“Wait! Wait. I need a quote.”

Story: The Florida Alliance, Western Forces, and Republics of Texas and California are a coalition of 19 states that have seceded from the USA. A dictatorial third term president disbands the FBI, and would rather see everything burn than reach out. And four war journalists are looking for a powerful message they can share with the rest of the world, before it’s too late. Welcome to the second American Civil War.

Genre I’d put it in: Nightmare Scenario Films That Feel Way Too Close To A Possible Reality
Release Date: 2024
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based way too closely to real divisions in our country. Damn y’all. Way too closely.

Gotta say: Journalists. Everybody wants a Pulitzer. To write THAT piece. Take THAT photo. But at what cost? Director Alex Garland uses the uncertainty of our times to craft a powerful think piece on war, divisiveness, and the drive to accomplish something in the world. This movie’s sheer brutality will not be for everyone, but for those who can stomach the intensity? It’ll hit you like a gut punch to your very soul.  War has a same visceral feel as Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men; there’s an immediacy to the proceedings that pulled me in and did not let go. Not even after the end credits rolled. I’m not sure if it’s let me go even now.

Garland says War is also “kind of a road trip movie”, and the journalists trying to get to DC before things really go south feels like that, again in a similar way to Men. Charters here aren’t fleshed out much; we don’t know them beyond what they’re doing at the moment, and why. That’s not to say that these characters aren’t compelling (they are) or that the story isn’t riveting (it is). It’s simply that the charters are just a part of the story, a way to get the overall feeling across. The real stars of War are chaos and horror. The characters here are reactive; individuals caught in the rising tide of lawlessness, as the war seemingly takes away all protections save the ones you’d try to make for yourself.

That said, the cast is incredible. As journalists Lee, Joel, Jessie and Sammy, Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson are extraordinary. The emotions these performers portray are so believable, my hands were at my mouth in shock and disbelief, as if I was right there with them. As with Garland’s Annihilation, this is a master class in getting the most out of already talented performers. It’s simply stunning in every sense of the word. Special shout out to Jesse Plemons, as an unnamed militia member. Plemons’s performance is a blistering take on the banality of evil. His character has no back story, no arc, no connection to our main characters. He’s just a guy doing what he wants to amid the chaos, and it’s horrifying. The matter of fact, all but indifferent way that character goes about what he does is chilling. It’s a comparatively brief scene, but that character’s dialogue echoes too many talking points we’ve heard in real life.

Now for the “well, is it woke or whatever?” Garland tries not to point fingers at any real life political party, and War‘s joining of Texas and California feels like a nod to a kind of neutrality. There are snippets of “The ANTIFA Massacre”, and graffiti with “Fuck the WF”, but as with the characters, nothing is fleshed out. Viewers are supposed to feel what’s going on, rather than connect to a side. The gorgeously brutal cinematography, set design, and gruesome practical FX definitely aid in that. So does the soundtrack, with a mix of music that had similar vibes to songs like Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, and the Almanac Singers’ “Which Side Are You On?” The lack of pomposity in the soundtrack makes the action feel grounded in reality, and disabuses viewers of the grandiosity of war. An excellent choice for this film.

As I drove home after the film, everywhere I looked, I pictured flames and destruction. I thought about how buildings, bridges, and landmarks I drive by every day would look after taking hits, and the possibilities horrified me. In short, I was shaken. I expected a crystal-clear look at exactly what war within our country would feel like, and I was not disappointed. Sickened, repelled, disgusted, sure. But War gives us all a taste of real possibility, and it’s exactly the level of craftsmanship and power I expected.

#Protip: The performers were affected just as severely during filming as I was watching them onscreen.
‘”I always think that the energy stays with us for a while,” [Moura] says of the film. “It’s not like intellectually, it’s not in your mind. It’s in your body… I was pretty destroyed, it was very tough.”‘
Honey. SAME.