Every Alex Garland Film Ranked, from ’28 Days Later’ to ‘Civil War’

Wilson Chapman
·3 min read
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Alex Garland is a director who you either love or hate. But regardless of how you feel about him, it’s likely you can’t stop arguing about him. And the English filmmaker has certainly given audiences something to argue about again with his latest film, “Civil War.”

Set in an unspecified future/alternate history, “Civil War” focuses on an armed conflict across America that has caused the nation to splinter. But what exactly caused the conflict, as well as what the opposing militias are fighting for, is a question the movie — which takes the form of a travelogue journeying with a group of reporters across America and through the bloodshed — has absolutely zero interest in answering. Instead, Garland zeroes in on recreating scenes of violence that Americans have witnessed via photographs and video on foreign soil, now in a much closer context, in an effect that’s alternatively been described as a love letter or a takedown of journalists. The film is handsomely made and well-acted, but beyond those qualities, reactions have run the gamut from adoration to disgust.

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That’s well-trod territory for Garland, a director whose work contains flashes of brilliance amid a lot of swings that never actually hit. His fatal flaw is exactly what makes him such an interesting creator to follow. Across all four films he’s directed, Garland has shown a talent for creating interesting science fiction worlds and intriguing premises. But often, the actual movies don’t have a lot of meat to them beyond their premise. All four of his films, despite their varying quality, share a tendency of stretching a single theme or central thesis thin, leaving little depths in his films to truly consider.

Ironically for a novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-director, Garland’s actual directing tends to be generally top notch and sturdy. It’s his screenplays, which frequently suffer from clanky dialogue and poorly-sketched characters, that tend to fail him and his projects. Still, for all of his faults, there is a lot to admire with Garland’s films, which at their best (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation,” and several of the films he wrote before his directorial debut) feel like the type of intelligent, adult sci-fi that big studios won’t make anymore. And even his failures — and at least one of his films is, unambiguously, a complete failure — are at least worth watching. Despite recent comments, Garland isn’t leaving filmmaking any time soon, so whatever your opinion on his projects, cinephiles will arguing about his work for much longer after “Civil War.”

Now that “Civil War” has posted A24’s single-biggest opening week ever, it feels like the proper time to revisit Garland’s filmography, and determine what best showcases the potential he only occasionally hits. In creating this list, we considered both Garland’s directorial efforts as well as his four screenplay only efforts: “28 Days Later,” “Sunshine,” “Never Let Me Go,” and “Dredd.” “Devs,” his singular television project, has been excluded from this list, as has 2000’s “The Beach,” which is based on his novel but features a screenplay from John Hodge. With that in mind, read on for all eight of Alex Garland’s films, ranked from worst to best.

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