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☆ Opinion | Give Me Liberty or Give Me … What?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Carlos Lozada | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

If the American experiment finally decides to call it quits, how might a national breakup begin? Perhaps California moves toward secession after the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the state’s strict gun control measures. Or Texas rebels when disputes over abortion laws grow deadly and the state’s National Guard remains loyal to the second Texan republic. These scenarios are not of my own creation; they all appear in recent nonfiction books warning of an American schism. We never learn exactly who or what started the new American civil war, or what ideologies, if any, are competing for power.

Persons: David French’s “, Barbara F, Stephen Marche’s “, “, Alex Garland’s Organizations: U.S, Supreme, state’s National Guard, statehouse, America, ” Locations: California, Texas, Barbara, ” Marche

☆ Insider Today: Skip the supplements
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Joi-Marie Mckenzie | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. The singer's rollout strategy for "The Tortured Poets Department" — releasing zero singles and barely promoting — is a true power move. Bernadette RankinThis week's dispatchGet into destination dupesAre you sick of high prices to travel to your favorite destination across the pond? AdvertisementAccording to Expedia, one of the biggest trends of 2024 is destination dupes — places where you can travel for way less. More of this week's top reads:The Insider Today team: Joi-Marie McKenzie, editor-in-chief, in New York.

Persons: —, Taylor, Bernadette Rankin, Expedia, That's, Graham Denholm, Chelsea Jia Feng, Taylor Swift, Amy Sussman, WireImage, Alex Garland, Garland, Michael Pollan, Tabitha Soren, subjug, Tyler Le, Broccoli, Carl Juste, Rebecca Zisser, Birkin, Robert Durst, Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone fictionalizes, Joi, Marie McKenzie, Jordan Parker Erb, Dan DeFrancesco, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, Department, Business, Boeing, Danish, Mount, Rights Management, Chelsea, Poets Department, Defense, Food, Miami Herald, Tribune, Getty, Augusta National Golf, Hulu Locations: California, Copenhagen, Netherlands, Mount Vernon , Washington, Paris, New York City, New York

☆ Opinion: It’s time to change the way we think about sociopaths
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Opinion Sara Stewart | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —This piece contains mild spoilers for the Netflix series “Ripley” and a scene in the movie “Civil War.”Are we finally ready to take another look at why we love to hate sociopaths so much? But his rendition of Ripley – highly capable, chameleonic, but never what you’d call charming — represents a refreshing take on one of the most famous sociopaths in literature and film. Gagne feels Hollywood’s nearly always gotten it wrong with portrayals of sociopaths, reducing them to a collection of cartoonish, villainous traits. In fact, I found one of film’s most recent sociopaths to be singularly chilling because of his very plausibility. He’s in Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” the polarizing film about a vaguely-sketched conflict set in the modern-day United States.

Persons: Sara Stewart, Ripley ”, Sara Stewart Todd Thompson, Andrew Scott’s, Tom Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s, Scott, who’s, Ripley –, Steven Zaillian’s, “ Ripley, Jennifer Rubin, ”, Rubin, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Patrick Bateman, Dexter Morgan, Don Draper, I’ve, Emily Nussbaum, Norman Lear’s “, Archie Bunker, Carroll O’Connor, Penn Badgley, Joe Goldberg, Sociopath, Patric Gagne, Gagne, Hollywood’s, vilify, Jenna Ortega, Alex Garland’s “, Jesse Plemons —, —, Owen Gleiberman’s, “ Garland, ” Gleiberman, Ripley, sociopathy, we’ll Organizations: CNN, Netflix, Washington, Vogue Locations: Pennsylvania, ”, United States, America

☆ The 7 best things to stream this weekend, from a Netflix reality show to one of the year's best horror movies
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Caralynn Matassa | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Movies like "Late Night With the Devil" are newly streaming. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementTwo of the best horror movies in recent memory are both available on streamers this weekend. "Late Night With the Devil," in theaters earlier this year, is available on Shudder. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Alex Garland's, Max, Robert Durst Organizations: Service, Business

