The latest from the great writer-director Alex Garland (‘Ex Machina’, ‘Annihilation’) centers on a not-too-distant-future civil war in America, where successionist armies in California and Texas have banded together in an attempt to overthrow the government. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Cailee Spaeny star as war journalists headed to D.C. to cover the final days of the war, and Garland gives them plenty of fodder (both on camera and on the page) to make this one of the more memorable films of recent years. It’s dark, haunting, violent, and, unfortunately, all too real – a scary and twisted cautionary tale.
4.5/5 stars