Civil War (April 12)

Civil War doesn’t have much to say beyond “war is bad” and “a lot of people are gonna get lynched” and “wifi will be disrupted occasionally,” and maybe that would be okay if it weren’t for the fact that there are a lot of other movies that are willing to make some points about the reasons for possible civic collapse.

I’ve read headlines that called this movie the best of the year so far, called it a dystopian nightmare, hesitant to give backstory AND “borderline incoherent” (both of those from different takes at Slate), and record-breaking box office hit for A24.

Spoilers. The politics of the Civil War’s causes are garbled. Is race a core issue? I would’ve said apparently not based on the fact that Joe’s saved despite his clearly accented English when confronted by Jessie Plemmons’s truly creepypasta character digging a mass grave in his backyard, but I was informed that all the corpses in that grave are minorities. It doesn’t really appear like there are any social issues so pressing that the journalists themselves are willing to talk about them, beyond the fact everyone has decided that taking up arms and achieving political means through violence is acceptable, which, I guess is certainly a lot more cinematic when both sides have F-15s and attack helicopters! And makes for a lot more showy film than if it were just a bunch of angry judges nullifying each other’s laws across state lines, maybe!

Beyond the passing mention of Portland “Maoists” taking up common cause with the “Southern Alliance” in Florida, or talk about journalists being killed “on sight” at the capital, or the rural states staying largely out of it, the “Antifa Massacre” which gives Lee her big break, we don’t have a good sense of the proximate and long-term causes. The timeline for the civil war is thrust even deeper into the future by mention of the Antifa Massacre, which hasn’t occurred yet in our timeline, meaning it’s at least 20+ years out in order for Lee to have built her career on it, or we’re thinking about an alternative timeline in which it has happened around the 2010s or 2020s, I suppose? (Friend ran with that a little and wondered about the lack of technology to accompany futuristic warfare: drones, night vision, etc, and the lack of satellite internet, or really any other sorts of conveniences one might expect in a lightly futuristic world aren’t really proposed at all.)

Causes aside, the movie makes for a kind of rollicking roadtrip movie with light militia violence: the boogaloo boys get a shoutout before executing a bunch of enemy combatants at point blank range and the needle drop when they do that is one of the best applications of music in an action movie in a while. The paintball pallette in hair, graffiti in West Virginia, and New York Streets gives the film a distinctive aesthetic.

Best line is Joe’s when he breaks up the tension of an otherwise contemplative first night roughing it on their way to the capital: “I don’t know about you guys but this bullet fire is getting me hard as a rock.” Joe has kind of the easiest job in the world because unlike his companions he doesn’t have to take photos while the firefighting is happening. As far as I can tell, he hobnobs with the militiamen and smokes MJ all day, does some light driving, some heavy-petting and calls it a day. He’s so forward with the clearly-his-daughter’s age Cailee Spaeny that it crossed my mind that he must be gay until it’s later confirmed he’s just kind of a dog.

Spaeny made her first appearance on screen in God’s gift to the world, Pacific Rim, but she was more memorably the star of Priscilla, Sofia Coppola’s corrective biopic from last year, alongside the even more dog-like Elvis as played by Jacob Elordi.

Ultimately, the characters are pretty flat and don’t like to talk about their preferences or predilections beyond the occasional mention of family back home or urge to put on a dress.