Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Warfare:
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
The Covenant effectively sandwiches two rescue missions back-to-back in a tightly controlled narrative. It’s a two hander, sneakily becoming an anthology of several strong stories and ideas working within one another. Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim headline the movie, and each get half of the film to take the lead.
Read our full review of Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
Dunkirk
Dunkirk may just be Christopher Nolan’s most improbable and precise movie. A technical revelation that feels like the stretched out third act of a war epic. All this time later, nothing has aged poorly in this cinematic achievement.
Read our full review of Dunkirk
All Quiet on the Western Front
Director Edward Berger and cinematographer James Friend come together to create 2022’s signature war epic All Quiet on the Western Front, which pushes stylistic boundaries for the genre not seen since before the pandemic. It is terrifying and riveting at its best moments, and slightly formulaic at its lesser ones. Combined with a saddening performance by Felix Kammerer, the film is one of Netflix’s best ones of 2022.
Read our full review of All Quiet on the Western Front
Civil War
I’m fascinated to see how Civil War will change in my estimation on a rewatch. The movie is significantly less tied to its premise and more tied to its character than I expected. Alex Garland is so, so remarkably close to making a thoughtful statement on the tenuous state of affairs in our country. But he pulls back when he should be going all in. It slips through his fingers when it comes to the biggest details.
Read our full review of Civil War
Blitz
Steve McQueen’s Blitz is an ambitious and sprawling narrative that balances the intimacy of a personal journey with the grandeur of historical drama. Known for his ability to craft emotionally resonant stories on a massive scale, McQueen flexes his filmmaking brilliance this time around by placing the viewer in the chaos and heartbreak of wartime London. The film centers on George (Elliott Heffernan), a young boy determined to reunite with his mother amid the devastating Blitz, using his story to anchor a larger one of human resilience, fear, and hope.
Devotion
Jonathan Majors has to do much of the heavy lifting in Devotion – a film attempting to comment on much more than its obvious counterpart Top Gun: Maverick, but sacrifices the momentum and drive in doing so.
Read our full review of Devotion
Ex Machina
What separates Ex Machina from Alex Garland’s later work is the precision. There’s no narrative bloat, no sprawling ensemble, no overwrought metaphor. The film is lean, sharp, and exacting. It interrogates A.I., not as some future hypothetical, but as an inevitability already here—an intelligence quietly watching, learning, waiting for its moment. Garland doesn’t break new ground in what he says about artificial intelligence, but he repackages it with such clarity and visual elegance that the result feels new anyway.
Read our full review of Ex Machina
Emancipation
There are some redeeming qualities in Emancipation. Will Smith is the film’s biggest shining spot with his effortless transition into the movie’s lead. There is also a level of craft that shows Antoine Fuqua’s seasoned approach to filmmaking, but at times it’s distracting from a script that doesn’t have enough teeth to make any profound statements.
Read our full review of Emancipation
Incendies
Incendies is an often compelling cinematic experience fueled by powerful performances, particularly Lubna Azabal’s tentpole portrayal of Nawal. It may not quite be Denis Villeneuve’s best movie, but it serves as a worthy introduction for one of the industry’s brightest filmmakers to the big stage.
Read our full review of Incendies
Men
Now nearly two years removed from its initial release date, Alex Garland’s Men for A24 feels underrated. A body horror home invasion movie featuring one of Hollywood’s best actresses in Jessie Buckley, the film is a shift in tone and themes from Garland’s previous works, transitioning from stories involving anxiety we have about the advancement of technology, to the societal and gender issues that plague our society.