Watch the Civil War trailer and you’ll see the future of God, liberty and America is under grave threat from the secessionist forces of California and Texas. The poster will tell you the same: the United States is falling, and we’re gonna get an incendiary commentary on the dire state of domestic politics. Does production company A24, in its biggest production yet, even know what this is about? Because what you’ll actually get is a battle-weary photojournalist legend (Kirsten Dunst), Cailee Spaeny as her over-ambitious protégée, plus Stephen McKinley Henderson and Wagner Moura as their written-word counterparts, hurling themselves headlong into the belly of this beast to get that ultimate scoop. It’s really a paean to, and simultaneous critique, of those adrenaline-junkie reporters for whom nothing else in life could give them such an explosive high. And as audiences are embedded at the visceral end of the gun barrel, it’s bloody brilliant. Utterly immersive, as intense as being strapped to a speeding bullet, it’s Garland’s best and most fully formed effort yet.
