A platoon of Navy SEALs embarks on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq, with the chaos and brotherhood of war retold through their memories of the event.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.53/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
Production
DNA Films, A24
Cast
D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Aaron Mackenzie, Alex Brockdorff, Joe Macaulay, Laurie Duncan, Jake Lampert, Aaron Deakins, Tom Dunne
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, immersive war film that leans hard on sensory realism, squad dynamics, and the suffocating chaos of combat. It’s less about plot mechanics than lived experience, which makes it powerful if you want a brutal, anti-glamour battlefield movie.
Best for
Viewers who like intense, realistic combat cinema
Fans of procedural, boots-on-the-ground war stories
People interested in sound design and immersive technical craft
Audiences open to morally uneasy, conversation-starting war films
Skip if
You want a broad historical overview of the Iraq War
You prefer character-driven drama with clear backstories and arcs
You dislike relentless tension, violence, and sensory overload
You want a cleanly pro- or anti-war thesis spelled out for you
Overview
Warfare is built to trap you inside a single mission and not let you out. Rather than explaining the politics of Iraq or building a sweeping war narrative, it narrows its focus to the confusion, fear, and physical exhaustion of a platoon under fire. That restraint gives the film its force, even when it also limits its emotional range.
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest asset is immersion. Sound, pacing, and tactical detail do most of the storytelling, and the result is often punishing in the best way. It can feel less like a conventional drama than a sensory reconstruction of memory, where fragments of panic and brotherhood matter more than exposition.
Bottom line
That approach will divide viewers. Some will see an uncompromising anti-war statement; others will find the film too fascinated with its own realism. Either way, it’s a serious piece of craft that understands how war movies can become horror movies without changing a single genre label.
Top Letterboxd reviews
jeremy (2★) · 14013 likes
Why did Alex Garland make this film? And why did A24 choose to distribute it?
I felt it was necessary for me to attend an advance screening of this film in order to get ahead of the discourse. I thought that Alex Garland's Civil War was actually an incredibly visceral portrayal of war that benefited—not suffered—from its ahistorical setting. But like everyone else, I was very apprehensive about this film when its trailer first dropped. Still, I gave Garland the… more
cob (4★) · 10975 likes
sound design is a powerful drug
Dan Monaghan (5★) · 10051 likes
You see one person get shot in this film. They’re shot in passing over an unneeded sledgehammer. There’s no better summation of the pointlessness of the conflict in Iraq, which Warfare perfectly captures.
This is anti war. This is a horror movie. Keep seeing people say “this is a call of duty mission”. Which call of duty was that? I’d be curious to see how many copies this one sold. Never noticed people lining up to play the “lay around in… more
-ˏˋ mak ˊˎ- (2.5★) · 7852 likes
putting the internet’s favorite white twinks through war is exactly what cinema is all about if you ask me
flaming0god · 7021 likes
saw oomf comment this and had to do the same
“America will bomb your country until there's nothing left, then come back 20 years later and make a movie about how sad their soldiers got from doing it.” —frankie boyle