With Americans heading to the polls later this year, they face the ugly prospect of a deranged Donald Trump returning to power, or the threat of violent fallout if he doesn’t. Without aping things exactly, Civil War chillingly imagines how a disastrously divided country might evolve into all-out conflict. British writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Devs) delivers the food for thought.

Nick Offerman plays the film’s incompetent president, holed up in the White House while clinging on in his third term. Events unfold amid this chaos he has created, as separatist forces descend on the capital and gun-toting militia roam the country. Kirsten Dunst is revered war photojournalist Lee, with Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny an ambitious young upstart looking to learn from her, Wagner Moura a very rock’n’roll reporter, and Stephen McKinley Henderson a wise veteran. Civil War takes the shape of a road trip, following this quartet on their dangerous journey from New York to Washington DC.

Garland adopts a wonderfully unexpected approach, swerving exposition and the explicitly political, instead giving us reams of unforgettable imagery as he zeroes in on the dehumanising effects of war and the catastrophic outcome of dismantling institutions, sowing suspicion and allowing citizens to amass weapons. He rejects the faux sincerity and empty spectacle of blockbuster dystopias, with the funky soundtrack and satirical script bringing warmth and levity, while silence is used to disarming effect too.
Civil War is also a scintillating study of war reporting and those who are drawn to it, showing them as thrill seekers, heroes, martyrs and sages. Dunst is spectacular as a jaded legend who despairs that lessons from external conflicts have not been learned, with Spaeny and Moura providing satisfying contrast. We’ll have to wait until November to see whether Americans pay heed to this film’s desperately important warnings.
Civil War is in cinemas from Friday 12 April.