Civil bore: Political ambiguity muddles hollow, violent cautionary drama
“Civil War” — 2 stars
Armed with a timely premise, a high-caliber cast and forceful visuals, Alex Garland’s provocative and frustrating “Civil War” presents a prophetic, cautionary view of a near future in which America’s abandoned principles and mounting anger have finally led to fierce and brutal conflicts, leaving the countryside looking like a zombie apocalypse movie set.
Ambiguity drives the drama in this messy dystopian horror war road movie, blunting its potential impact by posing unanswered questions and by disregarding pesky, relevant details.
Maybe that’s the point Garland wants to make, that the details — such as references to current political issues and practitioners — don’t really matter. “Civil War” warns audiences to focus on where the nation might wind up, not how it got there.
“Civil War” opens with the fighting already underway.
Two states — California and Texas — have seceded and taken up arms. Wait … California and Texas? How did that alliance happen?
We see the U.S. President (a solemn Nick Offerman), who hasn’t spoken to the press or public for many months, rehearsing a halfhearted speech faintly claiming a victory for his side. What side? Is this President a Republican? Democrat? Independent?
Does it matter?
We do find out the President has entered his third term, suggesting that — using the rhetoric of a current presumptive presidential candidate — he might have arbitrarily suspended constitutional term limits. Or did Congress pass an amendment lifting those limits?
Who knows?
War correspondents serve as the main characters here, with Kirsten Dunst as Lee, a veteran photographer whose saddened, tired eyes have witnessed unspeakable acts of cruelty committed by Americans against Americans.
Lee and a fellow journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) apparently work for Reuters. For print newspapers? The Wi-Fi is out, so how do they get their pictures to the main office?
Lee shoots only still photos. Why never video clips?
Joel doesn’t write or report. He doesn’t record anything or take pictures. He never communicates with his bosses. I want his job.
Joel persuades Lee to go with him in a van from New York to Washington, D.C., to interview the reclusive President before his government collapses, presumably within a month. They have no appointment. No plan. No map. No idea where they can refuel their vehicle. They just leave.
Lee and Joel take on two passengers, her sagely, out-of-shape mentor Sammy (a memorable Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Jessie (Cailee “Priscilla” Spaeny), a young wannabe photojournalist who idolizes Lee for her storied career. Unlike Lee, who uses a digital camera, Jessie utilizes an old-fashioned 35 mm film camera, the kind that requires chemicals to process, and a darkroom if prints are needed. Apparently, she does carry the processing chemicals in her backpack, which must be very large, given the volume of photos she shoots.
The quartet settles into the van with the word PRESS plastered on the outside and sets off to Washington, passing through automobile graveyards on the interstate and through idyllic back roads on a journey into escalating fear.
Running low on gas, they reluctantly stop at a rural gas station next to a car wash that has been repurposed into a torture chamber and execution room operated by drawling men with automatic weapons. Whose side are they on?
The journalists face their most frightening encounter with soldiers dumping recently killed people into a mass grave. Their leader (Dunst's real-life partner, Jesse Plemons) wears fatigues and incongruent pink, heart-shaped sunglasses.
“What kind of American are you?” he asks, in the movie’s most intense scene. We know and they know their lives depend on their answers.
Although “Civil War” treats its journalists as conscientious, responsible, even sacrificing Americans, it operates in an atmosphere of optimistic unreality where reporters merely brandish press credentials to gain cooperation from others. Reporters are usually not appreciated by groups committing mass murders, even in wartime.
Meeting public expectations has never been a goal for Garland, a British novelist and filmmaker who merged striking imagery with political commentary in the stellar sci-fi experience “Ex Machina,” the puzzling “Annihilation” and the challenging horror opus “Men.”
The equally puzzling “Civil War” ends on a note of non-hope without any discussion about American ideals or the meaning of democracy.
That, Garland proposes, is up to us.
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Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman
Directed by: Alex Garland
Other: An A24 release. Rated R for language, violence. 109 minutes