"DC is falling and the president is dead inside a month. Interviewing him is the only story left."
If ever there was a film to leave you 'a bit shook' in 2024, it's Civil War. This teeth-clenching thriller is superbly paced, feels mercilessly realistic, and sees Kirsten Dunst and her co-stars doing some of the best work of their careers when an America of the near future takes its last gasp.
Dunst is brilliant as Lee Smith, a legendary combat photographer who has seen too much and rolled the dice more than she cares to remember. Fate finds Lee and her reporter colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) hitting the battle-ravaged road with grandee newspaperman Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and rookie amateur Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) in tow. It's 857 miles to Washington DC, and the secessionists of the Western Forces are preparing to cross the Potomac...
This is a classic example of a writer-director being made for the job. In the Nineties, Alex Garland showcased survivalist smarts with his debut novel The Beach. Then, he wrote the screenplay for 2002's post-apocalyptic favourite 28 Days Later. When the iconic comic hero Judge Dredd was finally ready for his close-up in 2012, Garland was at the keyboard to bring the dystopia of Mega City One to the big screen. In 2014, he gave us future chills with Ex Machina - his first outing as writer-director - and followed it with the quarantine horror of Annihilation in 2018. Now, many will regard Civil War as his finest hour. It is certainly the most urgent.
Allied to the suspense and set pieces is a very human story about the incremental loss of empathy, the universalisation of 'the enemy', and the domino effect on the psyche. As terrifying as Civil War becomes, it is also desperately sad. Rarely do films that are so big on action have such important things to say, but that's what happens here. Garland and co have done the world some service - and there can never be enough of that.
There is so much to ponder afterwards. While watching, you'll be welded to the seat.
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