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“‘Civil War’ review: We have met the enemy and it is us”.  Again.
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“‘Civil War’ review: We have met the enemy and it is us”. Again.

A compelling and harrowing work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” begins with the United States at war with itself—literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, DC, the president is holed up in the White House; In an eerily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers, and wild-eyed randos are in the fight as an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California (like I said, this is speculative fiction ). is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you feel triggered, you are not alone.

There is mourning again in America, and it is fascinating and horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, raging fire, and fantastic actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the film is a nightmare fueled by memories of January 6. As if the visions of some rioters had come true, and if the nation was once again broken by the Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had fallen apart? If that sounds heartbreaking, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie takes advantage of childhood fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable, if not the unthinkable, something he enjoys doing. A pop culture savant, he made a splashy, zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 bestseller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that turns deadly, an enduring metaphor for life and the basis for a movie. silly. That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often much worse, is a theme that Garland has continued to pursue in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“28 Days Later”), and then as a writer-director ( “Ex Machina”). His resume is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, although, reliably, it’s his seemingly ordinary characters that you should keep a closer eye on.

When “Civil War” begins, the fighting has raged for an undisclosed period but long enough to have emptied cities and people’s faces alike. It is not clear why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland gives some clues; In one ugly scene, a militia guy played by a striking and terrifyingly effective Jesse Plemons asks the captives “what kind of Americans” they are. Whatever divisions preceded the conflict, however, are left to your imagination, at least in part because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an external and largely post-ideological picture in which debates about American policies, politics, and exceptionalism have been rendered moot by the war.