During the pandemic, particularly in the early days as the death toll overseas rose, I often found myself obsessively rewatching Steven Soderbergh’s astonishingly prescient 2011 medical disaster thriller Contagion.
Civil War, the latest movie from British novelist-turned-film-maker Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Men), invites a similar feeling of excited fear and apprehension. Set in a future that could as easily be next week as next year, his tale about an Un-united States of America at war with itself is thrilling, frightening and worryingly prophetic.
Kirsten Dunst is superb as world-weary photojournalist Lee Miller, a dead-eyed veteran who’s seen enough to not only know when to dive for cover as a flag-bearing bomber runs past, but who, without emotion, keeps shooting in the immediate, corpse-strewn aftermath.
Lee and her writer colleague Joel (Wagner Moura, Narcos) are en route to Washington DC to try to interview the totalitarian president (Garland’s lead in TV series Devs, Nick Offerman). Accompanied by a sage veteran New York Times reporter Sammy (the excellent Stephen McKinley Henderson), and 23-year-old aspiring photographer Jessie, played by Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), the odd foursome undertake a perilous road trip across embattled states.
Unlike other dystopian stories, generally told from the perspective of soldiers or civilians, the gripping Civil War is seen entirely through the eyes of these war correspondents. But this war is in the US and isn’t a north-south rematch but has the allied forces of the seceded states of California and Texas advancing east across a fractured republic.
Without explaining anyone’s political motivations, Garland’s film becomes a commentary on how humans respond to conflict, rather than an authorial judgment on a specific viewpoint.
On their journey east, the team embed with various unidentified military groups, where they film torture, glee and outright murder. All the actors are brilliant, portraying their characters as alternately empathetic, exhilarated and crucially, non-judgmental.
Midway through the movie, Garland encapsulates the reason for art in a crumbling world. “We don’t ask [questions],” Lee tells novice Jessie. “We record so others ask.” In its observational, non-polemical way, Civil War strikes a timely chord.
Rating out of 5: ★★★★½
Civil War, directed by Alex Garland, is in cinemas now.