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This review was published on April 12, 2024.
As of September 13,Civil Waris available tostream on Max.
Americans sure do love to see their institutions destroyed onscreen.
(We took a brief recess after 9/11 too soon, etc.
but went right back to it once the cultural all-clear sounded.)
Im not entirely convinced that the constant barrage of apocalyptic destruction on our screens is unrelated.
Weve been spectators to the fantasy for so long that weve come to imagine were participants in it.
Heres another truth about repeatedly indulging in our fantasies: We become desensitized to them.
No real monuments get done blowed up real good in this one.
The spectacle this time is coyer but somehow all-consuming.
Whats being incinerated inCivil Waris the American idea itself.
California and Texas have joined forces and become something called the Western Front.
Theres also the so-called Florida Alliance.
Lee is vexed by both their presences.
Jessies too young, and Sammys too old.
The blood-soaked highways of the divided states of America are no place for either of them.
Theyre mostly numb to the horrors theyre chronicling.
She wants to get the picture.
Would you photograph that moment, if I got shot?
What do you think?
Lee responds, as if the answer is obviously yes.
But we also understand that Lee bears the psychological scars of what shes seen.
I thought I was sending a message home: Dont do this, she says of her earlier work.
But here we are.
The film embodies Lees traumatized numbness to a degree.
This can make the film feel weirdly weightless at times.
Its characters are observers and nomads.
If anything, they feel less invested in what theyre witnessing as the movie goes on.
(That sounds like it would be the worst movie ever made.)
In that sense,Civil Warwinds up becoming a movie about itself.
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