REVIEW: "Warfare" (2025)

WRITER'S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on April 14, 2025. 

In November of 2006, two Navy SEALs platoons were assigned to an outpost in Ramadi, Iraq, for a specialized operation. The new film, Warfare, written and directed by Alex Garland and Iraq war veteran Ray Mendoza (one of the soldiers who lived through that battle), viscerally recreates this event in jolting and rumbling detail, as the mission goes south very suddenly and all hell breaks loose. 

Told (mostly) in real time and from ground-level perspectives, this A24 release generally avoids the typical Hollywood flair that plagues many war pictures. While several young, up-and-coming actors portray members of these platoons (including Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, the latter of whom plays Mendoza), Warfare was reportedly based on interviews with those who were there (many of whom requested to keep their physical identities obscured). To its credit, it doesn’t glamorize or criticize its subject matter. It just tells it like it was, as these men remembered it, down to their jargon, gear and artillery. I wondered, though, if the aerial surveillance footage was actual, or just recreated for this film. 

Part of that memory was apparently filled with quiet tension and sudden impact. The ear-numbing sound design and detailed setting add a real authenticity, while a lack of score makes the experience all the more jarring and anxiety-inducing. In fact, those elements, along with graphic imagery of “severely wounded” soldiers and severed limbs in the surrounding streets, will likely give some viewers migraines or feeling nauseated. Warfare pulls no punches in reminding viewers of the costs and horrors of war. 

Even so, the camaraderie and brotherhood among these guys is evident. The film practically opens with a lighter (if leering) moment that contrasts the brutality, carnage, and screaming agony to come. Other moments reveal how they clearly have each other’s backs and are dedicated to the mission and to each other, as well as getting everybody to safety. It’s a cinematic experience that’s different from anything before it, and already one of this year’s standout feature films. 

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