Alex Garland's divisive "Civil War" deserves a second look

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Writer-director Alex Garland 's stratospheric rise has been remarkable to watch over the past decade-plus. After beginning his career as a screenwriter who frequently collaborated with Danny Boyle , Garland began to carve out a place for himself as a middle-to-high-brow shepherd of science fiction and action pictures that fit comfortably within the A24 wheelhouse and make decent money at the box office. This sensibility, which began with his 2014 directorial debut Ex Machina , has carried him through years of critically lauded work, and landed him the task of adapting Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin 's gargantuan, surreal video game epic Elden Ring .