Movie Poster

There has to be some mistake. We're American, right?

# Review

In a fictional USA, a second civil war breaks out with the Western Forces (led by Texas and California) allied together against a fascist American government. The story follows a group of journalists led by Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a seasoned war photographer, who are trying to arrive at Washington D.C. to interview the incumbent president as the Western Forces closes in on the capital. Other members of the crew includes Joel (Wagner Moura), Lee's colleague from Reuters, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring young photographer, and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), a veteran journalist and Lee's mentor.

As with other A24 films, Civil War has arthouse cinematography coupled with a deep and meditative atmosphere. While there are more commercial scale scenes like gun battles, the film still feels very indie. Dunst's shellshocked war photographer is a far cry from her role that I'm most familiar with: Mary Jane from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Likewise, Wagner Moura is a far cry from his Pablo Escobar from Narcos. The story is clichéd with a focus on the the foil between Dunst's battle-hardened Lee and Spaeny's naive Jessie. The character development is decent but my favourite aspect of the film is still the almost macabre portrayal of a hypothetical 21st century American civil war.

# Conclusion

An indie war film.

# Overall rating: 7.3

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