Pops Saw a Movie: CIVIL WAR

Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR could have been a powerful film. It could’ve been a chilling indictment of blind allegiance to an autocratic President. It could’ve talked about the ever-increasing divide that threatens to rip this country apart. It could’ve been a smart satire about the kind of apathy and ignorance that allow great democracies to crumble. Alas, CIVIL WAR is none of that. It’s actually little more than a rote action film with cardboard-thin characters, almost no plot to speak of, and worst of all, way too many unanswered questions. 

I was actually stunned at how flat this film is (and warning, there are spoilers coming, so stop now if you want to see it and make up your own mind). Garland’s at least tinkered with inscrutability before, and it’s obvious that his priority as a filmmaker is crafting memorable imagery over a cohesive narrative, but this movie isn’t exactly science fiction… it’s more speculative horror, and I wanted… no, I NEEDED it to tell me more. 

The gist is, America (this one) is in the midst of a Civil War incurred by a dangerous President who’s lurched into a despotic rule (he’s in his third term), in which there are numerous factions, the major ones being the Loyalist States (comprising the entire northeast and stretching across the Midwest all the way to Nevada) and the Western Forces, being a teaming of Texas and California. No, for real. We are supposed to believe that CALIFUCKINGORNIA and TEEEYAHHHXAS team up to battle the evil autocratic government. Never has a creative decision made for purely commercial reasons (being, of course, not wanting to alienate potential Red or Blue viewers) had a more detrimental impact on a screenplay, as not for one second can anyone possibly believe this unlikely team-up.

But even if I could accept the WF as it is in the film, it’s just one of way too many unexplained things. Exactly what else did President Nick Offerman (the character isn’t named) do besides give himself a third term? What’s happening in the rest of the country? Why are there zero cars on the highway besides the press vehicles (is this a Hanna-Barbera cartoon?)? Why is New York okay with all of this? How has this impacted culture? And who designed the WF’s logo? 

Nothing in the film is earned. Thinly-developed characters don’t evolve, they just suddenly change. Hardened, grizzled journalists (played by Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura) and one wide-eyed wannabe photographer (Cailee Spaeny) just suddenly swap behaviors in the third act seemingly based on one traumatic event, leading to a climax that’s utterly predictable and carries no weight. 

Then again, nothing in this film carries weight. It teases depth, but never delivers. It’s like Garland had the idea to make a movie about America in the midst of a new Civil War, but wrote the screenplay without doing any hard work to make it feel believable. Unless the message of the film is simply, “Images are important,” CIVIL WAR fails to live up to its vast, urgent, and important potential.