary Lee. A young veteran in her field. It makes complete sense to be played by a young veteran of Hollywood. With many of the horror stories shared about Hollywood in recent years its good to see a woman in her early forties leading the charge and acting makeup free as a journalist in search of the truth. It also helps coming off of the streaming films like Netflix’s Rebel Moon and Apple’s Argylle where the actors are engineered to be freakishly abnormally good looking that we have somebody who looks like an actual person. Compared to her last role in The Power of the Dog for which she was Oscar nominated this is a better performance and the best of her career. Wagner Moura who recently appeared in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and is best known to audiences for playing Pablo Escobar on Netflix’s Narcos, (but was stealing scenes as far back as Elysium) is great here as Joel as well even though he is mostly just a plot device and avatar for the audience. His years of reporting have twisted his morals, running into danger and bending every outcome to make the most interesting story. This is Moura’s biggest role yet and the 47 year old gives an impressive movie star performance maintaining a sympathetic believable character who you are always curiously thinking about behind those crazy eyes.
Stephen Mckinley Henderson plays the mentor role here perfectly as Sammy. You believe his relationships with every character through his rapport with Joel and Lee. A professional played by a professional. He offers advice and provides leadership and is often foolishly ignored.
Jess, the youngest member of the group is played by Cailee Spaeny who I last saw 5 years ago in Bad Times at the El Royale. Her role outlines the basic nature of Alex Garland’s screenplay. There isn’t one element of her character, except for a smile late in the film, that doesn’t feel completely telegraphed in advance. Out of all the central characters she is the least developed which makes some sense, but for a character that joins the team late she should serve a more wild card position. I found her lack of spontaneity as a young photographer unbelievable. In her opening scene she is standing in the middle of a riot where a suicide bomb goes off and is completely unaffected. A few scenes later she’s frozen solid in disbelief too scared to take a photo. Garland wants us to believe this young woman is too shocked by the violence of men in the world to illicit a response, but he’s either never been to a protest or doesn’t know what kids today have been exposed to on the internet by the time they are 20. If only you could see the things we’ve seen with your own eyes. Also if you are going to have a character be stupid, which they often are in Garland’s scripts, have them be unpredictably stupid or ambitiously stupid because being boring stupid slows down the plot and is no fun.
What impressed me most about the film was its cinematography. The movie was shot by Rob Hardy who did all of the director’s previous films along with Mission: Impossible – Fallout and together they find a number of beautiful images. A simple closeup shot of a sprinkler evokes a more innocent time in a town out of the way of the war path. A glowing forest fire the characters drive through as the embers float like fireflies calms the audience after a tense moment. You forgive the implausibility of a lack of smoke because it looks so cool and serves the movie’s heightened reality. The sound is also excellent with bullets whizzing by and distinctive gun shots punctuating the scene. When Jesse Plemons shows up its frightening, when he fires his gun even more so, even though it is expected. Throughout the journey Garland’s direction maintains a strong focus and moves at a good pace with great unque music selection and a solid score by Jeff Barrow and Ben Salisbury. It’s a shame Garland has no future plans to direct and is moving back into writing with the recently announced 28 Days Later sequels. He might very well be a better director than he is a writer.
Much has been made about the political nature of the film. Texas and California teaming up to take down the White House is such a ridiculous notion to that only a Brit could have thought it up. But doing so allows each political side to draw their own conclusions about who the president is. We know he is one who orders drone strikes against American citizens, would shoot journalists on site, and disbands the FBI. It is understood he is a bad hombre, but economically it is also understood that if you are going to make a 50 million R rated independent film, you best not alienate half your potential audience. So the movie focuses on the world the journalists are trying to capture. “You don’t want to miss this” Sammy says to Jess as they look out the window to a highway of abandoned cars, the world that once was- gone and these characters haven’t really noticed. A suicide bomber runs flag-in-hand into a group of protesters and detonates right next to them, and the next scene Lee is complaining about is the Wi-Fi. It feels good that if the end of the world is this close we can at least get comfortable with it, as we become more desensitized to violence surrounding us. The movie is too politically uprooted, inspired more by action films like Children of Men than the politics of today (thankfully) to change minds, but it at least gives heavy users on both sides of the political spectrum something to talk with each other about. Its a film both sides can enjoy. What makes this Alex Garland’s best film is that for once he is aware of what he can’t say and doesn’t try to explain it. What I can say is that I can see this doing the rounds on television for years to come, particularly that Jesse Plemons part.
Grade: A- / [8/10]
Written and Directed by Alex Garland
an A24 release
Budget: $50 million
Release Date: April 12th everywhere (3,800+ theatres, it is the widest release for an R-rated independent movie)
When & Where will Civil War be on streaming? HBO in the U.S. / (likely Crave in Canada) late summer
Running Time: 1 hr. 56 mins.
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, with Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen Mckinley Henderson
Box Office: $66 Million
FilmGamer 