Civil War - I'm Just a Naive Midwestern Bitch

When I saw the first trailer for Civil War, I thought, “Who the fuck would want to see that?” While I still believe a full on civil war in this country is highly unlikely, it’s enough of a threat that a movie about it felt off-putting. More than that, I assumed it was going to be a liberal-minded warning that would only preach to the choir. To be clear, I consider myself a liberal, but I hate overly liberal pop culture stuff as much as I hate those silly “documentaries” that Dinesh D’Souza won’t stop making. Anything that leans too heavily to one side is just trying to make money off people who already agree with the author; it doesn’t actually say anything. 

Civil War, to my surprise, doesn’t actually say anything, either, but in a good, literal way. This film still has a liberal tinge to it simply because members of the press are the primary characters, but it’s not like they’re constantly giving speeches directly to the audience or anything. They are meant to be press members in the traditional sense in that they are there to document what is happening, not provide commentary about it.

This may bother some viewers hoping for a message from a film called Civil War beyond “War is bad and messes people up.” But I was fine with the lack of a message and the lack of a specific reason for the start of the war (there are hints, but no concrete history is given, and a reference to an “Antifa massacre” that Kirsten Dunst’s character covered in college implies that this is meant to be an alternate history version of the United States). 

Fairly quickly, the film makes it clear that this is a flat out war film. A civil war is happening, and we’re simply embedded with these journalists as they make their way from New York to D.C. As a road movie during a civil war, this hooked me. Writer/director Alex Garland created an anxiety-filled story in which anything could happen at any time. In many ways, it had the feel of a zombie or general post-apocalyptic movie in that no one can be trusted, and death is a constant possibility. 

And maybe I’m just a naive Midwestern bitch, but the realistic depiction of a modern civil war taking place in America, especially in D.C. was incredibly effective. I found myself short of breath by the end of the film, and it wasn’t because I’m fat (maybe it was a little because I’m fat, but the movie played a part, too). 

Watching this in a theater played a factor, as well. The war sequences are loud and overbearing, and the prolonged moments with gunfire and explosions create a true feeling of chaos. Being in a theater also allowed me to get a sense of what others might feel about the movie. I didn’t talk to any strangers afterwards or anything, but I made a few observations. First off, a couple next to us walked out during the Jesse Plemons scene in which he’s shooting anyone who isn’t a “normal” American, i.e. white American. Watching this in Kentucky (I live on the Indiana/Kentucky border), my first assumption was they were offended that this racist character is what the filmmakers think of people from the more rural part of the country. If that’s the case, I hate to break it to them that if shit did really go down, this area of the country would have no shortage of deranged fuckers who would use the war as an excuse to make their racist fantasies come true. 

Or maybe they were simply offended by the ugliness of the scene in general. If that was the case, I’m not sure what they were expecting from a movie called Civil War, but apparently that scene crossed the line. Or maybe they received a text message from a babysitter and had to leave, who knows, but I think the scene played a factor. 

On the way out at the end, I heard a person say, “So that's what they have planned for us.” First off, what? This had to be a conservative dude who thinks the liberal elites of Hollywood hate him and all he stands for, so he went into this expecting it to be two hours of liberal lies about “real Americans.” Or something like that, I don’t know how these people think. It really seemed like he thought up that line before he even got to the theater and felt the need to still say it even though the movie in no way presents a plan of action for taking out conservative Americans. I could understand his comment if this movie was about the government using the military to confiscate weapons from people or something, but the fighting in this is presented as two military forces fighting each other for the most part, not one evil liberal government subjugating the conservatives. 

I point these moments out to show that people will still find this movie political and/or offensive no matter what. Because of that, I can see why it would be frustrating for some viewers that Garland didn’t take more of a stand with the screenplay. I found those audience reactions as affirmation that Garland made the right choice. People are going to bring their views to a movie like this no matter what you do, so why bother with a message? Instead, just show people what a civil war might look like, regardless of what “side” you’re on. 

As an experience, Civil War turned out to be exactly what I wanted. From a story or character standpoint, there isn’t a ton there. I liked the main characters, but for me they were simply ciphers to experience the war through and not much more. There is a little development with them, I suppose, but not much. Since the film is just about war, the only development for all of them is how much the atrocity of war changes, or doesn’t change, a person. But I didn’t really care that much about any of them. I was just there for the war, and if that’s all you want from this, then you’ll be fine, no matter how you feel politically. 

Random Thoughts (SPOILERS)

Another dude at the end of the movie was talking to a cop at the movie theater, and I heard him say, “It’s actually a follow up to that movie.” And the cop replied, “Okay, I was wondering because it looks like it’s just from the press perspective.” God, I wish I had heard what movie he thought this was a follow up to. I hate approaching strangers, but I truly regret not walking over to him and asking what the fuck he was talking about.

