A24 revealed its provocative action drama Civil War at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on Thursday night.
Screening to a packed audience at Austin’s Paramount Theater, Civil War was revealed to be a tribute to war journalism that veers away from explaining the politics that led to its central conflict. The movie instead depicts the practicalities and horrors of a civil war in modern-day America. The first-blush audience reactions (below) are raves, with viewers calling the film a riveting and haunting movie.
The film from acclaimed writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) imagines a near-future dystopia where the United States has been torn apart under the authoritarian rule of a three-term president (Nick Offerman). The story follows a journalist (Kirsten Dunst) and her colleagues as they make their way across a hostile and divided states of America with the hope of interviewing the president. Much of the road trip adventure feels a bit like Garland’s breakout 28 Days Later — only with murderous civilian soldiers touting assault rifles lurking around every turn instead of zombies.
Here are some of the early reactions from those in attendance:
Civil War has raised eyebrows for its timing, coming amid a contentious election year in which President Joe Biden has claimed “democracy is at stake” given his opponent Donald Trump’s history of attempts to subvert election laws. While the idea of a modern-day civil war might seem far-fetched, a 2022 poll by YouGov and the Economist found that 40 percent of Americans believe a new civil war is “at least somewhat likely in the next 10 years.”
When asked about when he wrote the film, Garland said, “It was four years ago. I wrote it back then and sent it to A24 and they just said, ‘Yup, all good,” which was surprising. This is a brave film to finance, so it was super appreciated.” Garland has long been in business with A24, dating back to his directorial debut, Ex Machina. The action film is reportedly the indie studio’s biggest swing to date.
Civil War doesn’t offer much explanation about how the country gets to its perilous state (audiences do learn that the president disbanded the FBI), which the director said was intentional. Said Garland, “The film is intended to be a conversation. It is not asserting things. You want to leave space for people to bring themselves to the conversation. It’s important that it was a two way street.”
Civil War also stars Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Sonoya Mizuno, and much of the cast was seeing the film for the first time at the Austin premiere. “I need a second,” said Dunst to laughs from the audience. “I had never read a script like this and I had never seen a film like this.”
Civil War will be released in theaters and IMAX on April 12.
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