I wasn't impressed by the film.
It had some interesting moments, but the characters were largely unlikable.
For a film with the journalists as the protagonists; I wondered if they realized how unlikable they came across to many who watched it.
I thought they had very realistic environment/design for much of the movie.
The crashed helicopter, the camp at the stadium, and the road with disabled vehicles.
The camera used to film this movie was very interesting as it's not a traditional cinema camera, but a DJI Ronin 8k that's considered extremely affordable.
The Ronin gave Garland a lot of versatility at very affordable price(relative to other brands of camera) so they could spend more elsewhere. This was A24's most expensive film so far.
I thought the Washington DC section looked the weakest, by far.
I'm a huge fan of Garland's films for a long time now.
I was curious about the political stance the film would take, and it was pretty expected. The president was clearly an analog for Trump, and the gas-station scene held plenty of contempt and showed the "right-wingers" as evil and crazy for protecting their business. To do that, they added torture, which is typical.
It took the "people are more valuable than property" stance which is one of compassion, but lacks any compassion for the person who would be the victim of the one stealing from them. They aren't killing for fun, but refusing to be victims.
A lot of people today have this idea of compassion, but their compassion is a weapon against people who they disagree with politically, socially, etc.
They have no compassion for them.
I THINK the film was drastically re-written by the studio as they saw the reactions to it online. They quickly realized that a lot of people weren't as on-board with the concept of the movie as they thought, and toned it down politically IMO.
Garland in interviews nearing it's release seemed very unhappy with directing the film, and said he was thinking of taking a break. I think this was because of the studio second-guessing him, and demanding changes to it.
I could be wrong.
All in all, the final message of the film seems kind of vague.
I think they should have just leaned into, and made it more action-packed or graphic.
Because right-wingers love good art even when they know it's made against them.
At least I know I do.
On the contrary lots of right-wing art is made terribly, and they embrace it on it's messaging. But lots don't as well, and I'd be one of them.
When they say "the left can't meme" they're ignorant of 50 years of Hollywood, video-games, and television.
The left meme's too well, and that's how they became the establishment rather than the counter-culture. The problem is that they haven't realized this reversal took place. I realize it because I was always on the left, and always saw the right/conservatives as the establishment. They no longer are.