☆ What It Would Really Take to Have an American Civil War - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This week Donald Trump was put on trial by a liberal prosecutor on what seems like the most nakedly political of the multiple charges that he’s facing. This fairly pitiful scene made an interesting accompaniment to the country’s biggest movie at the moment, Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” which depicts a version of contemporary America riven by civil strife, with various secessionist forces at war against a dictatorial president who’s stayed on for a third term. That president is clearly a Trump-like figure, but the movie is extremely light on politics; it’s mostly interested in juxtaposing scenes of brutality — mass graves, tortured prisoners, firefights and summary executions — with the familiar American landscapes of shopping malls, carwashes and the pillars of the White House. We aren’t supposed to ask for detailed how-we-got-here explanations; we’re just supposed to meditate on how easily It Could Happen Here. Some people who like “Civil War” find the political lacuna admirable, since it cuts the movie free from current ideological preoccupations and lets us take the antiwar message straight.

Persons: Donald Trump, MAGA, Alex Garland’s “, who’s, it’s, we’re, ” Organizations: Trump, White Locations: York, carwashes

☆ 'Civil War' Director Alex Garland Says His Movie Is Political, Despite Criticism
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Caralynn Matassa | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

But the writer-director's latest film, "Civil War," isn't about to spoon-feed its message to audiences, either. He wants "Civil War" to make the viewer think, question, and, most importantly, feel. There's been plenty of conversation around how to interpret the message of "Civil War," but you've also been a bit misinterpreted lately. For example, one of the journalists in "Civil War" says, "Oh no, it's like the race to Berlin." She's having an internal state of civil war, which then goes into its own state of collapse.

Persons: Alex Garland doesn't, Garland, Lee, Kirsten Dunst, Joel, Wagner Moura, It's, they'd, There's, you've, freaked, Jonathan Glazer's, it's, straightforwardly, They're imaginatively, We've, hasn't, He's, There'd, they're, Cailee, Kirsten Dunst's Lee, I'm, — Organizations: White, DC Locations: Washington, DC, California, Texas, Berlin, Lee

☆ The Dystopian ‘Civil War’ Reaches No. 1 at the Box Office
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Brooks Barnes | More About Brooks Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hollywood executives — not all, but most — have insisted for years that uncomfortable, thought-provoking, original movies can no longer attract big audiences at the box office. Alex Garland’s dystopian “Civil War,” set in a near-immediate future when the United States is at war with itself, sold an estimated $25.7 million in tickets at North American theaters, enough to make the film a strong No. 1, surpassing the monsters sequel “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” Ticket sales for “Civil War” exceeded the prerelease expectations of some box office analysts by roughly 30 percent. IMAX screenings provided nearly 50 percent of the “Civil War” gross. “Civil War,” starring Kirsten Dunst as a journalist on a military embed, became the latest example of ticket buyers breaking with Hollywood’s conventional wisdom about what types of films are likely to pop at the box office.

Persons: —, Alex Garland’s, ”, Kirsten Dunst, Christopher Nolan’s “ Oppenheimer Organizations: North, “ Locations: United States

☆ For Wagner Moura, leaving Pablo Escobar behind after 'Narcos' was just as tough as leaving the 'Civil War' combat zone
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Caralynn Matassa | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Wagner Moura opted out of wearing earplugs on the extremely loud set of Alex Garland's "Civil War" so he could feel completely immersed in the film's most intense battle sequences. In 2015, he landed the role of Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series "Narcos." Moura with Kirsten Dunst in "Civil War." Juan Pablo Gutierrez/NetflixBefore this, you were known for playing Pablo Escobar in "Narcos." Did you find it more difficult getting out of the mindset of Pablo Escobar after "Narcos" or Joel after "Civil War"?

