Lee (Dunst), a hardened veteran photojournalist, is capturing the chaos enveloping the country as a deadly, destructive civil war rages on. She and her colleague Joel (Moura) need to take a perilous, circuitous road trip from New York to Washington, DC to locate the embattled President (Offerman). Along for the ride is Sammy (Henderson), Lee’s elderly mentor and  Jessie (Spaeny), a young aspiring photographer who desperately wants to follow in Lee’s daring footsteps. Their journey is predictably tense and eventful.

Garland’s unnerving thriller feels bracingly relevant, given the indelible memories of January 6th, 2021. Wisely, the director never gets overtly political or too specific as to who or what caused the conflict, focusing instead on the outcome: a pervasive sense of fear and dislocation, with shortages everywhere and the threat of sudden, random violence in the air. The whole cast excels, but Dunst’s Oscar-caliber performance as a woman who’s captured too much hate and misery carries the film. “Civil War” is a solid nailbiter and a cautionary tale that should make us think about how to heal the divisions that plague us.