20 Best Movies Of 2024 (So Far)

Directed by Alex Garland, Civil War feels all too prescient. In a present America far removed from our own (and yet terrifyingly close, according to many Americans), war has erupted between an authoritarian government and a gaggle of rebel factions. 

The star of the film is Garland's direction, which captures the battles fought with bruising results; this is a film where America itself is on fire, its monuments destroyed and people violently divided, and Garland has no interest in sanitising the bloodshed nor the inhumanity at play. 

Pulverising action aside, the thriller also sports a brilliantly weathered turn from Kirsten Dunst as a war photographer caught in the madness and attempting to make sense of it. Is all of this heavy-handed given the current climate? Maybe, but that doesn't make it any less an entertaining display to witness. 

Apocalyptic and horribly timely, Civil War is a film for our time, a cautionary tale about a nation in crisis, and it makes for a thriller with more than a few tricks up its sleeve.