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Civil War<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violent content, bloody\/disturbing images, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alex Garland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Garland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Rob Hardy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 12, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, Nelson Lee, Evan Lai, Sonoya Mizuno, Jefferson White, Juani Feliz, Edmund Donovan, Jesse Plemons.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Of all the scary movies released in the past few weeks, Civil War<\/strong> is the scariest one of all. It paints a frightening portrait of a very possible scenario, one that could come to pass if America doesn\u2019t get its act together. Written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), it depicts a dystopian America engulfed in a second Civil War. Americans are fighting other Americans for murky reasons having to do with a dictator-like President (Offerman, Parks and Recreation) serving his third term in office. Is it mere coincidence that it\u2019s being released in an election year? Hmmm, I wonder.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Despite appearances to the contrary, Civil War<\/strong> is NOT another end-of-the-world disaster movie. It more closely resembles films like Under Fire, The Killing Fields and Salvador all of which dealt with American journalists covering wars in foreign countries. In Civil War<\/strong>, they\u2019re on their own turf taking pictures of the horrors of war. They are hardened photojournalist Lee (Dunst, Spider-Man 1-3), her colleague Joel (Moura, Elite Squad 1 & 2), veteran journalist Sammy (Henderson, Fences) and aspiring photojournalist Jessie (Spaeny, Priscilla). They\u2019re travelling from New York City to Washington D.C. in hopes of getting an interview with the President before the WF (Western Forces) makes their final assault. Some of the things they witness along the way…… they\u2019re horrific!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Garland does a lot of unexpected things with Civil War<\/strong> like dropping us right into the thick of the action with nary a word of backstory or expository dialogue about how we got to where we are now. We have to infer a lot. He doesn\u2019t even give us a clear picture of who \u201cthe good guys\u201d are? Who are we supposed to root for? It\u2019s impossible to say. Besides it\u2019s not really the point of the movie.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0At its core, Civil War<\/strong> is a searing drama about journalistic ethics and how far the characters will go to get their story. What price are they willing to pay? Their souls or even their lives? So it would seem judging by how they constantly put themselves in harm\u2019s way, snapping photos while bullets whiz past them, sometimes missing by inches. The character most at war with herself is Jessie, a young girl who idolizes Lee and wants to be just like her. At least that\u2019s what she thinks when she hitches a ride with the group. What she sees….. well, it isn\u2019t pretty. To say it rattles her is a gross understatement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0There are moments in Civil War<\/strong> that will remain seared into my brain for eternity. The one that really stands out is when the group encounters a small band of nationalist soldiers (led by Dunst\u2019s real-life hubby Jesse Plemons in an unbilled cameo) dumping bodies into a mass grave. Hostile doesn\u2019t even begin to cover their interaction as it becomes clear they might not walk away from this situation intact. You don\u2019t have to be a political expert to understand who Garland is pointing his finger at here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The acting in Civil War<\/strong> is uniformly superb. Dunst nails it as a seasoned reporter who doesn\u2019t get rattled. It\u2019s the job; you just have to suck it up. That\u2019s the lesson she tries to impart to Spaeny\u2019s na\u00efve newbie. She\u2019s equally great in her role. I\u2019m telling you, this girl is going to be a big star and soon. If you don\u2019t believe, check out last year\u2019s Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla. She should have been nominated for an Oscar. Henderson is terrific as the older, wiser reporter who writes for \u201cwhat\u2019s left of The New York Times\u201d. He walks slowly with a cane which makes him a liability in battle situations, but he\u2019s not ready to chuck it in just yet. He\u2019s still got plenty of determination left in him. Moura, an actor I\u2019m not familiar with, does fine work as the South American-born journalist determined to interview the President even though it could cost him his life. This particular Commander-in-Chief has an intense dislike for reporters. He has them killed if they get too close. Uh…. yeah. Let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0All in all, Civil War<\/strong> is an outstanding, fascinating and sometimes harrowing drama about a possible futurist hellhole America. Garland does some seriously awesome world-building here, creating a nightmarish place where bombs go off and gunfire erupts at all hours. Another scene that stands out is when the group stops in a small, peaceful town seemingly untouched by the ongoing war. It\u2019s a reminder of the place America used to be and might not ever be again unless it can get its s*** together. I\u2019d tell you not to read too much into Civil War<\/strong>, but why bother? It\u2019s going to spark discussion and debate. It\u2019s definitely going to be divisive. Is that a bad thing?<\/p>\r\n Civil War (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violent content, bloody\/disturbing images, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alex Garland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Garland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Rob Hardy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 12, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, Nelson Lee, Evan Lai, Sonoya Mizuno, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Civil-War-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Civil-War-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C918&ssl=1\")
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