Alex Garland 'Civil War' Interview | A24 Taking Risks, '28 Years Later' Details & More
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- Опубліковано 18 тра 2024
- Alex Garland is one of the most interesting filmmakers working today and has delivered striking, awe-inspiring cinema as both a writer and director for over two decades. We are honored to welcome Garland on the show to discuss his latest film, Civil War. The cast blew away each of us, as well as the story centered on wartime journalists, and the grace with which the film navigates its controversial narrative through the real world it seems to depict so nearly.
We discuss designing his set pieces with backstory, how Jesse Plemons joined the cast at the last minute and delivered one of the best performances of the year, and more. He even shares some details on the upcoming 28 Days Later sequel, 28 Years Later.
After the interview, we give our spoiler-free thoughts on the film, and then dive right into spoilers so if you haven’t made it to the theaters yet, be warned.
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:49 - Alex Garland Talks ‘Civil War,’ ’28 Years Later’ and More
00:30:11 - Spoiler-Free’ Civil War’ Review
00:49:48 - ‘Civil War’ Spoilers!
01:08:09 - Sean Is At CinemaCon 2024
01:20:23 - Outro
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Alex Garland being a Curb fan was not on my 2024 bingo card, but a pleasant surprise anyway 😂
As you were talking about the still photos I thought about how how the deaths in the film were quick and unceremonious and never lingered on anyone, contrasted with the stills shots which were always the more of a spectacle.
It's nice to hear the director showing appreciation towards everyone else who was involved in the making of this movie.
Great job! Unlike a lot of recent interviews, Garland seemed genuinely interested in having a conversation with you 🙌
The last 30 mins of Civil War is heart pounding and incredible the way it puts you right into the movie…. Wild ride.
I was all in after seeing the "Civil War" trailer for the first time as a Garland Stan. The movie was not what I was expecting but in a good way. The upbeat needle drops made the immediately previous scene more unnerving/unsettling, it was genius. One scene that will be embedded in my memory is the glee and exhilaration on Wagner and Cailee's faces as their eyes met making their way to the White House , again very unsettling. I saw it on IMAX Thursday evening and it had to have increased the immesiveness and intensity a thousand fold if I had seen it in a regular theater.
While Jake held his own in the ReelBlend Garland interview, i was disappointed Sean and Kevin werent there, as your dynamic make your group interviews so much better.
I was so glad that Civil War was not as divisive and polarizing as I thought it would be. I’m planning on seeing it a second time and I think I’ll enjoy it more for what it is then. I really enjoyed it the first time, but kept waiting for it to touch home on the current state of politics in the US.
I never had a movie-watching experience like this one, especially the forrest fire scene, so satisfying
THE BOYS ARE BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGER 🎉❤ Keep up the great work guys great interview
Happy Reelblend Friday everyone! Excited for Sean’s cinemacon coverage!
Excellent show fellas! Always a pleasure to listen/watch!
The seige in the film is hands down the best seige ever in film.
Watching this before posting my review has made me feel A LOT better about how I perceived it and how I went about conveying those thoughts. I appreciate you guys talking about it and being honest.
The movie looks and sounds perfect in imax laser.
Great interview with Alex Garland. Thanks
Sean.....you CAN look this time!
(Yes Kevin Im committed to this now 😂)
***See below the Reel Blend Count Trivia question Answer***
A new trivia question will be asked next week
Last weeks trivia question answer (including Gabe's introduction today) is:
Gabe - 7
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Last weeks question was...
Trivia question:
Can anyone guess how many times Gabe was the first introduced? (FYI: there were time(s) that nobody was introduced)
Great interview and conversation! The Civil War trailer did feel like it was hitting a little too close to home.. and we have all the turmoil in real life. But I think Garland is great and I will be checking the movie out soon. Good to have a movie challenge me from time to time. Thanks all.
That was an amazing interview!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really didn't think I'd enjoy this movie, it looked like a bit much and not super interesting, but I loved it, it was a bit much, and even though there was so little background information and exposition it was fascinating. My third favorite of the year so far behind Late Night With the Devil and Dune Part 2
Great job. I hope Alex get some decent audience questions at the Q&A I'm going to.
Devs, one of the best shows by a mile
Fabulous series, definitely hooks you in 👍
Absolutely it’s time for a rewatch
First! Listening on my way to class and so happy you guys got this interview!
Just watched Civil War here in the Philippines. Needed to jump back to this episode to see your point of view compared to mine as a non American. Thanks so much Sean for pointing that out!
