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‘Civil War’ by A24 Movie Review – Signals AZ

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‘Civil War’ by A24 Movie Review – Signals AZ
Article audio is made possible by CAST11 Prescott Podcast Network. A Talking Glass Media production.

What kind of American are you?

This is the pivotal question asked during Alex Garland’s latest film, Civil War, a provocative thriller examining the fractured landscape of America during a hypothetical second American civil war. The movie was advertised with the slogan ALL EMPIRES FALL, leaving many afraid it would capitalize on the polarized landscape of American politics and push sensitive buttons for a nation still on edge.

Release Date: 04/12/2024

Director: Alex Garland

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%

iMBD: 7.8/10

Where to Watch: In theaters

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Fortunately, this is not the case. When the film starts, the civil war is already well underway, and the events that sparked it are left mostly unexplained

The movie is not aligned with one political ideology or another but asks the audience to view its narrative through the lens of a universal American identity that crosses party lines. Political factions in the film are drawn into four deliberately fantastic coalitions of states: the Loyalists, the Western Forces, the Florida Alliance, and the New People’s Army.

The major incident that sparked the war: a rogue president has broken the 22nd Amendment and secured a third term in office. That’s all we know about the cause of the war, and all we need to know.

The story follows veteran war photographer Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) and a handful of journalists aiming to interview the president before he is captured or killed

Joining her is Jessie, a twenty-three-year-old who intends to follow in her footsteps and become a recognized photojournalist. In a sequence of events that might best be compared to the 2006 film Children of Men, Smith and her team travel from New York to Washington, navigating the war-torn American landscape and the dangers its armed militias pose.

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The audience is asked to view this fictional conflict through the objective lens of the camera, seeing hostile combatants not as representative of the factions they ally with… but as individuals, taking individual actions rooted in their own psychologies.

One particularly memorable line is uttered by a sniper the main characters come across after taking fire on a farm littered with neglected Christmas decorations. One of the protagonists asks the sniper what side they’re fighting for, to which he responds: “No one’s giving us orders, man. Someone’s trying to kill us. We’re trying to kill them.”

This through-line in the film asks us to question what it would take for American citizens to take up arms against each other in the modern age, where conflicts are no longer divided along clear boundaries

Director Alex Garland, an Englishman, said during an interview at SXSW: “America has a history of civil war that was very delineated over a clear issue of slavery…

But there are other kinds of civil wars, which happen a lot in the world at the moment, which are really just a fracturing.” He followed this up with: “I chose America because everybody looks to America. But the things [the movie is] talking about are quite global.”

Civil War may be an instant classic in the war film genre, a modern-day Heart of Darkness told across familiar American landscapes that will prompt conversation and—perhaps—a greater sense of unity under the flag we all share. It’s a stark vision of a future all can agree it would be best to avoid.

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About our Admit One Author

Isaac Albert FrankelIsaac Albert Frankel

Isaac Frankel is a freelance writer and content creator specializing in reviews and analysis of cinema, interactive media, and mythological storytelling. He was raised in Prescott, AZ, wrote his first non-fiction book in 2013 after graduating from Tribeca Flashpoint College with a degree in Game & Interactive Media Design, and currently produces content for the YouTube channel: Off Screen.

More of his work and current projects can be found at www.isaacafrankel.com.


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Movie Reviews

Movie Review | Ryan Gosling shines in sloppy slice of summer fun

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Movie Review | Ryan Gosling shines in sloppy slice of summer fun

Surely, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir has had easier gigs.

Watching “The Fall Guy” — the big-screen take on the 1980s TV fave about a Hollywood stuntman who worked on the side as a bounty hunter that this week kicks off the summer movie season — you can’t help but think of its editor.

“The Fall Guy” is many things: an homage to the show; a romance; a vehicle for stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt; a large-scale action flick; and a love letter to stunt performers — those who do the dangerous work or, as the movie suggests early on, get to do “the cool stuff.”

It is big, and it is messy, but Ronaldsdóttir has helped mold it into something that, while lumpy and misshapen, is more entertaining than not.

This isn’t her first cinematic rodeo with director David Leitch, having collaborated with him on hit movies including such winners as 2017’s “Atomic Blonde” and 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” so she surely knew what she was signing up for.

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It is, of course, entirely fitting that Leitch sat in the director’s chair for “The Fall Guy,” as he once was a stuntman himself. Famously, he was Brad Pitt’s stunt double on 1999’s “Fight Club.”

Here, the stuntman is Gosling’s Colt Seaver, the movie borrowing the name of Lee Majors’ hero from the TV series, which ran from 1981 to ’86.

When we meet Colt, he’s at the top of his game, specializing in being the stunt double for Hollywood megastar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Leitch’s “Bullet Train”). On the set of a big movie — Leitch and another frequent collaborator, director of photography Jonathan Sela, appear to take great pleasure in showing off the scale of such a shoot with a couple of elaborate shots — Colt is about to perform a huge fall.

