Civil War (2024): What Does The Most Timely Film Alex Garland Has Ever Made Really Mean?

Ben and Rob head to the frontlines with Alex Garland’s Civil War (2024), the film that he intended to be his last in the directors chair. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Nick Offerman, Civil War isn’t your typical dystopian epic. Instead, Alex Garland delivers a chilling, ground-level road movie where journalists race through a divided America to document its collapse. But why did Alex Garland decide Civil War would be his final film? And why is journalism such a personal subject for this movie?

The lads also dive into the film’s technical side, unpacking how Alex Garland uses chromatic aberration to distort reality and amplify tension without the audience even realising. Is it a visual gimmick, or a metaphor for truth being refracted and fragmented?

Finally, they ask the big question: what does Civil War actually mean? Is Garland predicting the fall of democracy, mourning it, or just trying to warn us while he still can?

One thing’s certain: with Civil War, Alex Garland didn’t just make one of A24’s most successful films, he made a film that may still predict the future.

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