“After The Civil War” has got to be made…..❤
I would say the movie Medium Cool (1969) comes close to what Civil War is commenting on. Highly recommend checking it out for anyone out there hasn’t seen it.
Wow, this one slipped me by. Directed by Haskell Wexler. Thanks for the recommendation.
I'll make one myself here: Sleeping Dogs from 1977. New Zealand film, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Sam Neill, dealing with a civil war scenario in New Zealand. It doesn't employ documentary style but premise wise and in terms of thematics, there are definite echoes.
saw civil war yesterday and loved it Jesse Plemons stole the movie and was absolutely terrifying and for me entered Joe Pesci territory in his ability to scare the shit out of you and great interview with Alex Garland
I thought it was brilliant. It reminds me of a realistic Christopher Nolan movie with hints of an Apocalypse Now style vibe. The music took me to the post Vietnam Era.
Many wanted to know the cause of the war but the context of the war is not important. Most 21st century Americans (except the naive) know how this could happen.
Overall, this movie was an essay warning us (Americans) to not let our politicians lead us in this direction because…, in a war everyone loses.
After learning Civil War isn't a divisive movie and not catering to one side politically that made me interested to see it. The last thing we need is a movie that creates division after all. I hoped that it would be a movie about the bigger picture and I loved the interview here with Alex that just makes it more worth watching. Every week you guys just keeping lining up interviews with the directors of movies that I'm interested in lately which makes me real glad that I've been subscribed to ReelBlend!
Garland's approach of not explaining everything for the audience reminds me of the approach taken by Hidetaka Miyasaki with Dark Souls and Hideki Ano with Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Sometimes it’s great to kit be constantly spoon fed exposition and plot, discovery is part of the journey.
@@ronthorn3 Indeed it kind of shows respect for the audience by giving them the chance to pay attention and analyze what they're seeing so they can draw their own conclusions.
I love this discussion.
Agree with Kevin on the ending….
I have a question though. Why the rainbow tinted anamorphic lens? I kind of have a theory, but I’m not certain.
~~~Spoiler~~~
The use of shimmer and distortion at the edges of the frame for Dunst during the final siege before she kicks into gear felt like a great cinematic tool to show the culminating trauma and effects; and to see it on Spaney at very end is a wonderful and sad moment
The logic behind this movie is that if you make it about a photo journalist who doesn’t really care about her subjects then you get to just film her taking pictures of incidents taking place without providing any backstory.
I thought from the trailer that Civil War looks interesting, haven't heard great things about it so far but the interview with Alex Garland and your (spoiler-free, I"ll have to come back later for the spoilers section) reviews pushed me to buy a ticket for this weekend. Even if I end up not liking it that much, I think this is a good opportunity for me to support films 😝
4:18
I love Alex Garland ever since 28 days later and dredd. Annihilation is one of my favorite movies and devs is one of THE most underrated sci-fi shows of all time. I think on this movie, he lost the plot. What was it saying? Documenting war makes you numb? Complicit? Are they simply reckless adrenalin junkies?
In a time where a U.S. BACKED GOV MURDERED THE MOST JOURNALISTS IN THE HISTORY OF DOCUMENTING WAR, YOU WANT TO SILENCE THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE JOURNALIST?? Weird choice by Alex...
I think this film was saying a lot of things, and that’s one of the great things about it. Every time I think about specific scenes or the overall film I find new food for thought concerning implications. But no, it doesn’t present an argument for silencing journalists, IMO, although it does portray them as humans who are complex and working from a variety of motives, and are influenced by their experiences.
The film isn't explicit about its political position, but it's not at all ambiguous if you pay attention. The answerers are in the dialogue and the visual details.
I thought the map with California, Texas was maybe a little bit of a troll also. Releasing that map sets up at the red sunglasses guy in the middle of the movie. If you found that map offensive, then you’ve already answered the question that guy asks. Where are you from? What kind of an American are you? Who are you with?.
Did you know that this "most disturbing question" is a reference to a WWI song... See wiki and be amazed ) from Russia with love,
Civil War is one of the most important and timely movie in recent times. Alex Garland has truly created a harrowing and thought provoking cinema which doesn't take any sides rather let's the audience think for themselves. The concept of: "stretching the rubber" in-order to continuously build up the intensity, tension and suspense is done masterfully in every sequence after sequence. You guys did it again, amazing interview boys. I was left speechless at the end of the film, it is a really serious and great piece of cinema.
