No, Civil War is interested in other questions: What would it feel like to live in an America upended by violent conflict? What would the consequences be? How would the conflict play out in the towns and on the roads of the American East Coast? Because once a nation has arrived at the point of a war, the movie seems to say, the why of it all, the who's right? becomes irrelevant. All that's left is the violence. 

Some viewers will no doubt cast Garland's choice to skirt contentious political issues as a dodge, a cheat, an unwillingness to confront the issues or offend certain parties. Media critics will gripe that his movie takes the View from Nowhere, that it is ultimately an extended exercise in bothsidesing America's political divisions. 

But I found the movie's refusal to participate in that sort of easy partisan debate not only refreshing but clarifying: It's not bothsidesing American politics so much as no-sidesing an ugly and horrific conflict in which no one comes out with the moral high ground.