Earliest Reviews: Civil War (the film) is a horrifying, terrifying masterpiece.
I'll see it when it comes out April 12. And apparently so should you.
Cassidy Steele Dale writes to equip you with the forecasts, foresight skills and perspectives, and tools you may need to create a better, kinder world.
And one of those ways is to — again — head off your next freak-out. Which may start on April 12.
Thursday morning I sent you my guesses on what Alex Garland’s new movie Civil War would be about along with some thoughts designed to tamp down what I believe will be a small national freakout when the movie is released nationwide on April 12. On Thursday morning I forecasted we’d get a preview of that national freakout that evening after the movie’s first showing at South by Southwest (SXSW). Looks like we did.
I forecasted that the movie reviewers and general SXSW attendees would crap their pants and tweet and send their reviews once the press embargo was lifted. They did. But there was no embargo.
I also forecasted that the movie would be a modern-day film version of Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here which was about an American Hitler who turned the United States into a totalitarian dictatorship and sparked an uprising and civil war in response, one in which there are only bad guys (or morally-ambiguous guys) and journalists and ordinary people caught in the middle of the insanity. That appears to be exactly the plot of Civil War though none of the attendees on Thursday night referred to Sinclair Lewis by name (though one reviewer blurted out “It can happen here.”)
I also forecasted that the movie would be constructed like a dystopian road movie — a series of horrifying vignettes designed to haunt you and make you want to scream at and body-block any aspiring civil-warrior you may encounter forever-after in real life. And that would be before you got to the climax of the movie. It sounds like the movie is exactly that and that many of the attendees on Thursday night saw a vignette or image that made them put their face in their hands or their hands over their mouths.
I did not forecast that they would say the movie was a “masterpiece” and that every American should see it when it comes out on April 12.
I will. With my futurist goggles on. And I’ll tell you what I think afterward.
Some early reviews below.
Gizmodo’s roundup of tweets from viewers here: Alex Garland’s Civil War Is Apparently a Freaking Masterpiece.
The Hollywood Reporter’s roundup of early reviews includes:
There is nothing quite like it and you’re not ready.
From Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com
I went into "Civil War" with arms folded, expecting to hate it, because so many contemporary films about US politics by foreign filmmakers seem to have cribbed their worldview from New York Times editorials and bad Tweets. It upended my preconceived notions…
[T]he final section brings every thematic element together in a perfectly horrifying fashion and ends with a moment of self-actualization I don't think I'll ever be able to shake.