‘I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. And I’ve never felt more alive...’
Over the last 10 years, British director Alex Garland has emerged as one of cinema’s most singular voices. Having burst onto the scene as a writer with The Beach and 28 Days Later, Garland entered the world of filmmaking with 2014’s classic Ex-Machina. Since then, from Annihilation to Men and now with Civil War, Garland has proved himself as perhaps his generation’s most talented director…
Civil War drops the audience in the middle of… you guessed it… a civil war. Set in a dystopian America in the not-too-distant future, Garland wastes no time with table setting. Rebel factions descend on the White House. We don’t know why or who we should be rooting for but it is implied that the president (Nick Offerman) is probably a bad man. Instead, the film presents us with four journalists. Veteran writer Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), his fellow scribe Joel (Wagner Moura) and intrepid war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) reluctantly team up with rookie photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) to document the last days of a dying empire. Along the way, they encounter the horrors of war in all of its beautiful grotesquerie.
The message here is that extremism in all of its forms is bad. War is hell. Conflict only leads to relentless terror. Hardly a new message but that’s beside the point. By using a pair of war photographers to drive the plot, Garland is doing what they do – dispassionately presenting us with the harsh realities of warfare and allowing us to make our own minds up. It’s a neat trick and it forces the audience to be complicit in the bloodshed and mayhem presented on screen. I don’t want to waste too much time on messaging, however. It’s boring. More importantly, this is a human story told with incredible skill and panache. Visually, it’s probably one of the most arresting films of the year. It’s frighteningly accurate. Garland takes the division and hatred seen across America and beyond and uses it to paint a canvas of large-scale destruction. The sound design is also striking. Loud but with a real punch and purpose. Not just noise for noise’s sake.
Garland has always had a knack for getting the best out of his performers and the principal cast works hard together to create something that feels authentic and lived in. Spaeny, coming off the back of a tremendous performance in Priscilla, is similarly compelling here, and the bond that she builds with Dunst’s character forms the backbone for the film’s considerable success. You can see the hero worship anytime Jessie looks at Lee and it’s a testament to Spaeny that she pulls it off so convincingly.
If this is to be Garland’s last film as a director for a while (as he has suggested) then it is an incredible way to sign off. One of the best films of the year.