CIVIL WAR

One might expect a film about a US civil war set in the near future to be saying something about the state of America now.

But since the civil war involves a Democrat state (California) and a Republican state (Texas) combining, it's clear that this film is not doing that - at least not directly.

Maybe the intention (in part at least) is to serve as a warning about where the polarisation of American society.  

But the main focus of the film is journalism, since the four main characters are members of that profession. 

Well, really two main characters: Lee, a veteran photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young woman who wants to follow in her footsteps.  

I found the character of Jessie unconvincing given that the screenplay doesn't do a great job of fleshing out her character.  To me she comes across as a rather annoying teenager although this may say more about me than it does about the performance.  There's a moment when she moves from one moving vehicle to another which really bugged me.

Dunst does a very good job of portraying Lee as someone haunted by the horrific images she has captured over the years and who is now struggling to maintain the necessary level of emotional detachment.  

The relationship between Lee and Jessie is partly that of mentor and mentee, but there also might be a mother-daughter aspect being hinted at but not developed.  It reminded me of the relationship between Margo and Eve in the classic 'All About Eve', especially in the climactic moments of the film when Jessie takes over from Lee in a brutal way. 

This climax didn't have the emotional impact for me that the writer and director Alex Garland presumably intended, something about the way it is staged, and also due to my lack of engagement with the characters.

Compared with Garland's earlier 'Ex Machina' this film doesn't have much in the way of ideas, other than that civil war is bad, and that those people who document conflict are likely to become emotionally damaged. The plot narrative is quite basic.

That being said, I did still enjoy the film, due to the quality of the cinematography, and to the power of certain scenes and images, notably a scene involving Jesse Plemons.  Strangely he isn't credited.  It would have been a nice provocative touch to have him listed simply as 'racist'.

RATING: ✓ Cheers