... in that your social media data can not just be harvested to sell you hats and hamburgers, but sell you misinformation literally tailored to you for political campaigns as well.

This is the tale of the 2016 referendum on Brexit- the vote in the UK to leave the European Union. Specifically it is a portrait of one man, Dominic Cummings (Benedict Cumberbatch), the director of the "Leave" campaign, or the campaign to exit the EU. I wasn't sure why the side story of the Cummings marriage and pregnancy was included at first, but later it becomes clear that Cummings would have come across as a statistician/political version of House, M.D. if that humanizing story was not present.

Cummings enlists the help of a tiny Canadian IT company - Aggregate IQ - to do data mining of social media for the "Leave" campaign, and they come up with three million potential Brexit voters that the "Remain" campaign (campaign to remain in the EU) knows nothing about. Cummings' strategy involves tenets of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" , specifically forcing the "Remain" campaign to "fight in the darkness", or wherever the "Leave" campaign chose them to fight. Specifically Britain has an equal time policy when it comes to political messages. So the Remain campaign would have a Nobel prize winning economist explaining the downside to leaving the EU in complex terms, and then the Leave side would talk about millions of Turks possibly emigrating to the UK, forcing the Remain side to waste time on trying to debunk that message.

It is up the viewer as to whether this tale is humorous or frightening, I think it is a little bit of both. On the frightening side you have political campaigns becoming the equivalent of the evil presence in the 1982 film Poltergeist - it knows what scares you. On the humorous side you see the frustration of the Remain side as the Leave side will simply not play by the rules. And kudos to the guy playing Boris Johnson. He looked just like him.

I'm only knocking one point off this almost perfect film because it had quite a bit of stuff that the viewer was just assumed to know. For example it kept talking about "MPs". In the US that is "Military Police". In the UK it is "Members of Parliament". I should not have to search Wikipedia in order to completely understand a film, but overall that is a minor complaint.

Highly recommended,and this is NOT a piece of propaganda.

In the run-up to the 2016 referendum, nobody in the UK - or elsewhere, for that matter - genuinely believed that Vote Leave would win (similarly to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election result). It seemed more or less incomprehensible that Remain would be defeated. This is arguably evidenced by the fact that there were no rules set out for the referendum and the meaning of its outcome (e.g. that it should require more than a measly 2% majority to invoke such major Constitutional upheaval) and that David Cameron resigned almost immediately thereafter.

This energetic and witty film explores just how the rug was swept out from under us all, and highlights how dangerous social media can be when used as a weapon. Unsurprisingly, Benedict Cumberbatch gives yet another engrossing performance, with an impressive and entertaining ensemble as well.

Whether you were politically-engaged in relation to the referendum or completely overwhelmed by all the jargon (and utter lies), this is an insightful drama well worth a watch. Although, don't expect it to outline what is certain to happen next in the Brexit saga: that'll be down to the fool at the helm of the ship, and her band of dim-witted and utterly divided crew.

I'm also an ad guy who's spent his share of time in offices beating up strategy on white boards, so I was sucked right in and saw a bit of myself. The lead character Dominic was like most of the folks in media industries that serve some great big unseen master. We put our noses to the grindstone, put our hearts on the paper for the elusive "win", yet we overlook the damage we potentially could be causing to the world. And what damage they have done. I found out things I hadn't known before, like the role of the Mercers being behind both big data companies, thus guaranteeing their influence on the referendum. And that is where I started to pull on my guts. That they had not only done it to England but had done it to America; manipulated politics, empowering an element of society that we should be leaving in the dark cellar of the 20th century. The fear of the other on an ever shrinking world controlled by ever more powerful and terrible titans is a regression. But the story is still being told and we will know the conclusion... maybe. I highly recommend this film and leave one thought: In this ever more loud and volatile world, we must listen more than we talk.

The sinister to which I am referring is not the machinations of the Brexit campaign but this little piece itself. A detailed critique of propaganda which is, itself, an intricate piece of propaganda. Take it for what it is and there's no problem, fail to do so and your as much as a puppet as the puppets this movie purports that every leaver was.

Other reviewers praise or knock this film based on whether they supported Leave or Remain.

But this is a great film because (1) the plot, characters, acting and pace are superb and (2) it illuminates the role data analytics now play in politics (and all advertising). Like it or not, DA is here to stay because it is extraordinarily more efficient in delivering a message effectively.

The key elements of the Leave/Remain debate in these reviews can be boiled down to 3 incidents in the film (1) the line "Obama led the way," (2) the Remain focus group which descends into anarchy and complete honesty with a housewife sobbing about having been completely abandoned by her country's economy and culture (whose views are shared by at least 3 others in the group), and (3) the aftermath of the focus group in which the Remain campaign leader concludes that the feelings of the Leave voters are due not to them having valid complaints, but because the Leave leaders must have been waging their campaign surreptitiously for 20 years.

