Cinema can be a powerful source of projecting what is happening today. Looking back to the 70s, one can see the paranoia of post-Vietnam and the 80s for its Regean-ite freedom and greed of the rich. Now, we are in a world where war seems to fill the news agenda, and America is divided politically. It seems almost apt that Alex Garland, the writer of 28 Days Later, and the writer and director of films like Ex-Machina, Annihilation and Men, should produce Civil War, a tale of what would happen to the USA if lawlessness ruled the country and a president out of control. What we get is not just another war movie but more a horror that will take your breath away.

America has been at war with itself ever since the President gave himself a third term, disbanded the FBI and encouraged states to fight each other. Caught up in the crossfire are photojournalist Lee, reporters Joel and Sammy and a young photographer, Jessie, who dreams of being like Lee. This band heads from New York to Washington, D.C., to interview the President before the main troops hit the capital. Their journey brings a chance to grow closer, experience the fighting first-hand, and face death at every turn.

Garland’s film is clever in its ambigiousness. It would have been easy to put the events of recent years at the centre of the story. Instead, this is an anonymous President with no political party being mentioned. He also doesn’t focus on which side is fighting which. In one of the film’s most memorable and powerful scenes, an unnamed soldier retorts when Joel says he’s an American by saying, “What kind of American are you?”

What Garland does is make us follow a journey through this war-torn country with these journalists and how they see events. They are neutral, only finding themselves at the forefront of the war as they cross the various towns. This is a war and road movie, where nothing is planned, but they stumble on things. The sights they see are, quite frankly, inhumane and horrific. Bodies round every turn, locals warmed up and ready to shoot anyone who crosses their paths and, in one scene, caught up in a full-blown battle. Yet these people are unarmed, apart from their cameras, and they have one goal: to get that one photo that will tell the story of this war.

The film takes its time to tell the tale of these four people. Lee, a veteran of war zones, has almost become immune to the violence and death. Joel, a reporter desperate for that one quote he can use from the President, hides behind a bottle and a joint. Sammy is an ageing reporter who doesn’t want to go to the capital but just hitches a ride while throwing out words of wisdom. Finally, there’s Jessie, a young, naive girl who idolises Lee and doesn’t know what it’s like to photograph a war. We are with these characters the whole way, and we get to feel exactly how they feel: scared, shocked and desperate.

Garland manages to get the audience to live every inch of this world. The soundscape is incredible, surrounding the cinema with gunfire, choppers flying overhead and a score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury that cuts through you.

The performances are electric. Kirsten Dunst as Lee is magnificent. Every inch of her face shows the pain and suffering she has experienced in every war she has photographed. It’s one of her finest performances to date. Wagner Moura, best known for playing Pablo Escobar in the TV series Narcos, is delighted as a man who tries to enjoy his position in life yet seems to spend most of it in a bottle of vodka. Stephen McKinley Henderson, whose screen credits include Dune Part One, brings an air of dignity and quiet wisdom to the proceedings, and Cailee Spaeny, who was so good in the title role of Priscilla, is showing she is a very versatile actress as the innocent Jessie. Speaking of Jessie’s, Kirsten Dunst’s husband, Jesse Plemons, almost steals the film as the quietly spoken unknown soldier in the film’s heart-stopping scenes.

Civil War is a powerhouse of a movie. Brilliant, unforgiving and incredibly shocking. You will think you are going into one type of film from the evidence of the trailer, but it’s not that movie. It’s a film that will shake you to your core and leave you breathless. A stunning, horrific piece of cinema. Let’s just hope that this is only a movie.

5 out of 5

Director: Alex Garland

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons, Jefferson White, Nelson Lee

Written by: Alex Garland

Running Time: 109 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 12th April 2024