Civil War (15)

★★★✭ Not a film one enjoys as much as experiences, Alex Garland's vision of a future America ravaged by conflict is impressively mounted but lacks political bite. ~ Little White Lies.

---

From writer/director Alex Garland and starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny, an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor's edge.

---

★★★★★ This teeth-clenching thriller is superbly paced, feels mercilessly realistic, and sees Kirsten Dunst and her co-stars doing some of the best work of their careers when an America of the near future takes its last gasp. ~ RTE.

★★★★ An exceptional war movie that relishes gory details, the director Alex Garland has made a comeback — drawing inspiration from Apocalypse Now, this film is assaulting, unfeasibly loud and is his best yet. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ The Ex Machina director’s vision of an imploding America is neither anti-Trump nor anti-woke. Instead it’s as riveting as cinema gets, an Apocalypse Now for centrists which thrills at every turn. ~ Telegraph.

★★★★ There’s no shortage of horrors in an uncompromising hypothetical drama whose copious thrills come steeped in moral and ethical complexity. ~ Total Film.

★★★★ As a political statement, Civil War is provocative and occasionally exasperating; as a purely cinematic experience, it is urgent, heart-in-mouth, extraordinary stuff. ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ London Evening Standard.

★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.

★★★★ ~ The Observer.

★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ ~ Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ AllMovie.

★★★★ ~ NME.