Civil War (2024) – Review

2024   •   A24

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  49min

Action ~ Thriller ~ War

Director:  Alex Garland

Writer:  Alex Garland

Stars:  Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman.

All Empires Fall…

Kirsten Dunst stars as Lee Smith, a renowned War Photojournalist and Wagner Moura stars as Joel, a Journalist from Florida. The two are in New York City covering the ongoing Civil War in America when Lee helps a young aspiring photojournalist named Jesse Cullen(Cailee Spaeny) who has been injured while covering a group of rioters.

Lee, Joel, Jesse and Lee’s Mentor Sammy(Stephen McKinley Henderson) plan to drive from New York City across I-80 to Pittsburgh to avoid the fighting south of the city and then southeast to Washington D.C. where the Western Forces and The Florida Alliance are set to converge. They plan to interview The President before The Western Forces and The Florida Alliance get there and try to overthrow the Government.

What follows is a cinematic look at Civil War in our country and the horrors the group of Photojournalists encounter along their journey to Washington D.C.. War is not pretty, it is humanity at it’s worst. And that is fully portrayed in this movie. It is two stories rolled into one. The Civil War in America between a third term President residing over an Authoritarian Government he has helped create, and the nineteen Secessionist states that make up The Western Forces of Texas and California and The Florida Alliance. And the story of war photojournalists and what they experience in the course of their work.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination unfortunately to see this film becoming a reality in The United States. It is graphic, again war isn’t pretty. “What’s so Civil about war, anyway?” It is thought provoking and it is a glimpse into a life I could never imagine living. Going into the middle of the chaos to document for the rest of the world to see, while knowingly putting yourself in grave danger.

I think it’s a great story and a great movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will watch it again.

Two thumbs up!