Persons: Wagner Moura, Alex Garland's, he's, Moura, Matt Damon, Pablo Escobar, it's, Joel, Kirsten Dunst, Alex, Jesse Plemons, Jesse, they're, Cailee, I'm, I've, Jessie, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, you've Organizations: Service, Business, Netflix, Globe, BI, Navy, Hollywood Locations: Brazil, American, Hollywood

☆ Opinion | What Are the Stakes of ‘Civil War,’ Really?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

How, precisely, did the country come to war in the world of the movie? And you could see it getting magnified.”I saw “Civil War” a few weeks ago at a screening in Charlottesville. Garland and his collaborators make no attempt to explain the war. They make no attempt to explain the politics of the war. They make no attempt to explain anything about the world of the film.

Persons: Alex Garland, Garland, ”, “, — Organizations: New, Army, Western Forces, Florida Alliance, Loyalist, ” Locations: United States, Pacific Northwest, Texas, California, Charlottesville

☆ Opinion: ‘Civil War’ is more than a reflection on America’s divisions
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Opinion Noah Berlatsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Noah Berlatsky Noah BerlatskyAlex Garland’s “Civil War” has mostly been discussed as a reflection of, and a warning about, America’s current partisan divisions. Unlike the actual US Civil War, this one doesn’t seem to have any particular racial or racist connotations. But it’s the same kind of cop out that powers most of Hollywood’s most iconic Vietnam war movies. Hollywood Vietnam war movies generally aren’t about whether America did the right thing, nor are they about how America’s choices affected people in Vietnam. Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" (1987), starring Matthew Modine as Joker, is based on the events of the Vietnam war.

Persons: Noah Berlatsky, CNN —, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Noah Berlatsky Noah Berlatsky Alex Garland’s “, ”, he’s, Garland, Nick Offerman, Lee, Kirsten Dunst, Joel, Wagner Moura, Jessie, Cailee, Sammy, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lee Wagner, Trump, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Jesse Plemons, that’s, Francis Ford Coppola’s, Stanley Kubrick’s, don’t, —, Dawn ”, Stanley Kubrick's, Matthew Modine, It’s, transfixed Organizations: CNN, Union, Hollywood, America, Central, Warner Bros Locations: Chicago, Vietnam, Viet, American, Washington, California, Texas, Hollywood Vietnam, American Vietnam, Hollywood

☆ Opinion | ‘Civil War’ and Its Terrifying Premonition of American Collapse
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Going into Alex Garland’s astonishing new film, “Civil War,” I expected to be irritated by the implausibility of its premise. In one 2022 poll, 43 percent of Americans said they thought a civil war within the next decade was at least somewhat likely. “Civil War” has received plenty of adulatory reviews, but Garland has also been widely criticized for eliding the ideological forces driving America’s fracturing. But now that I’ve seen “Civil War,” which is neither glib nor cynical, Garland’s decision to keep the film’s politics a little ambiguous seems like a source of its power. Still, it’s not a stretch to interpret the film as a premonition of how a seething, entropic country could collapse under the weight of Donald Trump’s return.

Persons: Alex Garland’s, ”, Garland, “, I’m, —, Lee, it’s, Donald Trump’s Organizations: “, Florida Alliance, Western Forces of, New People’s Army, Southwest, Portland Maoists Locations: America, California, Texas, Loyalist, East Coast, Western Forces of California, Austin , Texas

☆ A ‘Civil War’ at the Theater Could Prevent One in the Streets - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Stephen Marche | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Not one man in America wanted the Civil War, or expected or intended it,” Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, declared at the beginning of the 20th century. In this respect at least, the current division that afflicts the United States seems different from the Civil War. If there ever is a second civil war, it won’t be for lack of imagining it. Some critics have denounced the project, arguing that releasing the film in this particular election year is downright dangerous. The reason for a surge in anxiety over a civil war is obvious.