On the way up to his starting point, he flirts via walkie-talkie with camera operator Jody Moreno (Blunt), the two talking about how, after the movie wraps, they could grab a couple of swimsuits — or, as a Brit such as herself would say, “swimming costumes” — hit a beach somewhere and enjoy a few margaritas, as well as the bad decisions to which they lead.

The fall goes badly.

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Eighteen months later, Colt, perhaps more psychologically damaged than physically so, is out of the stunt game, making a living by parking cars for a Mexican restaurant. And, having long ago pushed away a caring Jody, he is a walking pile of regret.

When old producer friend Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham of “Ted Lasso”) calls, asking him to be a last-minute fill-in on a set in Sydney, Australia, he declines. She then tells him it’s for Jody’s directorial debut and that his old flame requested him.

He says he’ll need an aisle seat.

Upon arriving at the shoot and set to do a car stunt known as a cannon roll, he complains about the sand on which he’ll be driving on — it’s, um, not dense enough — to another old pal, stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke of “Black Panther”), who coaxes him into the car.

The stunt goes well, save for Colt destroying a camera tracking his car, but Jody is shocked to learn he is behind the wheel. She did NOT, in fact, request him.

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Unable to kick him off the project, she instead sets him on fire repeatedly for one scene. Between these hot takes, her frustration via bullhorn over what happened in their relationship under the thinly veiled guise of talking about the lead characters in her epic science-fiction romance flick, “Metalstorm.’

At the end of the day, Colt gets into a truck, cranks a Taylor Swift song, thinks about their time together and cries — at least until Jody catches him. They talk, and while it’s clear feelings still exist between them, they agree to keep things very “profesh.”

Colt soon has bigger problems than Jody, as Gail has secretly recruited him to find the movie’s missing star, the aforementioned Tom Ryder. She convinces Colt that to save Jodie’s movie, the cops must be kept out of it, and he agrees to take on the task.

From here, “The Fall Guy” keeps things really loose, Leitch and writer Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3,” Leitch’s “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”) prioritizing action and gags over clear storytelling. (Hey, it’s now summer at the movies — what did you expect?)

As Colt works to uncover the mystery of Tom’s disappearance, Gosling does a lot of the heavy lifting to keep “The Fall Guy” from falling apart. He brings some leftover “Ken”-ergy from the cultural event that was last year’s “Barbie,” for which he earned a well-deserved nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He nails every important line read with great Kenfidence, er, confidence.

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One of the movie’s issues is that Jody becomes a glorified background player, not the best use of the talents of Blunt, a four-time Oscar nominee including for her work in the other half 2023’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, “Oppenheimer.” “The Fall Guy” would have benefited from a setup that gave more time with its leads together. (One of the movie’s many meta moments has them talking via split-screen as Jody talks about its potential use in her movie, Leitch deciding to educate us on that filmmaking choice and others.)

So, OK, “The Fall Guy” leaves you wanting a bit more, but it succeeds as a two-hour excuse to shove buttery popcorn into your mouth.

And those hoping for a nod to the show beyond the initial offering of closing credits, which feature the “Unknown Stuntman” theme song from the show, should stick around for an extra treat.

Yes, “The Fall Guy” makes a bit of a mess of things, but it sure has fun doing it.

“The Fall Guy” is rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language. Runtime: 2 hours, 6 minutes.

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Movie Reviews

The Fall Guy review: The Ryanaissance continues, while Emily Blunt shines in this screwball comedy

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The Fall Guy review: The Ryanaissance continues, while Emily Blunt shines in this screwball comedy

In cinemas; Cert 12A

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in ‘The Fall Guy’

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) was the best stuntman in the business before a nasty accident derailed his career. There is always a way back and, after a tetchy film producer reaches out, Colt agrees to dust off his jumpsuit for a big-budget sci-fi epic directed by his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt).

An awkward situation, and it gets weirder: the film’s leading man, Tom Ryder (Aaron ­Taylor-Johnson) is missing, and its producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) thinks he may have fallen in with the wrong crowd. It’s up to Colt, then, to track him down, save the movie and win back the girl of his dreams.

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Loosely inspired by the Lee ­Majors TV series, The Fall Guy makes a lot of noise, some of it not entirely unpleasant. Come for the fist-fights, the explosions, and the self-aware punchlines; stay for a classy screwball comedy about a broken-hearted filmmaker and her bumbling stunt performer.

The Ryanaissance continues, and Gosling is having the time of his life here. Blunt, meanwhile, is the beating heart of this daft presentation. David Leitch’s film is far too pleased with itself, but our handsome leads make it work.

Three stars

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Movie Reviews: ‘Challengers’

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Movie Reviews: ‘Challengers’

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