Civil War
(2024)

Civil War ⏳

The acclaimed writer/director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) has returned with a dystopian war drama that takes place in a version of the United States of America that has succumbed to a Second Civil War.

As tensions rise across the nation, the united fronts of California and Texas, along with the Florida Alliance, look to take down the dictatorship that now resides within the White House.

This leads a team of journalists to travel through the fractured state lines to cover the inevitable and impending attack on the White House, where they capture and witness the war crimes that are being committed by civilian militias across the nation.

As calm, cool, and collected as these journalists are during this road trip from hell, it is a horrifying feeling to consume something that feels so close to the reality we currently live in.

I always need to remind myself that the arguments and loud discourse that take place online are not a reflection of what’s going on in the real world, but watching this made me feel like that version of the online world had come to life.

This shines a creative light on America in a way no other piece of media has done before. When we watch war movies coming out of Hollywood, it’s always the Russians as the bad guys, or the Middle East, or China, but this reverses that normally utilized script by making the Americans their own worst enemy.

The moment in that movie that captures that perfectly is when Jesse Plemon’s character asks the journalists, “What kind of American are you?” in a disturbing entanglement that will have you on the edge of your seat and encompasses the entire fractioning of these Divided States of America.

The war itself is integral to the story, but the heart of it belongs to the passion for journalism, getting the truth out to the masses, and the toll it takes being on the front lines.

It does such a great job of intertwining these newly forged relationships between the old guard, the current regime, and the next generation of journalists, which incredibly parallel the lives of those who have lived through real wars, those who have become numb by watching wars from afar, and the ones who have lived through so much peace that they aren’t sure how to cope with the tragedy in front of them.

I will say it does take a second to settle into everything that’s going on, but the peaks and valleys end up being just breadcrumbs when compared to the mind-blowing ending that will have you in a vice grip for the last 20 minutes.

It’s honestly one of the wildest-shot sequences I’ve seen on screen. I didn’t even realize I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, until the credits rolled. Then I exhaled and had to take a second to take in everything I had just seen.

Civil War is a relentless ticking time bomb that will have viewers leaving the theatre like they just lived the onscreen experience, with an uncomfortable amount of realism in what feels like a warning for what awaits the modern world.

Enjoy!

7.8/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr49mins
Where: Only In Theatres April 12th

Civil War Review (2024) The Richmond Reviewer -  April 8th, 2024.

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