Civil War

 It's the near future, and the US is at war against itself again. Several states (California, Texas, Miami are mentioned) have seceded and formed a coalition, and are advancing against the remaining forces loyal to the president at Washington D.C. Things are not looking good for the commander in chief (Nick Offerman), whom no one seems to like much and is serving his third term in office.

 The war is ending, and the capitol is due to be invaded at any moment. Two journalists - Reuters correspondent Joel (Wagner Moura) and legendary war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) decide to go where the action is - but their goal is not just the front lines; They want to cross them and get an interview with the president himself, who's been known to treat the press as enemy combatants.

 They're joined by old hand Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young photographer who idolizes Lee, and off they go on a road trip through war-torn America, running into all sorts of encounters on the way until an action-packed finale at the Capitol. The crew come under fire multiple times, run into some colleagues, find an enclave weirdly untouched by the nation-wide chaos, encounter war-time atrocities, and have time to bond at refugee and army camps.

 It's an anti-war film. That's something Truffaut supposedly said was impossible, and to be honest, this movie yet again proves him right; You can't have visceral gunfights like these or, say, an Apache purring down a city street and pulverizing half a building without it being exiting. But as good as the action is it's also intense, grim as hell, often upsetting, and the human cost is front and center.

 Garland's never really had a budget this big to play with, but his work is as assured as ever, and along with his regular DP Rob Hardy, he's created a film that can be as beautiful as it can be harrowing. The sound design is phenomenal - there are some bizarre, dislocating needle drops every now and then, but I took them to be of a piece with the journalists' partial detachment from the action they're embedded in.

 Meanwhile the script (also by Garland) has engaging characters and a mournful tone that he deflates every now and then with some surrealist situations and wry humour. Really clever stuff, too, like a joke about Canadian currency that's... well, it's not actually a joke if you think about it, but it's still very funny.

 The acting is excellent; Dunst may not have a huge range, but she's great at what she does, McKinley Henderson is loveable as fuck, and Moura and Spaeny are great company as well. Jesse Plemons, of all people, almost steals the movie with a truly chilling turn - I guess officer Gary really lost it after the militia service curtailed his game nights.

Let's be honest, all the warning signs were there.

 It'd be ridiculous to say the film is not political - you can't do a movie about a modern civil war without it being political, much less after the election riots debacle. But wonder of wonders, Garland keeps it as close to apolitical as he possibly can: it's thoroughly non-partisan, avoids mapping any of the sides in its fictional conflict to any ideology, and it stands resolutely fictional in its premise.

 So what is it about? Well, people will read into it what they will, but I think the movie itself makes itself clear when Lee ponders (and I'm paraphrasing here, so apologies in advance) that whenever she sent photographs from a warzone, she felt like she was voicing a warning. "But here we are."

 It's a Brit looking at America from outside and saying: "let's make sure we never get there, OK?

 We worry about you guys sometimes."