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CINEMA REVIEW: CIVIL WAR (2024)

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CINEMA REVIEW: CIVIL WAR (2024)

Directed by Alex Garland

Written by Alex Garland

Produced by Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Gregory Goodman

Main Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, etc.

Cinematography by Rob Hardy

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Alex Garland has an impressive literary, cinema and televisual curriculum vitae. He gained acclaim as the writer of the novel, The Beach, before moving onto screenwriting duties with fine films such as: 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010), and under-rated Dredd (2012). He made his directorial debut with Ex Machina (2014), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. His second film, Annihilation (2018), garnered further acclaim, so much so, FX bypassed a pilot and went straight to series for his science fiction TV narrative, Devs (2020).

While I am a massive fan of Garland’s work, I wasn’t too enamoured of Annihilation (2018). I found it brilliantly made with some fantastic concepts and incredible moments, yet overall it was too slowly paced. With eight superlative episodes of Devs (2020), Garland delivered a story which really connected with me by merging a compelling technological espionage plot to an intelligent exploration of philosophical thought and human behaviour. Where Devs (2020) presciently examined the impact of artificial intelligence, Garland’s new political thriller, Civil War (2024), prophetically imagines an apocalyptic America in the throes of war between combined California and Texas state rebel forces and the current President’s (Nick Offerman) retreating army.

With the ‘January 6 United States Capitol attack’ in mind, Garland opens up a “what if” narrative where the whole of America is conflicted and consuming itself from within. At the heart of the violence is the war photographer, represented by Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) and Reuters journalist, Joel (Wagner Moura). Their journey to Washington to photograph the President reveals confusion, destruction and further bloodshed. Generically speaking, a road movie meets dystopian thriller, Civil War (2024) contains thought-provoking themes and incredible cinematography, but with shaky writing in places.

Films about war photographers and/or journalists can be problematic for me. Such characters lend themselves to heroic and the anti-heroic. The writing has to be right because I can lose empathy between such crusading journos and the narcissistic adrenaline junkies looking to deflect their own loathing and self-destructive tendencies. Civil War (2024) struggled to get me onside with the lead characters, although Dunst’s characterisation of Lee Smith is superb. However, her mentor-apprentice relationship with Cailee Spaeny, Jessie Cullen, was under-developed. Spaeny’s “innocent” being used more as a suspense device as opposed to learning the true horrors of humanity and war. Perhaps Garland intended for her to be a sociopath without depth just looking for blood? She finds it!

Moreover, Jessie’s journey from a political perspective was weak as there was no real sense of development in her character. That’s where the decision not to overtly take political sides causes a lack of sociological depth. War films such as Salvador (1986) and The Killing Fields (1984) are more successful as Civil War (2024) loses political impact by not choosing precise sides. But I guess whether they are Democratic or Republican is the whole point. Garland is saying that political parties are all as bad as each other, with human beings their own worst enemy. Politics, like football, gender, sexuality, and religion, are propellants for humans to fight each other.

For a film about photographers, the images on show are incredible and Rob Hardy’s work is genius. Fire, blood and war have never looked so brutal and aesthetically impressive. As well as Dunst, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinlay Henderson are terrific in their respective roles. Further, there are some nail-biting and suspenseful scenes, notably one involving a film-stealing performance from Jesse Plemons. However, many of the characters’ decisions were weakly written for me. This is surprising given Garland’s prodigious literary and screenwriting talent. Civil War (2024), however, remains another stunning addition to his oeuvre and for all my perceived script weaknesses, the hell of war has never been so artistic and artful.

Mark: 8 out of 11

Netflix, Reviews, Television

MANIAC (2018) – NETFLIX REVIEW

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MANIAC (2018) – NETFLIX REVIEW

Created by: Patrick Somerville

Based on: Maniac by Espen PA Lervaag, Håakon Bast Mossige, Kjetil Indregard, Ole Marius Araldsen

Developed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga & Patrick Somerville for Netflix

Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Starring: Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Justin Theroux, Sonoya Mizuno, Gabriel Byrne, Sally Field

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

Maniac

What’s your view on striving for originality in storytelling and entertainment? It could be argued that there is no such thing and creators are simply moving creative chess pieces around the same board; or playing the same musical notes but in a different order. One perspective is that you prefer a writer or director to be bold and aim for originality; with the potential risk they alienate the audience. Some creators actually don’t care about the audience but many others do, preferring to connect emotionally within the casing of genre conventions. Personally, I prefer to be moved emotionally firstly and if the filmmaker or writer has presented their story in an impressive style then this serves to enhance the enjoyment of the narrative.

Cary Joji Fukunaga is a genre filmmaker who has established himself capable of developing impressive genre works such as: Jane Eyre (2011), True Detective (2014), and the brilliant film Beasts of No Nation (2015). Recently, he has also been involved in bringing It (2017) and The Alienist (2018) to the screen; although he did not serve as final director on such products. His latest directorial offering is an adaptation of a Norwegian comedy drama called Maniac. Over ten hit-and-miss episodes we follow the misadventures of a depressive and unstable Owen (Jonah Hill), and grieving pill-addict Annie (Emma Stone), as they enter a medical trial run by the secretive Neberdine Pharmaceutical organisation.

The trial itself involves taking a series of pills and the participants’ cerebral responses being recorded on a sentient artificially intelligent computer called GRTA. Here, Owen and Annie’s lives and minds become internally entwined as the story enables us to visualise their mental anxieties and re-enact their fears during the trial. Owen’s angst is caused by a family issue involving his brother, while Annie still blames herself for a family tragedy. The bizarre surrealist events are very effectively established, however, over the dizzying spectrum of several genre-crossing episodes we essentially get told the same two stories within the: crime, romance, gangster, fantasy and spy genres.

The performances are interesting. Fukunaga has created a world that exists somewhere in between the real and surreal and the future, past and current times. Because of this there’s a sense he has freed the actors from naturalism and at times created a stylistic distanciation. Conversely, Emma Stone was brilliant as always and she is skilled enough to make the strangeness resonate emotionally. However, I felt Jonah Hill, while giving a fine and committed performance, was miscast. Interestingly, Justin Theroux features in a curious turn as a Doctor on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Theroux is a fascinating actor who I think is sabotaging his career and could be the next George Clooney but continues to choose weirdo roles which serve his career no benefit. But hey what do I know!?  Maybe he’s having a lot of fun.

Ultimately, the postmodern stylings cloaked a pretty conventional love story and once again, with a Netflix show, I felt that ten episodes were stretching the narrative a tad. Fukunaga’s combination of different genres and eccentric characters plus a smattering a bloody violence and techno-humour is always interesting. Moreover, much fun is to be had from the references to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Lord of the Rings and many more films.  Nowhere near as brilliant as True Detective or Beasts of No Nation, Cary Fukunaga still impresses as a director even if Maniac is arguably style over content. Nonetheless, Fukunaga should still be commended for striving for a semblance of originality and ambition, rather than just go for an big payday on a franchise studio genre film.

(Mark: 7.5 out of 11)