The pièce de résistance of sophistry is the single card disclosure at the end that the Mercer family is tied to both data analytics companies used by the Leave campaign. Data analytics is a tool that was used by Obama (a liberal) and by the Leave campaign (conservatives). It would make as much sense to blame the hardware company that made their laptops or phones.

There are some movies that are worth seeing despite their political bias and preaching - this is one of them.

If this isn't clear enough the narrative goes, as it was "Russia" or the Russians that made Trump win the 2016 election, so then it was Cummings and his shady analytical and online meddling that won the Leave EU vote in Britain. Forget about people going out of their way to vote for Trump and Brexit, it was outside forces, mind you, not their own citizens walking down the streets that day and head to the voting booth to decide for themselves what they want for their country.

To these cosmopolitans we crude simpletons just don't have enough sentience to go about and are merely victims of Kremlin hackers, spam email, the Like Button --- the black cat that crossed the road that forced us to walk a different direction! They'll blame anyone rather than understand you and me.

Firstly this entire "docu-drama" completely ignores that both sides used social media big data exploiters. It ignorers the fact that lots of influential institutions with a direct self interest in remain (including for example BBC itself which content analysis studies have shown used "experts" opposed to Brexit at an 3:1 ratio) also positions themselves as neutral despite strong anti-brexit self interests and messages.

It also implies that people voted based on facebook or twitter, when while liberal voters tend to want to be with the "pack," this is not the case for independent or conservative voters who are much less likely to vote based on perceptions and psychological need to be within groupthink norms.

Lastly the producers of the film themselves have a direct self interest in remain. The fact is a majority of people in the UK do not have such a self interest. But the elite today are no different than the feudal lords. Feudal lords were the expert class of their day. They after all were the educated and literate. Does that mean their decisions were in everyone's interest? hardly. They had a self interest in preserving their class over their nation and all its classes, just as the makers of this propaganda film do.

Oh Brexit was a product of propaganda? Well what is this film if not propaganda from the other side??

What came out was how people can be manipulated one way or another. Due to 'Spin' by all the political parties and a media that despises all other authority figures or organization except themselves have now destroyed trust in the public arena. As they said in the film 'we used the EU as a political punch bag so much over the past 40 years no one will now listen to the truth". This goes for: MMR vaccines, Global Warming, GM crops and now the EU. As Gove said 'People are sick of listening to experts'. Just think how bad that sounds! Brexit has opened Pandora's box and I don't think they know to put all this back. remember Joe Cox, this is what our country has become.

I watched to see if a tv channel could deliver a fair representation of the leave campaign. I was wrong. Yet again it's another programme to have a go at leave. Both sides were guilty of underhand tactics.

Informative,well written,excellent performances. Original.

Brexit: The Uncivil War is an important, gripping drama on the real events that occurred in both the Leave and Remain campaigns during the run-up to the 2016 EU Referendum. The film focuses primarily on the Vote Leave campaign, which makes sense as said campaign was anything but conventional.

The film accurately explains the strategy behind Vote Leave's achievement of that which was previously thought unthinkable. The campaign utilised modern techniques of reaching voters which exploited the data we choose to make freely-available online. The sophistication of strategy depicted and Vote Leave's underdog status from the beginning of their campaign will definitely have some remain voters finding themselves rooting for the other team (despite their positions differing).

Although admittedly somewhat dramatised, Brexit: The Uncivil War truly does illustrate that recent political events have changed Western politics permanently. For the best or the worst, strategy is changing, and this film conveys that message perfectly.

I watched this hoping that it would at least be balanced and impartial. After having viewed it, I was left feeling very disappointed. It was however entertaining to a degree but it is obvious that the makers of this had a political agenda.

If you're in the Guardian/BBC bubble of Middle Class elitist globalist EU fanatics who LOST THE REFERENDUM then watch this, buy it, share it with your soulless friends, you will love this. For everyone else - AVOID. This film will only serve to remind future generations of Brits who the traitors that betrayed the British people were.

Just an absolutely shameless movie, not unlike Vice. It shows how out of touch the left is with the average person. In Vice, Dick Cheney is shown to be a ruthless, calculating politician who uses focus groups, polls and statistics to beat his opponents. In Brexit, Dominic Cummings does much the same thing but relies heavily on social media to swing votes his way.

A movie like this just highlights the arrogance of many math geeks, especially the ones I met at university. Anyone with a basic education can look at numbers and draw conclusions from them. It takes someone who gets out of the house once in a while and does something to understand the whole story. You have to be an incredibly arrogant person to think the average voter is like some NPC waiting to be told what to do or how to think. It just doesn't work that way.

We're shown Dominic acting like an eccentric genius, writing on walls, talking down to anyone stereotypically less intelligent than he is, with visual cues like gray hair, working class clothing, skin color, uptight, etc. He's supposed to be some genius that fooled everyone into voting for Brexit against their best interest.

