Civil War (2024)
This entire movie basically leads up to a “You got your photo” moment, which isn’t exactly what I expected - but in a good way. I kinda expected traditional horrors of war and damages to civilians, set in a setting that hits closer to home than most war movies. However the focus on war photographers makes it something completely and harder to process. There are no sides in this war, no context and the press people are definitely not portrayed as just neutral heroic observers. They are also adrenaline seeking crazies risking everything for the perfect photo. We have seen countless explicit scenes of people getting, but there is something deeply and uniquely unsettling having a group of people taking closeup photos like some paparazzi while a man is bleeding to death.
It is a damn effective film and the last infiltration of the White House is one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen, but it also makes me think that whatever message Garland might have on the present real world might be lost. It doesn’t feel like the real America this takes place in, more like a detached reality. And I think it looses some potential in that process. I like it, but also sort of for the wrong reasons.
Rating: 3.5