Civil War (2024)

	Directed by: Alex Garland	COUNTRY UK/USA GENRE Dystopian action/thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Civil War RUNNING TIME 109 minutes
	Produced by: Andrew Macdonald Allon Reich Gregory Goodman
	Written by: Alex Garland

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Lee Smith	Kirsten Dunst
Joel	Wagner Moura
Jessie Collin	Cailee Spaeny	½
Sammy	Stephen McKinley Henderson	½
Anya	Sonoya Mizuno	-
Dave	Jefferson White	-
Tony	Nelson Lee	-
Eddie	Edmund Donovan	-
President of the United States	Nick Offerman	-
Soldier (uncredited)	Jesse Plemons	-

Review

Alex Garland can certainly paint a picture, which he does again with his latest film, Civil War – a dystopian peek into a future United States at war with itself. There are some very strong aspects to this film, one of which is that in contrast to most (post)-apocalyptic fiction, we're freed from the cliched family drama of dad going to superhuman lengths to save his beloved family in the midst of the chaos. In Civil War, we instead follow a handful of war journalists who set out on a dangerous journey across the war-stricken country, from New York City to Washington, D.C. Their goal is to interview the massively unpopular president before he is overthrown by the so-called Western Forces, a secessionist movement. Garland's vision has an evocative realism to it; the conflict is depicted as widespread and devastating, but not magnified into absurdity for cinematic effect. So when our little team of photojournalists drive from settlement to settlement, encountering various effects of the civil war along the way, you can relate to them, and sometimes also to the factions they are set to report on. Still, there is something missing in Garland's artistic vision. The film is a document, not really a narrative. And the passing of the torch from the weary, disillusioned veteran (Kirsten Dunst) to the young idealist (Cailee Speany) is a far too slight and obvious device to really strike a chord.