Review of Sicario (2015) by Andrewmakatsari — 04 Oct 2015

Sicario is my favorite film of the year,it is also my second favorite Denis Vileneuve film ,next to prisoners,it combines a superb cast,delivering top-notch perfomances,great-intense action,mixed with breathtaking cinematography from Roger Deakins,to add up to a fantastic thriller,worthy of Academy nominations in all departments.

Emily Blunt plays a convincing ,by the book,FBI special agent ,whose own naive attitude and nature,gets put to the test as, she's taken into a world ,of mass murder,mutilation,drug wars and political and civilian unrest in the city of Juarez Mexico.She manages to be both cunning and relatable so that no moment feels wasted,whether it is her questioning the indiscriminate, often times risky and reckless,yet surprisingly effective working methods of her newly assigned teammates,or whether she is just throwing up after seeing over a dozen dead bodies being stuffed into walls,like forgotten painting,that lost their use.While Benicio Del Toro,gives the best performance in the movie,that may be told from Blunt's character's Kate's perspective,but the film rightfully belongs to him ,as his emotional arc is deeply intriguing and his past viciously brutal and impactful.Del Toro's Alejandro,is one of the coolest,meanest,and quietest hitmen we've seen all year,decade even,he may not say much,but when he does it means more than the actions of all the characters in the film combined,it's his best work I've seen and rightfully so.While Josh Brolin provides some nice humorous exchanges and masterfully hides his inner motivations and intents,delivering an almost cowboy-like attitude,with a handful of moral lessons to be taught to both Kate and the audience about war,peace and the borders between.

The world of Sicario,is bleak and hopeless,at no point is there a scene or a line or a visual symbol of some sort that indicates that there is still hope in Mexico,the drug war and those involved on both sides are so animalistic in the ways they fight each-other, that the lines are constantly blurred,and the only way to differentiate them from one-another, are uniforms and badges,take those away and you have yourself a gang war.The drop-dead gorgeous cinematography and direction by Villeneuve and Deakins works brilliantly in the movie's favor of delivering the said message.Incredible wide shots of the city,almost looking like a post-apocalyptic desert at times,gives off a sense that these people are quite literally in hell,that they took part in creation of.The action is superbly directed from a filmmaker who never really had action sequences in their past films,yet are capable of dramatizing and intensifying dialogue scenes and regular character exchanges ,more than some filmmakers can with pure action.The set-pieces in this film are peppered and expertly paced throughout,including a terrific shootout on a Mexican border,a thorough opening raid scene ,which leads to unexpected and deadly discoveries.The night-time apart from looking absolutely beautiful and actually darkening the faces of the characters ,without them being in open lit by lamps or lights or even city roads,has an eerie foreboding sense to it and the short gunfights that erupt in it ,with the use of goggles are spontaneous and frenetic ,adding kinetic energy and adrenaline,that lasts, throughout the whole movie.

Sicario is one of the best action films of the year,which cleverly tells a rather traditional drug-bust story,while actually delivering a swift,profound and touching message with it,in addition to towering performances from everyone in the cast,it excellently conveys its dark atmosphere with exquisitely good-looking visuals ,superb direction and the film just like it's lead character,says as much as it does and means more than meets the eye (or ear for that matter).It may not be as good as prisoners,but it certainly proves,why Villeneuve is the perfect choice for Blade Runner 2.