The A24 film, ‘Civil War,’ has been on my radar for a few months now. Once I took a look at the gripping trailer for this film, it automatically got my attention.
Now, the latest film from the small studio is now showing on the big screen and this film ended up being very moving and gripping.
From highly acclaimed filmmaker Alex Garland (Men; Ex Machina) comes a journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
‘Civil War’ is a gripping film that delivers quite a few captivating moments that also helps build the emotion that’s felt throughout.
This film can be really exhilarating at times and there are some moments that do feature some tense action moments. Now, even though ‘Civil War’ does deliver some invigorating action, it’s not as action-packed as the trailers suggest.
The action that is featured in this film is really tense and some of it is in the POV of the journalists that are on their way to Washington DC. There are several impactful moments that are really effective and emotional. The entire third act that shows how bad things are at Washington DC is eye-opening and is one of the most powerful moments in the entire film.
One scene that is extremely tense (and a little bit is featured in the trailers) is when a small group of militants have the journalists at gunpoint and you do get a slightly uneasy feeling that something bad might happen. The actor that plays the main militant (an uncredited Jesse Plemmons) really steals the show in this pivotal scene.
The journalists that we follow throughout the film have their own little moments where we see that some of what is going on is slowly getting to them. All of the performances from the lead actors who portray the journalists are really great, especially in their highly emotional scenes.
‘Civil War’ is a thought-provoking film that shouldn’t be missed on the big screen. Filled with great performances, tense moments and a really tense third act, this film shows that the A24 studio has another winner to add to their filmography.
The cast: Kirsten Dunst as Lee; Wagner Moura as Joel; Jefferson White as Dave; Nelson Lee as Tony; Evan Lai as Bohai; Cailee Spaeny as Jessie; Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy; Sonoya Mizuno as Anya and Nick Offerman as the President.
‘Civil War’ is written and directed by Alex Garland, who has worked on ‘Ex Machina,’ ‘28 Days Later,’ ‘Annihilation’ and ‘Dredd.’ It’s been stated that Garland will be focusing primarily on screen-writing after this film.
‘Civil War’ had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival on March 14, with favorable reactions from the audience and positive critic reviews. The film ended up being A24’s first film to open at the No. 1 spot.
‘Civil War’ is rated R for strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images and language throughout and has a running time of 109 minutes.
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