a must-see thriller, our review 2024

Directed by Alex Garland, this film that follows journalists in the midst of the U.S. Civil War is not to be missed in theaters this Wednesday, April 17, 2024.

We’re not sure what’s more terrifying about Civil War: the staged violence, or the fact that we can totally imagine it ever happening. Either way, it’s a slap in the face. This Wednesday, April 17, 2024, moviegoers can discover this action thriller directed by Alex Garland(Ex Machina), which promises to provoke debate but will leave absolutely no one indifferent.

Civil War is set in the not-too-distant hypothetical future of the United States. Two of the country’s largest states have seceded, triggering an unprecedented civil war. The country goes up in flames, and a group of journalists decide to leave New York for Washington, where the President is entrenched, to capture images of the climax of this confrontation.

Linternaute saw Civil War before its cinema release this Wednesday. And it’s a real slap in the face: in less than two hours, the director plunges the viewer into a destroyed America, reminiscent in this fictional Civil War of theassault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. During the various scenes of confrontation in which the lives of the journalists we follow are in danger, Alex Garland proves his perfect mastery of the art of tension, while serving up a spectacular mise-en-scène with shock images and impacting sounds.

We learn little about the nuances of this conflict or the context that led to such tensions, and this may be where the film lacks clarity, but it’s mainly because this civil war serves as a backdrop. Civil War focuses less on the background to this political conflict dividing the United States than on the way news is made. By adopting the point of view of journalists, the film both pays tribute to their quest for truth and their work in transmitting raw, neutral information, and questions the power of the image and the dehumanization brought about by the absolute quest for the “money shot” or the “quote” at all costs. The performances carry the film, led by Kirsten Dunst in the role of a veteran photojournalist in the midst of an existential crisis, opposite Cailee Spaeny, who does it justice.

Synopsis – A frantic race across a fractured America that, in the near future, is more than ever on a knife-edge, from the point of view of journalists.