#REVIEW: “WARFARE”

Review by Justin Waldman for Mr. Will Wong

Alex Garland – the man of a thousand different ideas and concepts is back with something similar to his last outing – Civil War – but this time with a Co-Director in war veteran Ray Mendoza in the incredibly unsettling yet realistic look at war in Warfare. The Movie is one of the most unflinching, unsettling looks at war ever depicted on-screen in a non-Documentary film period. It is 90 straight minutes of one unspecific mission where Ray and his peers are placed in a fight for survival that is both terrifying and traumatizing.

Warfare doesn’t waste its time filling the audience in with backstory, it doesn’t need to. The Movie takes place in 2009 and the soldiers are in the midst of war staking out a neighbourhood in Iraq ensuring there is no threat. We don’t know why Ray, Erik, Elliot, Sam, Kelly, Mikey, John, Brock, and Lt. Macdonald (D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Aaron Mackenzie, Alex Brockdorff, Finn Bennett, Evan Holtzman, and Michael Gandolfini respectively) are there – we just know they’re there. They’re in a warzone, everything is unpredictable and then the worst scenario happens – they get attacked and the fight for survival ensues. While trying to escape and get to safety, their convoy is attacked and the fight for survival becomes more intense as a second team lead by Jake (Charles Melton) is called in to help get them extracted.

What Garland and Mendoza manage to create here is nothing shy of a perfectly-executed film that refuses to shy away from the brutality and reality of war. There is no typical or conventional narrative, the audience is never told why these people are at war, what they’re fighting for, what their mission is, or anything – we’re just dropped right into a 90 minute section of their day. Mendoza who is wonderfully played in the Film by Woo-A-Tai lived through this day and through countless interviews conducted with Garland and the real people involved they created a retelling of the worst days of their lives masterfully that truly depicts the treachery of war in a way previously unseen.

The entire Cast is also truly phenomenal, everyone brings their A-game, bringing to life the horrors and realities of being in war. It is not a glamourized version, there is no ‘creative’ liberties here and everyone brings their all to the forefront. Whether it be Woon-A-Tai’s depiction of Ray or Quinn’s portrayal of Sam and his completely raw and haunting delivery of this character, or Jarvis’ characterization of Elliot, which will shake audiences to their core. The Ensemble is all in.

Warfare is raw storytelling, showcasing some of the strongest performances of the year seen thus far. It is hyperbolic to call a film “flawless”, but it wouldn’t be inappropriate to apply the term to this.

A24 release WARFARE in theatres on Friday, April 11, 2025.