WARFARE (2025)

The written companion

Draft companion · Awaiting editorial review

Warfare: A Difficult Watch, and a Conversation That Changes a Rating.

Matt is not a particularly devoted war-film viewer, but Warfare leaves him feeling as though he has been in the room with its characters. Dan responds to the same sense of immediacy. Neither begins by praising the film as an exciting military adventure. Their words are about the rawness, the sound, and the human cost. When Cayla joins the conversation, she makes that distinction even sharper: something can be impressively made and still be extremely difficult to sit through.

The episode introduces the film as an account of a surveillance mission going wrong, drawn from the memories of people who experienced it. Dan connects that approach with co-director Ray Mendoza’s firsthand involvement. What he values is the feeling of being given an account rather than being encouraged to cheer. He finds less of the patriotic framing he associates with some war movies and more attention to bodies, fear, and the consequences of the situation unfolding.

Cayla’s response gives that praise some friction. She recognizes the force of the acting and the way the film makes suffering feel immediate, but she also has reservations about the experience. Her initial rating is three stars. The severity of the injuries is not an abstract accomplishment to her; it is upsetting to watch. Matt’s praise for the sound design and ensemble is similarly grounded in how close the film makes him feel to events, rather than in how entertaining he finds the action.

Dan makes room for people beyond the soldiers. He draws attention to the family whose home becomes part of the operation and the sight of them facing what remains afterward. That observation broadens the conversation. The performances have brought the hosts into the soldiers’ predicament, but the setting cannot be reduced to a stage for their ordeal. Other people have to live with what has happened there.

Matt gives Warfare five out of five stars, and Dan agrees. Dan is candid that rewatching it would be hard. Their scores recognize the film’s achievement without pretending the experience was comfortable. Cayla then raises her rating to four during the discussion. She is not suddenly enjoying the violence more; talking through what the film accomplished has changed how she weighs her response to it.

That adjustment is one of the episode’s strongest moments. Three people can share an appreciation of the craft while placing different weight on how it feels to watch. The conversation becomes part of the evaluation instead of simply announcing three finished verdicts.

When a film leaves you drained, does that make it harder to recommend—or is that response evidence that it has done something valuable? Dan, Matt, and Cayla give you three perspectives to consider. Watch their Picture This discussion ↗.

This companion discusses the film’s intensity and consequences without detailing its graphic injuries. The video contains spoilers and discussion of traumatic violence.