I might watch it eventually if it drops hints, but I am really tired of movies like that which don’t actually tell you why it happened. I felt that way about The Road and also about Leave the World Behind. Fans argue that the actual reason everything ended, or is ending in the case of the latter, don’t matter because it’s all about the characters… and if that works for you, fine. I need something more than “it just happened.”
I totally understand where you are coming from and agree in those particular examples; sure, the characters give us something to watch but without understanding what is actually happening, the story loses tons of steam
In the case of Civil War I think it works because of the following (no spoilers):
- Unlike those other movies, we all know what a Civil War is, so “filling the blanks” is not as critical
- Whatever caused it, happened a bit back. You start the movie towards what feels like the end of the war and nobody is trying to stop the war or solve the problem; because of that, you are not focusing on the reasons why it started
- You follow journalists in the movie and they make it clear they are there to report what is happening, not to provide commentary. Again this moves you away from “why is this happening” mindset
- Finally, yes they do provide enough to make an educated guess. They even provide one which is presented as the “final straw” that started it all. You won’t get the play-by-play sequence but it was enough for me to fill in the blanks
Cinematography is amazing and it does have that odd vibe that A24 movies have. I liked this movie a lot.