January 6th entered my mind a bit during this, as well. People storming the White House doesn’t seem that unlikely after that event.

America has truly lost her way if we can’t stay united with Nick Offerman as President.

That town that seems to be sitting out the war (thanks to some snipers on top of the buildings) is probably how my small town would react to a civil war. I hope so, anyway.

So I guess the arc for Dunst is that she starts off not caring about anyone anymore, but Stephen McKinley Henderson’s death and her mentoring of Cailee Spaeny made her care about people enough again to sacrifice herself? I don’t know. And why not just push her down and fall down with her? Why push her away and stand up in the line of fire? And I didn’t really get her panic attack leading up to the White House, either. Like I wrote above, what little character development there is in this just didn’t matter to me, or make sense in this case.

How do you put Jimmy from Yellowstone in this and not kill him?

This is clearly an alternate universe America since they didn’t drive past a single Dollar General.

Sasquatch Sunset - Bigfoot Family for Adults

Earlier today, my four-year-old son excitedly told me about a movie he watched a part of on Netflix called Bigfoot Family. I thankfully missed out on that (for now) and instead got to watch another movie about a Bigfoot family that is definitely not for children: Sasquatch Sunset. 

When the trailer for this came out a while back, I remember being interested in it mainly because it featured Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough (along with Christophe Zajac-Denek and co-director Nathan Zellner) in full sasquatch prosthetics grunting for the entire movie, and it was rated R. While the trailer was mainly humorous, the full film is thankfully deeper than just “look at these actors doing sasquatch shit!” 

As the film follows this sasquatch family nature-doc style, there are plenty of funny moments, but no amount of humor could sustain a feature length comedy about grunting sasquatches. Instead, you slowly get to know the family beyond just trying to figure out which one is Eisenberg. There’s a dynamic going on that becomes interesting to follow, and the specter of humanity (actual people are never seen, but their presence is clear) adds a melancholy aura to it all. 

But many people may come to this film just for the oddity of a dialogue-free sasquatch movie. Those people will likely get bored quickly. The film is certainly amusing, but if you don’t let yourself be taken in by the family’s journey, it’ll make the brief eighty-nine minute runtime feel like an eternity. 

The family drama kept me involved, and the overall style of the film won me over. The “nature-doc” description is apt, but doesn’t do the film justice. Sasquatch Sunset is a beautiful film that doesn’t contain a single wasted shot, and the score makes you feel like you’re witnessing a new world. 

The visuals and music are so effective that it can be easy to forget that this takes place in the real world, so when the family comes across evidence of humans, like an “X” marked on a tree for logging, or a campsite, or, in what is destined to be the most famous and definitely most disgusting scene in the film, a road, it feels jarring, foreign, and a little frightening. 

Of course, the presence of humanity means the end of the world for this family (it is called Sasquatch Sunset, not Sunrise, after all), but it never feels preachy in its environmental message. It’s more of a sad acceptance of what “progress” does to the natural world. What helps keep the message grounded is the often disgusting behavior of some family members. These aren’t perfect beings frolicing in the magical woods. The alpha, especially, does some selfish, gross shit. This doesn’t mean the movie makes the case to justify the extinction of these creatures; it’s just that the film isn’t naive enough to try to present the natural world as perfect or nice. Here, the world is simply presented as a changing one in which a sasquatch can be part of pop culture, but won’t be able to survive actual culture.

The effectiveness of the film is also a testament to the great physical acting of the four performers. The prosthetics are great, but the eyes of each sasquatch are the most telling feature. Keough is the standout, and she’s the true star of the film. She has the most expressive eyes, and I found myself truly concerned for her character throughout. The combination of performance and prosthetics made me forget at times that I was watching actors in sasquatch suits eating leaves, throwing rocks, and beating sticks against trees, hoping to hear from other sasquatches but only receiving silence in return.

Years from now, maybe my son will watch Sasquatch Sunset and appreciate it as much as I do. But for now, he’ll have to get his environmental messaging from Bigfoot Family (though there is a disturbing element to that film, too, since Bigfoot is married and has a kid with a human woman in it). For the rest of us adults, it’s nice that there’s a poignant, but also gross and funny, sasquatch movie out there.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - A Means to a Kaiju End

A movie with a title like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a bit pointless to review (so it’s a good thing I’m writing this nearly a week after it came out, right?). Who’s waiting for the critical consensus before going to see this? (“Well, I was going to see the new giant monster movie, but Jake Coyle of the Associated Press wasn’t a fan, so I’ll skip it.”) To be fair, I would argue that film criticism is most useful after you’ve seen a movie anyway so you can get a different viewpoint to consider. But the point remains that everyone watching this knows what it is: giant monsters punching each other.