So, alright then, if this was the case, why was there even a vote on Brexit to begin with, LOL? It would never have happened if most people loved it! Clearly, the vote happened because much of the population wanted it to. So, to whomever made this movie, how in the world do you expect to fool people into thinking Dominic had to go to the lengths he did to win the Leave vote? All you can really do is convince the swing voters to go your way on election day. Really and truly, that may be like winning an NBA game by 20 points instead of 10; you're still going to win even if you didn't go the extra mile.

This is a movie that will probably not age well. In fact, that's all but assured. Hilary thought she had geniuses working for her that would help her easily coast to victory. On election night, she was embarrassed. All the guys she employed like Dominic and the tech guys were just a waste of money and time. Why? Simple fact is, she's not a likable person, she has a vile personality and on the issues, Trump knew what the voters wanted. Hilary had top strategists; why not copy what worked for Trump? She couldn't do that because she's not a robot willing to do anything to win like you see in the movies, she has personal political convictions and beliefs. The only thing is, like with Obama, Trump's beliefs were what the voters wanted and he was a far more sympathetic candidate.

This movie is sadly just not an accurate depiction of an actual campaign. The political strategists want to make everyone think their pay is justified for what they do, but quite often, it just isn't, no matter what figures they throw at you.

This film is wonderfully produced, fantastic acting, cinematography, and was well paced. It was less preachy than I feared and although there was a negative bias against the leave campaign there was also an acknowledgement of out out of touch remain were with the majority of the British people. I enjoyed it.

In short it is a propoganda piece designed to maintain the power of the global elitists. If Britain leaves the EU, the entire union will collapse. This film is an attempt to stop that from happening, simple as that. Do I care if Britain leaves the EU? No. But it would be in the best interest of the vast majority of its citizens, that is the bottom line.

A woefully biased account of the 2016 Referendum where all the EU-supporters are honest, rational, and well-spoken and the opposite for the Brexit-supporters.

Cumberbatch's acting consists of twitching his face, waggling his arms and frowning. His accent travels from Chester to Newcastle, over to Wales, then towards London.

There is a story to be told one day with proper objectivity and good acting. Cumberbatch was too close to this as he has expressed his dismay at leaving the EU, perhaps he influenced the direction of the whole shoddy vehicle.

A one-trick pony for a no-trick film.

Good cast, well acted, interesting and informative. Whether you agree with it or not, this film has a lot of home truths for all sides. The Manipulation of peoples emotions by successive governments may itself lead to the collapse of the political system itself.

Good acting performances although some over-simplifications and gross misrepresentations of characters and situations. Seems like a desperate attempt to keep the illusion and set lies...

To it's defense, it does read at the start: "based on real events... some aspects of dialogue, character and scenes have been devised".

Worth checking-out the real accounts and real characters of the story for yourself. Especially on Dominic Cummings @ Nudgestock 2017.

According to Brexit - The Uncivil War. Leave won primarily because of Cambridge Analytica's manipulation of social media platforms. Not because people had had enough of self serving establishment elitist politics. It depicted leavers as dim witted builder types mainly and shouty women, was a bit of a poor show on that side.

It vaguely tried to be fair to both sides, but ultimately it's a remainer narrative. Perfectly timed propaganda in my book.

The production value was top quality and the acting was excellent, especially from Benedict Cumberbatch and Rory Kinnear.

However, the story was a parochial London-centric, liberal elite, guardian-esque take on an issue that spanned an entire country and affected 66 million people. Occasionally, it verged or condescending and insulting towards those who voted for Brexit.

OK so "Remain" outspent "leave" 2.8:1, yet it is remain complaining about the result?

Yeah , Cumberbatch is certainly showing his true colours after gaining our sympathy vote for playing the persecuted Turing.

Brexit hasn't even happened after years of spineless 'negotiations'. The powers that be hope that the three year delay will release a new batch of NPCs from college in time for a revote.

And this movie with Marvel's shiII will buy more time to brainwash.

I wonder what will happen then?

This is the equivalent of a two hour marvel movie which explains how Literally Hitler swiped the glass ceiling from the Sad sapphic Hillary by deceiving the world with Thanos evil.

If that is your comfort movie then this is right up your IQ level.

There was never a war, just a country that loved it self and it's culture.

A family, that did not want to be destroyed by rape and bombings

It's a narrative which should be a lesson to us all. Fast paced and of course excellent acting. Hypocrisy meets big data!

This was an opportunity missed. With the greatest of respect this was written by a Guardian reader for a Guardian reader. No one evens knows who is Domenic Cummings or indeed cares.

This drama should have a least tackled the 5 or so issues that brought about the leave majority rather than infer the public was hoodwinked by charlatans with catchphrases. This drama reinforces the narrative assumption that London centric viewpoints represent the United Kingdom when they clearly do not, London is a global aberration peddling liberal authoritarianism.

Never was the narrative more confused when the script condemned plebiscitary democracy when representative democracy in the UK is London centric. Parliament serves the people not the other way around.

Conspiracy theorist will have lapped this up but any sort of reasoned analysis was entirely absent.