Uncivil Wah

Alex Garland tells a non-politcal story about a war... what? I'm exaggerating about his intent, but... not by much.

There is a war in America when Texas and California join forces and... okay, wait right there. That would never happen under any criteria, so even as much as you just want a casual backdrop to put your movie against, when you start with something so stupid, you so completely undermine your own movie people are never going to take you seriously.

But anyway, a group of journalists want to travel across the country to interview the President, who does not give interviews, because they think a big event will come up that will be a final(?) big push. We follow them as they travel and encounter various eff-up situations and try to be journalists in the face of all this. In particular, we have two harded journalists, one at-the-end journalist, and a youngster who wants to become a war journalist.

So this movie nearly has something to say about being a war journalist. Especially with the newbie coming to grips with what the hardened people have to deal with, and seeing that even the hardened people are barely coping. But it doesn't quite get there, and this idea would be better as a documentary (of which there already are some) or, if you really want to get in and show off action sequences, then a biopic or something.

But we also have the American Civil War aspect of this and... in this regards the movie has entirely shot itself in the foot by just trying to be "war is bad" and not being about any war in particular, and has nothing to say or do with the concept of this being an American civil war. That concept totally has legs, yes, along the more obvious lines, but this is just nothing in comparison with what it could be.

Kirsten Dunce is good, Wagner Moura is annoying, Stephen McKinley Henderson is fantastic, and Cailee Spaeny has a career in front of her. The director wanted to show off them in war situations and also get cool action shots to pump up the action side of it.

So he wants his cake and to eat it too, and has neither.

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