Civil War

Debating what Alex Garland’s best project is has just got a whole lot harder.

The much talked about and hyped Civil War breaks the doors down to take a seat at the top table of not just Garland’s stacked oeuvre, and not just 2024’s even more stacked year to date, but possibly even beyond that.

It’s important to note that the amount of chatter about the film and the marketing campaign may be setting you up for something that it is not.

This is not the next action blockbuster franchise, this is not the essential statement on American politics in an election year, this is not really ‘commercial’ filmmaking.

It is, in line with many other A24 productions, an ‘Auteurist’ film, an ‘art’ film, a boundary pushing project. It is also pulse-pounding, thrilling, thought-provoking and staggering to behold.

It is wildly different but also familiar. It is harrowing but also welcoming. It is everything, everywhere and all at once.

We follow four journalists as they travel to Washington to try and interview the President as an imagined civil war nears its end and the combined states of California and Texas appear on the verge of victory. Suggestions are made that this President is of far-right (bordering on Fascist) persuasion and the war was started with him using warheads on his own civilians.

Not much is suggested apart from this as to why the war started, indeed not much is shown of the war itself really, and this is where some may be disappointed.

I understand the political argument and can also understand why this may cause some to not enjoy or even actively dislike the film. Likewise, the angle of following seemingly neutral journalists, and all of the baggage that in itself entails and leaves to discussion, is another polarising aspect.

For me, I find that Garland has gone down the right route and think this slightly Black Mirror-esque direction will give the film a better sense of ‘timelessness’ in future.

I also think the war photography angle is equally interesting and creates another prescient argument of unbiased documentation, whether this is in itself morally wrong and whether historical accuracy is more important to the future than blurred morals in the present.

Its spiritual forebear, and easiest comparison point, may therefore be Inglourious Basterds. An imagined alt-setting carried away from the core elements of the conflict but featuring exquisitely composed and executed ‘set piece’ style elements.

Like that film, this is an incredible cinematic experience of set pieces and images. Beautiful, tense, well paced, well scripted and well acted.

Everything here is simply stunning and all of that record A24 budget has been put to good use.

Taking everything else away, as a piece of cinema this is nigh on perfect and an essential watch. Hell, it might just be the film of the year.

A civil war could break out with just opinions on this film alone. I, for one, am thoroughly on its side.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️