The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Interview

‘Civil War’ With Alex Garland! Plus: The 10 Most Anticipated Movies Out of CinemaCon.

April 12, 2024/ 154 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Chris Ryan

Sean reports back from CinemaCon with the slate that got the loudest room, then he, Amanda, and Chris Ryan spoiler-talk Alex Garland's Civil War, and Sean sits down with Garland himself.

31 films across 4 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

The CinemaCon Reportthe slate Sean saw in Vegas

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 2024

George Miller showed an eight-minute teaser and said he'd locked the movie days earlier. Sean had been worried by the trailer; the extended footage flipped him: a 20-year saga rather than Fury Road's three-day chase.

Mickey 17 2025

Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi with Robert Pattinson doing 'a real choice on the voice,' plus Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo. Sean read the January date as a head-scratcher: closer to Okja's zaniness than Parasite or Snowpiercer.

Nosferatu 2024

Robert Eggers being sold as commercial, 'Dracula's back and loving it.' The trailer withholds Bill Skarsgård but has seven or eight characters say 'he's coming.' Sean, admittedly in the bag for Eggers, called it the best-looking thing he saw.

MaXXXine 2024

Ty West's third Mia Goth movie; A24 wasn't at CinemaCon but the trailer ran parallel. Michelle Monaghan plays a cop, 'not since Gone Baby Gone.'

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024

The noisiest room at CinemaCon, whole cast plus Tim Burton present. All practical effects, no CGI. Sean is skeptical Burton's made a good movie in 30 years but loved the 1984-1995 run.

Joker: Folie à Deux 2024

Todd Phillips told the room he and Joaquin couldn't turn down another $500 million; elided whether it's a musical, saying music was 'essential' though the trailer shows no singing.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 poster

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 2024

Kevin Costner showed an extended cut of part one and, per Sean, 'red-stated, blue-stated' his remarks to exhibitors. Sean is cold on another eight-hour two-part Western but can't wait to watch Costner sell it in public.

Megalopolis 2024

The talk of Vegas: Mike Fleming's 'bold and audacious' piece, then Kim Masters relaying studio chiefs walking out. Every studio person Sean spoke to said no way; something 'experiential' Coppola tried reportedly didn't land.

Good Fortune 2025

Sean's surprise of the show: Aziz Ansari's directorial feature, dropped by one studio and picked up by Lionsgate, with Keanu Reeves as the angel Gabriel, Seth Rogen, and Ansari. Ansari killed as a live presenter, 'the first actually good live entertainer' in four days.

Twisters 2024

Lee Isaac Chung's storm movie, 'looks like it rocks,' not much more to say.

Ballerina 2025

The John Wick spinoff pushed to 2025 after Chad Stahelski came in and ordered five new action sequences. Set between John Wick 3 and 4; Keanu in the trailer.

Wicked 2024

A long extended clip and a full light show. Sean finds the fervor 'deeply puzzling': he thought the movie looked bad even as the room treated it like the second coming, discussed in the same breath as Beetlejuice for owning Thanksgiving.

Moana 2 2024

Sean skipped the Disney presentation but flagged it against Wicked in November; reportedly no Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, and a live-action Moana with the Rock got pushed to 2026.

Mufasa: The Lion King 2024

Cited as evidence the Disney live-action machine 'isn't really working anymore.'

Trap 2024

Sean's favorite trailer of the show. M. Night Shyamalan's concert thriller with Josh Hartnett: a dad takes his daughter to a pop concert that turns out to be a police trap for a serial killer, who is revealed to be him. Sean thought the trailer gave away too much and loved it anyway.

Speak No Evil 2024

The English-language remake of the 2022 Danish horror Sean and Chris loved, now with James McAvoy, Scoot McNairy, and Mackenzie Davis. Sean thinks the trailer spoiled 'every single thing.'

Conclave 2024

Edward Berger's papal-election thriller, with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow. 'Ornately costumed,' prestige-y, entirely inside the conclave walls. Amanda once had a papal-conclave blog.

Michael 2025

The Michael Jackson biopic from producer Graham King (Bohemian Rhapsody, Argo), directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by John Logan. Jaafar Jackson stars, Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson, Nia Long as his mother, Miles Teller as the lawyer. Sean got the sense everyone in the room was relieved it'll make a billion dollars, 'which made me just ill.'

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere poster

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 2025

Scott Cooper's Bruce Springsteen movie about the making of Nebraska, with Jeremy Allen White. Sean thinks White is a good Bruce and will 'stand in the theater saluting' rather than sit; framed as the artier, riskier counterpart to Michael.

Superman 2025

James Gunn's reboot with David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan; no footage shown. Sean's only note: Corenswet wore an Eagles sweatshirt at the presentation, 'if Superman wears an Eagle sweatshirt, I'll see it 500 times.'

Deadpool & Wolverine 2024

Paramount and Disney showed 20 minutes on the day Sean left early; he chose to come home rather than spoil it, wanting to experience it pure.

The Cannes 2024 Lineupan unusually non-American slate

Oh, Canada 2024

Paul Schrader's new film with Jacob Elordi and Richard Gere. The Elordi casting is what suddenly got Sean interested.

Kinds of Kindness 2024

Yorgos Lanthimos's anthology, out in June after Poor Things. On the teaser alone Sean said 'Yorgos is back': people doing awful things to each other for two hours, more his Dogtooth register than Poor Things.

The Apprentice 2024

Ali Abbasi's (Holy Spider) Trump origin film set in the 1980s, with Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. Sean wonders whether Trump is 'beyond cinematic depiction at this point.'

The Shrouds 2024

A new Cronenberg, 'always exciting for me.'

‘Civil War’with Chris Ryan and Bobby Wagner, full spoilers

Civil War 2024

Alex Garland's $50M A24 near-future war movie, with Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons, and Nick Offerman, following journalists across a collapsed America. Chris calls it his favorite film of the year and 'the zenith of A24-core' filmmaking. Amanda: an amazing experience 'with basically no characters or ideas,' effective but maybe empty. The room argues whether an anti-war movie can survive its own thrills (the Plemons scene, the De La Soul shootout, the White House raid) and whether the Texas-California alliance and the withheld politics are provocation or evasion. Bobby's line: 'intellectually dumb and cinematically smart.'

In Conversation

Alex Garland on

Civil War 2024

Garland says the movie came out of anger more than anxiety, about polarization and about journalism losing trust as institutions became 'propagandists more than journalists.' He calls himself a centrist, defends withholding 'flags' (the Texas-California alliance is an inference, not a hole), and explains the De La Soul needle-drop as the assertion that keeps it from inadvertently being a pro-war movie.

Alex Garland on

Ex Machina 2014

Garland's debut, which the hosts and he both return to: a small, talky, cerebral movie with a 'bewitching' visual-effects heart. Sean argues it's a more successful film than Civil War.

Alex Garland on

Annihilation 2018

Cited as part of Garland's episodic method: days inside the Shimmer, one transfigured encounter after another. Amanda's least favorite of his.

Alex Garland on

Men 2022

His previous film, the confined, mythic one; the group can't agree what its birthing-cycle ending means, which becomes the template for the 'is that it?' argument about Civil War.

Alex Garland on

28 Days Later 2002

Reached for as the earliest example of Garland's structure: a series of encounters, each one dispensing a little more information.

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

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