I watched this movie a year ago and wrote this almost immediately afterwards. This is why I think Civil War is a terrible film:

“From the instant that Stephen McKinley’s Sammy enters frame within Alex Garland’s latest war-thriller Civil War, it is clear that he is a dead man walking. There is no explicit warning of this; and yet, the conclusion feels elementary to anyone watching the film with any ounce of critical race theory floating around in their mind.…

This was a strange one… cinema where nothing really happens during its run time is not novel in retrospect from today (beau travail feels like a very clear parallel to L’avventura in my head), but there is something so endlessly captivating about this film. In my opinion, it grows stronger towards the end, as you begin to realise how strangely drawn in you are by these random people’s lives and treachery. Everything is beautiful, haunting, and shocking all at once.…