Persons: ” Henry Adams, John Quincy Adams, —, Alex Garland Organizations: Republican National Committee Locations: America, United States, Texas, That’s

☆ ‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

Persons: ”, it’s mesmerizingly, Kirsten Dunst, Alex Garland, Garland, “, Jesse Plemons, you’ve Organizations: D.C, Western Forces Locations: United States, Washington, New York, Texas, California, America, British

☆ Gabrielle Union teases the possibility of a 'Bring It On' sequel with Kirsten Dunst: 'We may have something cooking'
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Caralynn Matassa | Palmer Haasch | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gabrielle Union told BI she and "Bring It On" costar Kirsten Dunst "may have something cooking." AdvertisementIf you're holding out for the possibility of a "Bring It On" sequel, you might not be completely out of luck. Union told BI. "We have talked about doing a 20-years-later thing that becomes a generational cheerleader movie," Reed told BI. Dunst told Entertainment Tonight at a Los Angeles screening of "Civil War" on Tuesday.

Persons: Gabrielle, Kirsten Dunst, Dunst, —, Gabrielle Union, Torrance, Union's Isis, Solange Knowles, Hayden Panettiere, Anne Hathaway, Alex Garland's, she'd, Union, Peyton Reed, Jessica Bendinger, Reed Organizations: Gabrielle Union, BI, Service, East, TV Festival, Union, SXSW Locations: San Diego, East Compton, Los Angeles

☆ Kirsten Dunst clarifies she's just 'really picky' about the roles she takes after saying she only got offered 'sad mom' parts for a while
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Caralynn Matassa | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Kirsten Dunst told Business Insider she's "really picky" about the offers she accepts. Dunst recently said she didn't work for two years because she was only getting "sad mom" roles. Since starting as a child actor, Dunst has worked consistently for over 30 years across many genres. Dunst recently opened up about her break from acting in a Marie Claire cover story . This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: Kirsten Dunst, Dunst, —, Marie Claire, who's, Alex Garland, wasn't Organizations: Service, Business

☆ I went to SXSW and saw Netflix and Amazon competing with splashy sci-fi, while Paramount+ pitched its whole line-up
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, and Disney competed for attention with premieres and eye-catching installations. While there, I got to witness South by Southwest's opening weekend, which was dominated by the streaming heavyweights Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount+, with a cameo from Disney. Netflix held a premiere for "3 Body Problem," and Amazon built an interactive postapocalyptic world to promote "Fallout." AdvertisementNetflix's 3D projection for "3 Body Problem" stopped people in their tracks. Nathan McAloneLater, as the "3 Body Problem" premiere began, I heard "Game of Thrones" alum John Bradley (of Samwell Tarly fame) mutter an anxious "Oh God."

Persons: —, Max, Nathan McAlone Netflix, David Benioff, Weiss, Alexander Woo —, Doug Liman, Nathan McAlone, John Bradley, mutter, Bradley shouldn't, Palmer Haasch, Bradley, Blake Griffin, Nathan McAlone Amazon, Bass Reeves, Alex Garland's Organizations: Southwest, Netflix, Paramount, Disney, Service, HBO, Hollywood, Amazon, Paramount Theatre, Rotten, Mortal Media, Apple, Studios, Austin Convention Locations: Austin, Hollywood, United States

☆ Kirsten Dunst says she stopped acting for 2 years because she was offered only 'sad mom' roles
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Amanda Goh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kirsten Dunst says she took a break from acting after receiving only "sad mom" roles. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementKirsten Dunst said she took a step back from acting after starring in the 2021 film "The Power of the Dog" because the only offers she received were "sad mom" roles. "I haven't worked in two years," Dunst told Marie Claire, adding, "Every role I was being offered was the sad mom." Advertisement"There's definitely less good roles for women my age," the 41-year-old said, adding, "That's why I did 'Civil War.'"

Persons: Kirsten Dunst, Marie Claire, —, Marie Claire's, haven't, Dunst, Jesse Plemons — Dunst, that's, That's, she'll, Alex Garland, Maggie Gyllenhaal —, Gyllenhaal, Cameron Diaz, Léa Seydoux, Seydoux Organizations: ageism, Service, Harper's Bazaar, Hollywood Locations: Hollywood, French, America, Europe

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