That’s normally how I would approach a film like this, but this one was special. This was the first Godzilla movie I watched in a theater with my son and daughter after my son and I became big G fans (my daughter is more into Kong, so I won’t be mentioning her any further in this).

My four-year-old son seemed to enjoy it. His short review (beyond the simple thumbs up he gave me when I asked for his review) can be summed up by his behavior during the movie. About twenty minutes in during a human scene, he asked if the movie would be over soon. During a Kong fight with some Skar King lackeys, my son started reenacting the fight on his chair, pounding his fists down on it like an ape. And when it was over, he asked if we could watch it again as soon as we got home (Dad having access to awards screeners at the end of the year has really messed up how my kids think movie releases work, and COVID didn’t help). So, in short, the human stuff was a bit boring, but the fights were great. Pretty much sums up the general response I’ve seen in blurbs and whatnot.

For me, it was a bit different. A few months ago, this would be an afterthought movie I would wait for home video to watch. But after watching all of the Godzilla franchise last month, I was genuinely excited for this. I was able to appreciate that this was like a middle-of-the-road Shōwa Era Godzilla movie: the fights are good and a little goofy (that suplex of King Kong had me laughing), and the humans are fine but not nearly as compelling as the big dudes. In other words, I had the same response as my son, but I could give it a little context within the franchise…and at no point did I act like an ape in the theater.

The main takeaway was how Hollow Earth was presented here. The scientists claim that they’ve barely mapped out Hollow Earth, which leaves the series open to endless possibilities. Instead of using outer space for the source of new monsters and enemies (as a lot of films in the series do), they have Hollow Earth. That’s fine, but Hollow Earth is still a new enough idea in the series that we have to spend too much time trekking through it when we all know there’s a lot of monsters and whatnot lurking around there.

If Hollow Earth was some feast for the eyes, I wouldn’t mind hanging out there. But aside from some camera spinning stuff, it just felt like a Dollar General Pandora. Which is fine, if it’s only a means to a kaiju end. Don’t give me multiple scenes in the woods with scary plants and bugs. Just immediately stumble onto the lost tribe or whatever.

That written, it’s not like the movie dwells there. It moves plenty fast, and the humans aren’t that bad. There is a genuine emotional connection between Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle, and Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens have some amusing moments here and there. But yeah, I have a hard time remembering their character names, and I’m more concerned with what Godzilla is up to during their scenes. I’m just saying the human moments are not devoid of heart and entertainment. 

But like my son, I watched this for the fights. While the Kong stuff was decent, and I kind of like Baby Kong (I know it’s not his name, but you know who I mean, just like how Baby Yoda still works better than Grogu), I’m just here for Godzilla. I do wish there were more fights for G leading to the big team up, but what we get is nice and brutal. More than anything, though, I liked the version of Godzilla in this as he powers himself up into nuclear meltdown mode a la Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, one of my favorite Godzilla movies. He gets that glowing eyes demonic treatment here, and it’s great. 

The team up battle with G and Kong is nice, especially that suplex, but it’s just the appetizer before the big brawl. Once G, Kong, Skar King, and Shimo started fighting in Brazil, my brain shut off, and I was in giant monster nerd heaven for a couple minutes. Seeing that in IMAX was sensory overload at its finest, and it’s what makes me love this series, despite its flaws. 

DIrector Adam Wingard knows his way around a monster fight, though I wouldn’t mind if someone else took over the next one. I’m a fan of Wingard’s early work, especially You’re Next and The Guest, but aside from some trippy colors, Dan Stevens, and some needle drops, I think Wingard works better on a smaller scale. And that’s coming from a fan of this movie; I just want some new blood for the series as this and Godzilla vs. Kong are very similar, and a change would be nice. 

No matter who makes the next one, the future is bright for this series. With this exceeding box office expectations coupled with Minus One’s success, I hope to see a more Godzilla-centric film next in the Legendary monsterverse. Kong is okay, but I’m tired of seeing G play second-fiddle to a homesick ape. Maybe in the next film, he can teach little Kong how to ride a bike or something while Godzilla takes care of the monster fighting. At the very least the next one can begin with Kong and Godzilla working together and won’t need the bulk of the screen time to lead up to it. This is a rare series that can get better as it continues. Whatever route they take, I plan on being there opening weekend with my kids, ready to shut my brain down and have some fun.