Civil War
[Blu-ray/DVD]
The only thing better than Civil War is the press tour Kirsten Dunst did for it. Not that anything she said was controversial, but because she came across as a cool-headed actress with perspective and confidence. She spoke out against genocide (wow!), avoiding plastic surgery (pot calling the kettle black?), and the stupidity of method acting. It was cool and endeared me to her even more. She’s cool, but you know what’s also cool? This movie.
Of course, I was hesitant because Alex Garland makes movies with lots of questions and no endings. I guess they’re more about the journey, and those are fun. Well, lo and behold, Civil War is a movie with an ending and a pretty satisfying one as far as Garland endings are concerned. Questions? There are still many.
There’s just a lot to like in this movie. The cast is colorful and endearing and the performances are all great, even though Jessie has so much teen spunk it’s kind of annoying. The battle scenes are brutal, engrossing, and perfectly capture the tension these journalists experience. Another thing to like about Civil War is how it doesn’t over-explain to the audience and it does it in a smart way. Garland isn’t concerned about explaining what position the nationals and rebels have because that’s not the point of what this team is reporting. Which is admirable. It makes the movie that much more compelling and worth thinking about. But we also don’t find out much about our cast, and that’s a shame.
So yes, Civil War is one of the smartest movies this year just in its ability to make its audience think and allowing them to connect their own dots. There are no good guys or bad guys (well, there are a COUPLE bad guys in this movie….yikes!), just a weird grey area. Isn’t that life?
