Review: Civil War
Official synopsis: A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists, Lee (Kirsten Dunst) Joel, (Wagner Moura) Sammy, (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and tag along Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
As soon as I heard "Western forces of Texas and California" in the trailer, I knew this movie was going to be apolitical. The "why" of this war isn't even vaguely addressed. You can read between the lines a bit here and there, but really this is a film about war photographers, not the civil war named in the title. When you go into it with that in mind, it will make for a much better watch.
Lee is tired. She's seen too much, she's practically on auto pilot throughout this entire film and she's trying to provide just enough advice to young Jessie while also keeping her at arms length. It's their relationship that's the crux of the film, and in my opinion also the biggest downfall. Jessie's character exists to cause trouble. She's young and impulsive, and she gets plenty of people killed along the way. It made it impossible to like her and it made Lee's protectiveness of her implausible. And the thing is, I don't think the movie even needed her. I think it could've gone on just fine with Lee, Sammy and Joel. It's just an added inconvenience for drama.
The ending makes the film lose several points for me. It's acted well, the sound design is great, but in the end it's very middle of the road.
Grade: C+
if it was a good movie about war photographers, they should feel real, understood and coherent. neither this movie nor its filmmaker seem to really understand their job. that was a big problem for me as a viewer
ReplyDeleteI can agree with that. Especially Jessie, who is just inexplicable as a character. I think the film would've been better without her, and just focusing on fleshing out the other three.
DeleteI liked this a lot more than I expected to. I appreciated Garland's approach in that he knows people will bring their own politics to his movie. I think he's much more interested in showing the horror of a possible future if we don't realize the roles we all play. That really worked for me. Interested in seeing it again to see if I feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I expected to be very bothered by the lack of politics in it, but I also ended up enjoying it more than i thought.
DeleteI thought about seeing this in the theaters but I think I'll wait when it's available for streaming. At least it's good to see Kirsten Dunst get another box office win as there's been some career retrospectives about her lately as I'm glad she's getting lots of praise and attention. Now where's her fucking Oscar?!
ReplyDeleteYes. I'm always here for a Kiki win, even if I don't love the movie.
DeleteI missed the press screening for this but come to think of it, I think I'd feel more comfortable watching this at home on streaming. Even though Garland said the movie isn't political, I feel like some people would still take offense against it.
ReplyDeleteI could see that, it's not a bad watch at home!
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