Now I’ll be honest, I’m an absolute sucker for this kind of thing. I’ve no idea how I’d get on in an apocalyptic civil war scenario, but it’s cinematic gold. Visually at least, what you need though is a compelling story to give it purpose. In the near future, America finds itself in such a situation. Put aside whether you feel this is a probable forecast or if it’s even dangerous to release a film like this in 2024. Those are legitimate questions, but I’m not going to dig deeper than this being pure fiction. That said, as the President (Nick Offerman) practices his speech with a red tie in the opening scene, he’s intercut with recent archive of civil unrest in the states, so it’s clear what director Alex Garland is going for. Texas and California have formed their own government and its supporters are intent on taking back The White House on July 4th. America loves its symbols after all. We see things unfold through Lee’s eyes (Kirsten Dunst), she’s a press photographer. Experienced and fearless, an inspiration to the much younger Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) who wants to be a war photographer like Lee… who shares the same name as famous WWII photographer Lee Miller, subject of the new Kate Winslet film ‘LEE’. Got all that? Good. It does feel a bit clunky to start and it holds the audience’s hand a little too much, but there are some undeniably hard hitting moments, plus using Suicide in the score is always going to get me on board. Lee is detached, hollowed out by the things she’s seen. Jessie on the other hand finds herself in at the deep end as they travel, along with Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) to DC, to try and see the President and what’s left of the capital. It’s clear that both sides of the war are pretty screwed up and we’re with Lee in the middle simply observing the insanity. There’s not much to like though to be honest. All the characters are flawed in some way and the narrative feels oddly impenetrable considering it’s pretty thin. America in ruins does look good in that dystopian way and this hangs a lot on that. Shoot outs in brutalist buildings, tent cities abandoned stadiums, car littered highways, all with a Geoff Barrow score humming menacingly in the background. It doesn’t really find any real on screen menace sadly until a sadistic uncredited Jesse Plemons in ridiculous red sunglasses turns up and starts shooting. In nothing more than two minutes he steals the entire show, which might have annoyed his partner Dunst, but it’s merely a momentary glimpse of substance. I said at the beginning the importance of a compelling story and it’s just not here. What little there is, is caked in thick layers of surface action. It’s not entirely pointless though and it’s paced just about well enough to make it worth sticking around for its inevitable conclusion. The score is good too, but this could’ve been much better.
5/10
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