Content Advisory: Excessive or gratuitous violence, Racism
A group of journalists try to make their way through a country at war to attempt to interview the president in Civil War. After the President of the United States (Nick Offerman) threw the country in disarray the Florida Alliance and Western Forces of Texas and California split off from the country and declared war against the Loyalist States. As the Western Forces come close to storming Washington D.C., photojournalist Lee (Kirsten Dunst) drives off with her colleagues Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) in an attempt to interview the President before he is killed. On the journey, Lee reluctantly becomes a mentor to Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young photographer who wants to follow in Lee’s footsteps.
Civil War Synopsis
Civil War is a dystopian war film written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men), taking place in a divided America of the near future. The film is told from the perspective of a group of journalists driving a perilous 870-mile route from New York City to Washington D.C., witnessing along the way how this Civil War has brought out the worst in humanity. At the narrative core are Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) and Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) as world-weary photojournalist Lee and her young protege Jessie, the latter comes to learn the difficulties and challenges of covering warzones.
My Thoughts on Civil War
As a British filmmaker, Alex Garland has a decidedly outsider perspective, as he directs a film that is not so vaguely inspired by the current political situation in the United States. Seen and heard predominantly through his regular broadcasts, Nick Offerman’s Trump-like US President is described as someone whose crimes include abolishing term limits and disbanding the FBI. Civil War begins as the President is on the verge of losing to the Western Forces and the central group of journalists hope to make it to Washington D.C. in time to get a final interview with him.
Despite depicting events that have a non-zero chance of actually happening, Civil War ends up being not as disturbing as it could have been. That said, the film features affecting moments such as bodies strewn across the streets of New York City and a very memorable and tense sequence featuring, star Kirsten Dunst’s husband, Jesse Plemons as a very racist and trigger-habby anonymous soldier. Even a scene of levity in a supposedly normal town is disrupted when Sammy, played as the film’s voice of reason by Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune), notices armed soldiers patrolling on the rooftops.
Props have to be given to Kirsten Dunst for taking such a challenging role, in response to her only being offered “sad mom” roles after her previous performance in 2021’s The Power of the Dog. Dunst works nicely as a reluctant mentor of Cailee Spaeny’s Jessie, with Spaeny being much more memorable here than she was last year in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. That said, I found that Wagner Moura (Narcos, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) ended up being the least memorable of the core cast members.
While I was generally a fan of Alex Garland’s previous directorial effects, as well as his collaborations with director Danny Boyle, Civil War does hit a bit too close to current events to be viewed as escapist entertainment. However, in some ways, Civil War doesn’t hit close enough and by the final act is just another war film that just happens to be set on American soil.
Purchase Civil War from Amazon
