REVIEW: CIVIL WAR
Cailee Spaeny as Jessie - via A24
“Would you photograph that moment? If I got shot?”
“What do you think?”
I cannot tell a lie: I liked Civil War. Sure, its low points range from mildly cheugy to deeply politically embarrassing, but it ultimately succeeds at its goal — which, thankfully, is not the one the trailers advertise. What could very easily have been an edgy, weak-politicked film with Too Much To Say about the State Of America is instead, to my shock and delight, a thrilling, often-clever, character-driven film about the voyeuristic draw of journalism.
Between Alex Garland’s Britishness and the film’s stubborn refusal to politicize the titular war, the America of Civil War gains an unrecognizable — even fantastical — sheen. I don’t know that I can call that “good,” but I’m choosing to call it “something I liked.” The colors are all off (baby blue and lilac paint? Is this a Californian-Texan secessionist movement or a gender reveal?) and half the people they meet talk like cartoon characters. But Civil War isn’t really that interested in the world, thematically or visually: aside from the many looks we get through Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Jessie’s (Cailee Spaeny) cameras, most of the film is shot in extremely shallow focus (and it looks great — Rob Hardy is putting on a masterclass here).
Against such a muddy backdrop, the main characters stand out in sharp relief. We follow them on a road trip that’s part Children of Men, part Logan (for better and for worse), each acting out their own chapters of the same moth-to-flame fairytale. The performances do exactly what they need to do (and, to my mind, are very good). The characters’ neutrality on — even indifference to — the war lends them an interesting angle: they are not heroes, like some reviewers have claimed, but a group of solemn addicts hooked on Getting the Shot. Because of this, the film is built on implied moral questions rarely seen outside of documentaries; my impression on a first watch is that it engages with them well, or at least cinematically.
All in all, it’s compelling enough — and uncanny enough — that I’m inclined to forgive the very occasional glimpses of the film’s bad (or at least Britishly-misinformed) politics. In a film more interested in being prescient, offhand mentions of the “ANTIFA massacre” (dude?) and the “Portland Maoists” would bother me more; as it stands, they’re just pieces of set dressing as odd and whimsical as the “Western Forces” of California and Texas. This is not to say Civil War is perfect — in fact, I would still call it an overall misguided film with an often-clunky screenplay — but I’m pleasantly surprised to be calling this a Pretty Good Movie, and I take those kinds of wins where I can get them. I won’t tell you to run to the theater, but you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong to walk.
Kirsten Dunst as Lee - via A24
In the week since I saw Civil War (and since I wrote this review), my friends and I have only grown more divided over it. I know people who, like me, are glad it didn’t position itself as some kind of political authority; others are frustrated by its lack of politics and, frankly, world-building. Among people who haven’t seen it, I’ve talked to some who were worried it would be an alt-right fantasy, and others who assumed it was a neoliberal jerk-off sesh. My take is that, in true silly little movie fashion, it’s both all and none of these things at once. It’s such a political void (which I think is very much by design) that it becomes a Rorschach test, where — because the trailers were so universally received as cringy — people see the thing that will make them the most mad. I don’t think there’s anything too wrong with that (far be it from me, the world’s number one proponent of Just Letting Movies Hit You, to stop people from doing so) — but based on the way it hit me, I do think it’s a bit unfair. You don’t have to like what it’s doing, but wishing it was something entirely different — a speculative piece about the factors that would drive the US to a second civil war, for example, or a cautionary tale about the dangers of political extremism — isn’t really engaging with the text at all. And with so many members of the cast and creative team giving Civil War their all, I really do feel that that’s the least we owe them.
