Friday, 11 July 2025

VOD: Warfare (dirs: Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, 2025)

"Don't be afraid.  Nothing will happen to you."

A24 presents this story - based closely on real events - of a Navy Seal platoon in Iran, 2006, undertaking a surveillance mission and sniper support for a U.S. Marines operation, but finds itself holed up in a family's home and at the receiving end of a devastating attack, cut off and under siege and facing an agonising wait for extraction.  Effectively a bottle show for most of its runtime, and after a first act that is a deliberately very-low-key waiting game, the action scenes are intense, immediate and brutal, told in almost real-time.  The troop-under-attack element works really well, and it is interesting to follow how the individual soldiers react differently as their situation changes.  The low-key/l-fi approach used here gives the film a visceral feel, and in a solid ensemble stand-outs are perhaps Joseph Quinn, D'Pharoah Woon-A-Tai and the ever-reliable Will Poulter.  The final montage that juxtaposes the actors' photos with their real-life counterparts, including some on-set footage, gives weight to what is a perhaps basic but inevitably impactful movie. 
 

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