It’s all going on at SXSW at the moment. We would send somebody, but nobody would volunteer to go to Austin. The latest on the reveal-roster was Alex Garland (Dredd, 28 Days Later) with the world premiere of Civil War.
As you know by now, the story takes place in a very near-future USA that has fractured into factions after several states seceded from the Union. Civil War follows a warzone photographer and others making their way across the country as it falls apart.
Many outlets are carrying the comments made by Garland in a Q&A after the screening. He was very clear that this is most definitely not a commentary on the upcoming US election. He wrote this story four years ago. Reviews also say the movie deftly avoids taking sides or presenting anything so simple as a left vs. right or Prog vs. MAGA.
In an interview with The Playlist he said it was rather to show “American exceptionalism” as misguided, and feeling immune to the problems of other countries is mistaken:
“One of the things history shows us is that nobody is immune. Nobody is exceptional. And if we don’t apply rationality and decency and thoughtfulness to these problems, in any place, it can get out of control.”
Reviews posted straight after the screening give it an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes:
“The movie is about as apolitical as a story set during a modern American civil war can be. It’s a character piece with a lot more to say about the state of modern journalism and the people behind it than about the state of the nation.”
Tasha Robinson, Polygon
“It’s a film about the open-ended question of how much humanity we as a species have left in us, and that makes it a provocative, thrilling monster of a movie that will sear itself into your eyeballs.”
Matthew Jackson, AV Club
“It’s the most upsetting dystopian vision yet from the sci-fi brain who killed off all of London for the zombie uprising depicted in ’28 Days Later,’ and one that can’t be easily consumed as entertainment.”
Peter DeBruge, Variety
“Garland wrote the film in 2020 as he watched cogs on America’s self-mythologizing exceptionalist machine turn, propelling the nation into a nightmare. With this latest film, he sounds the alarm, wondering less about how a country walks blindly into its own destruction and more about what happens when it does”
Lovia Gyarkye, THR
“It’s a return to form for its director after the misstep of “Men,” a film that’s grim and harrowing by design. The question is, is the emptiness that sets in once the shock has worn off intentional as well?”
Katie Rife, Indiewire
“Though Civil War is told with blockbuster oomph, it often feels as frustratingly elliptical as a much smaller movie. Even so, I left the theater quite exhilarated.”
David Sims, The Atlantic
Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst, Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Karl Glusman, Jefferson White, Jauni Feliz, Nelson Lee, and Jesse Plemons. It opens April 12th.
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