Before someone starts talking about “Civil War II,” see the original. Available on streaming and soon, DVD, it’s an interesting look at a divided country where highways are open battlefields. Obviously playing off the attempt to change the results of the last presidential election, director Alex Garland suggests Texas and California have joined forces to take on the rest of the country.
Their people are everywhere, though we don’t know who’s on what side because they don’t wear uniforms or drive marked cars. They simply lurk. Our guides into this world are four journalists, hoping to get to Washington to see the president (played by Nick Offerman).
They figure they’ll have the “get” of the century and, somehow, a place in history. Kirsten Dunst in a scene from "Civil War." Murray Close, A24 What isn’t so obvious is why this matters or why the warring factions aren’t more interested in stopping a white vehicle with “press” written all over it.
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The four – played by Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Wagner Moura – make like soldiers embedded in some far-flung battle. They maneuver through hostile towns, slip into a North Pole-like amusement park and encounter other journalists hoping to land the same images. It’s an interesting journey but Garland skimps on the backstory.
We know Dunst is a photographer of note, Moura is her “words” man and Henderson is a grizzled veteran. But Spaeny (who l.