First tally added to introducing Gabe first? 😅😅😅
"Tell us a bit about the story...."
......No.
Brilliant.
Thematically, the Civil War is heavy film. Sad creatures, we are.
we're not far off from killing each other with sticks and stones
Just watched it and my big takeaway was the heartlessness of the photo journalists/journalists, while Joel is joking with one of the Boogaloo militia, the others are executing captured soldiers in hoods. Lots to process from the movie. Obviously with the addition Garland admits about the start of the movie means the President is a Trump-like figure regardless of politics together with the hints about the Constitution being undermined.
I can't help but comment on the Ballerina segment.
O'Connell, do you seriously not know the background for the reshoots, or do you know and are you just going to repeat studio's PR line? I'm not trying to be disrespectful - genuine question.
Because what happened wasn't that Wiseman 'decided' anything. Nothing with the re-shoots is due to his own volition.
Ian McShane gave an interview recently where he explained it (he's clearly at a stage of his career where he doesn't give a fuck): Wiseman handed in a cut which apparently had subpar action, by the standards of the franchise at least. Chad Stahelski then decided to go in himself and re-stage and re-shoot all of the action. That's where things are at now: Stahelski basically took the film away from Wiseman, in McShane's words, in order to "protect the franchise". Everything else is basically PR.
Look up the McShane interview if you don't believe me. It's in The Independent.
Civil War at the 2025 Oscars
Best script
Best sound
Best photography
Best actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best edition
Best direction
Come on guys... no Fallout talk at all? :(
Only so much time! How much have you watched? Enjoying it?
Boycott the Crow remake. Brandon's legacy should be respected and left alone.
As an Australian I have been feeling a nervous anger about the premise and trailers for Civil War. It feels too possible, too close to home, too real. Politics has never divided US society this much in my long lifetime. The internet is full of stories of US families irrevocably divided, going No Contact over different perceptions of the reality of the world, and ethical divides over who are good and bad people. Scapegoating and Othering is at an all time high since WW2. Everything is rhyming hard with 1930’s Germany.
My only hope is that Trump/QAnon followers are much smaller in number than their Google Bubbles/echo chambers tell them. That the Jan 6th prosecutions have genuinely scared wannabe revolutionaries that their lives will be personally ruined by the FBI if they try anything without the entire nation behind, or preferably in front of them.
I was afraid this movie would stir the shit; would be a flame too uncomfortably close too a powder keg. Your discussion was relieving in that its primary message seems to be ‘don’t do it. You don’t want a civil war.’ And that the film is non partisan and people will read into it what they want to, so either side of the reality divide will absorb the film instead of rejecting it. I’m much more inclined to watch the movie now. Much more comfortable about its perceived messaging. Very intrigued about the performances and set pieces. On the other hand the situation in the US stresses me the f*** out, and it might be better for me to still sit this one out. Maybe visit it in a decade or so, if things in the USA and worldwide get better instead of worse.
THANKS FOR SPOILING A DEATH IN A NON-SPOLER REVIEW! FFS
What’s there to not understand about this movie?? I just think it stinks. It’s poorly written and shallow. There’s nothing to enjoy, nothing to care for, and nothing to think about. It’s empty!
Nolan's practical bomb is extremely underwhelming and doesn't look/behave like an atomic bomb. It looks like a gasoline bomb. I don't know why these fanboy film critics worship bad ideas of filmmakers.
True. My only complaint with Oppenheimer.
Ok
True. They should have just upressed the 4K shots of the real thing.
That's how it actually looked. You're mistakimg archival footage of subsequent atomic tests
Just the worst movie ever made. 💩
movie is pointless and unexciting. there's nothing to even interpret or talk about after. it sucks so bad. Riskless baby movie.
The movie is in essence cowardly. It wants all the salaciousness and inherent interest that a topic like this brings - the box office appeal, basically - but it doesn't want to deal with any of it in a serious way - which is the only reason to do a movie like this in the first place.
Total joke. I saw it yesterday and it gets worse the more I think about it.
@@gordoncutter9241 a man of my own heart. 🥲
The movie looks awful
If you go check it out, let us know what you think!
@@ReelBlend I wouldn't waste my money on a movie that tells me what is good and bad. That's not why I watch movies
@@JayCee-tp2gv they literally went out of their way on the podcast to tell you that the film doesn't do that. It's not didactic
@@nlg070301 And you are dumb enough to believe them. Congratulation's.
I saw it. It is awful. Boring, uneventful, myopic, pointless, lame, and uninteresting.