Civil War

Director: Alex Garland

17 April 2024

See

Him: Lee (Kirsten Dunst), Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) are a team of journalists reporting on the civil war between the United States with California and Texas. They’re joined by aspiring conflict photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and set out on a roadtrip to interview the President (Nick Offerman).

Think

Him: It’s a road movie, but like Children of Men, in that you become intimate with the characters, with the landscape being a post-apocalyptic society, one that’s tearing itself apart, in a prescient way foreshadowing it happening in the U.S. or U.K. The group travers the country and see modern horrors like ethnic cleansing, previously depicted on screen as happening in places far from the West, like Bosnia and Serbia in the 1990s.

Feel

Him: Jesse Plemmon’s scene blew me away. When did he become so intense, like Daniel Day-Lewis? Being a journalist it’s uncomfortable suspending disbelief when watching actors portray my occupation on screen. Most journos liked Spotlight as accurate and getting the subtleties right. Lee’s remark about sending photos of man’s inhumanity to man in distant locations would get those at home to spot repeating those mistakes. It was on the nose, but true in terms of motivation of why do it. After the film, I turned to my friend and asked when the U.S election is. November.