Civil War

In cinemas now

Civil War doesn’t immediately feel like an Alex Garland film.

Its promotional material gave it the veneer of an action flick not dissimilar to Gerard Butler’s Olympus Has Fallen, with its central protagonists seemingly attempting to navigate an America that is devoid of presidential governance. Nonetheless, those familiar with Garland’s filmography will have known to expect more from a writer-director that has delivered features as existential as Annihilation and Ex Machina, and we are subsequently given a thriller that, above all else, serves as a celebration of war correspondents and the lengths they go to document the defining political and social events of today.

With that in mind - and perhaps I’m being overly sensitive here - it feels a little misguided for Garland to be releasing a picture about a fictitious war when conflicts are actually ongoing in Israel, Ukraine, and further afield. Still, if one elects to view Civil War as something of a cautionary tale, especially in a year when Donald Trump is back on the election campaign, it works well enough, thanks in no small part to committed lead performances from Wagner Moura and in particular Kirsten Dunst. There is also a show-stealing cameo from Dunst’s husband Jesse Plemons that simply has to be seen to be believed.

Other elements of Civil War do not work as well, specifically its at times cumbersome pacing and, more pressingly, Cailee Spaeny’s character, who has the irritating habit of making nonsensical decisions that jeopardise the wellbeing of more interesting characters. As proven earlier this year in Priscilla, Spaeny is a fine actor but this role fails to get the best out of her undoubted talents and is to the detriment of the film’s overall credibility.

Still, with frequent Garland collaborators Rob Hardy and Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow respectively on DP and composition duties, Civil War still has the hallmark of the sort of ambitious, thought-provoking cinema that this director has come to be known for.