Alex Garland's "Civil War" Doesn't Depict Our America... Yet

Most depressing road trip ever

I can’t spoil any of the specific details of the titular conflict in Alex Garland’s Civil War, because the viewer isn’t given any.

The President of the United States in this near-future world — played briefly onscreen by Nick Offerman and credited only as “President” — is as generic as he is nameless. We’re not told which political party he belongs to, if any, or how he got a third term in office. All we know is that by this point he has disbanded the FBI (yay!), banned journalists from Washington, DC (I’ve heard worse ideas), and ordered airstrikes on American citizens (whoa, okay, that’s bad). He’s now regarded on a par with Muammar Gaddafi.

At least that’s what his enemies say, anyway. How much of it is true? The viewer has no way of knowing.

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