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Civil War

Civil War

2024

Alex Garland

Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen Henderson ...

7.0

7,830

Action. War. Drama. Thriller In a near future where America is engulfed in a bloody civil war, a team of journalists and war photographers embark on a road trip to Washington DC. Their mission: to arrive before rebel forces storm the White House and wrest control from the President of the United States.

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Debruge Variety	"Sure to be one of the year’s most controversial films (...) in Alex Garland’s virtuosic 'Civil War' a jarring ground-level account of what a near-future disunification of the United States might look like"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"It’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. (...) Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable"
		Robbie Collin Telegraph	"[It] thrills at every turn (...) The Ex Machina director’s vision of an imploding America is neither anti-Trump nor anti-woke. It’s as riveting as cinema gets (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Devan Coggan Entertainment Weekly	"A movie that never quite earns its provocative premise (...) As a war movie, Civil War is well made, dropping audiences into the shock and terror of American slaughter. (...) It’s also an effective journalism movie (...) But as a political movie, Civil War is less effective"
		Matt Donato Collider	"Forget 'Ex Machina,' This Is Alex Garland’s Best Film Yet (...) Garland's exploration is nothing like you would expect and all the better for it (...) one of the most vicious and unrelenting watches of the year"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"Civil War is also a great film and an exceptional war movie... Alex Garland has bounced back from the naval gazing idiocy of Men to deliver a drama of unparalleled intensity and film-making ambition. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"Whatever you're expecting, this movie will give you something else. (...) It is a furiously convincing and disturbing thing when you're watching it. It's a great movie that has its own life force. It's not like anything Garland has made. It's not like anything anyone has made (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		John Fink The Film Stage	"A Provocative, Masterfully Directed Nightmare (...) will undoubtedly go down, too, as one of the most provocative films of the year. It’s also an early contender for one of the best (...) Civil War is a hard film to watch and a hard film to shake"
		Adrian Horton The Guardian	"An impressive technical feat yet an emotionally cold drama (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Travers ABC News	"Prepare to be wowed by "Civil War," the best, most original, and propulsively exciting movie of the year so far."
		Chase Hutchinson The Wrap	"Kirsten Dunst is outstanding in Alex Garland’s fraught and fascinating Epic (...) [It] is unlike anything he has ever done before"
		Rafael Motamayor IGN	"Civil War delivers a challenging, thrilling, heart-pounding movie about the importance of journalism in times of conflict, about how easily we become desensitized to violence when we’re living through it."
		Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"A torturous, overrated movie without a point (...) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"
		Wendy Ide The Guardian	"Chilling dystopian thriller (...) The British writer-director’s searing drama of reporters in the line of fire strips away political context to focus on the terrible (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		J Hurtado Screen Anarchy	"With an award caliber performance from Kirsten Dunst as its beacon, 'Civil War' is one of the year's best films and will likely inspire needed conversation when it hits theaters next month"
		Jacob Hall SlashFilm	"It will leave you shaken (...) The most disarming thing about writer/director Alex Garland's 'Civil War' is its deliberate, harrowing sense of neutrality. Here is a major movie, one of the biggest ever produced by studio A24"
		David Crow Den of Geek	"Unforgettable cinema if you have the guts to watch (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"An utterly convincing war film (...) but it collapses into thematic uncertainty (...) We’re never told what this conflict is about, who might be oppressed, or what freedoms have been stolen away. All we’re given is violence. (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Karina Adelgaard Heaven of Horror	"It’s a brutal, in-your-face, and eerily realistic take on the world we could come to live in. A very important war movie (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		John Nugent Empire	"This is a gorgeously made film, full of shock and awe. (..) It never lets up, always gripping, always pummelling your senses (...) this is undeniably confident, intense, sweaty-palmed filmmaking at the highest level (...) (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Brian Lowry CNN	"‘Civil War’ delivers visceral thrills but stays muddled in its political message (...) what the director has delivered is less about political commentary or issuing some kind of warning but rather, fundamentally, a horror movie.
		Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle	"Garland’s masterful and shocking script is counterbalanced with his quiet, mannered direction"
		Matthew Jackson AV Club	"Alex Garland's brutal, brilliant near-future war epic (...) A provocative, thrilling monster of a movie that will sear itself into your eyeballs."
		Hayden Mears Chicago Reader	"Garland’s vision is a terrifying extrapolation, and while it may be too early to laud or fear its prescience, its power and relevance are all too clear"
		Rocco T. Thompson Slant	"Frightening, even-tempered, and disarmingly humane, 'Civil War' is intelligent precision filmmaking trained on an impossible subject (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter	"[It] stimulates the intellect, if not the emotions (...) A subversive and unsettling exercise"
		Matthew Monagle The Playlist	"'Civil War' [is] the movie event of the year —and the post-movie group discussion of your lifetime"
		Phil de Semlyen Time Out	"Alex Garland’s brutal, dystopian vision of America at war with itself is visceral but vague (...) I found the lack of context more frustrating than the absence of a political viewpoint. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Tatiana Hullender Screen Rant	"'Civil War' confronts viewers with the brutality of war and the necessity of objective journalism, but the moments of quiet humanity are its strength (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Meagan Navarro Bloody Disgusting	"The constant onslaught of foreboding tension and stunning documentary style prowess in capturing the raw horror ensure a breathless, potent piece of filmmaking (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Fear Rolling Stone	"[It] offers a lot of food for thought on the surface, yet you’re never quite sure what you’re tasting or why, exactly"
		Chris Bumbray JoBlo	"It’s a plea for peace in that, like other movies of this nature, it dares to show us hell in the hope of keeping it from ever happening"
		Kristy Puchko Mashable	"Pulled back so wide, this thought-provoking filmmaker's argument is lost amid his muddy portrayal of a nation that is no stranger to internal conflict, buried beneath the nuances and details he papers over with a smug indignation"

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