A24
God bless America. This sentiment, repeated so liberally it is often rote, elicits genuine chills when it closes the trailer to the new film by Alex Garland (Ex-Machina, Annihilation). Uttered by Nick Offerman’s tyrannical President, it comes after a series of truly disturbing images – tanks, air strikes, automatic weapons in the streets – that show an America torn apart by civil war.
The near-future setting and Garland’s celebrated history in the genre suggest that Civil War might be a work of science-fiction – but the British writer/director isn’t so sure. Working with a $75m budget that’s nose-bleed territory for both himself and production company A24, he’s gone for a level of realism in his new film, and it really doesn’t take much of a leap to envision today’s divided America finding itself in such a terrifying place.