Film Review: “Warfare”

Warfare prioritizes a real-time sensory experience for maximum impact

The Navy SEAL team fights for position.

Prepare for war. Warfare is a ninety-five minute adrenaline shot of real-time warfighting that asks the audience to experience an authentic depiction of grim combat and decide how to feel about it. Some viewers will chastise the filmmakers for not taking an explicit stance, the same complaint levied against 2024’s Civil War, yet that would be missing the point. Warfare isn’t interested in historical or political context, and unfolds almost entirely without a hint of moral grandstanding. Instead, Warfare is solely focused on the visceral hell unleashed when the bullets begin to fly. In a troubling hint at war’s futility, Warfare’s very existence seems to suggest that any shred of morality can only work backwards from the end, after it’s too late and the battle is over. Continue reading “Film Review: “Warfare””

Film Review: Lady Macbeth

What’s done cannot be undone: And that’s the way she wants it

Katherine (Florence Pugh) is restless and bored as the much younger wife of a middle-aged man who shows no interest in her. 

If Lady Macbeth is remembered for anything after its initial release today, it will be for introducing the mostly unknown British actress Florence Pugh to the world. Just 19 years old when she made the film, Pugh, in the picture’s title role, is reminiscent of a young Kate Winslet, and, based on her work here, is bound to go on to an equally impressive and acclaimed career.
Continue reading “Film Review: Lady Macbeth