Review of Sicario (2015) by Griffin J — 02 Apr 2016

Sicario stars Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin in a Mexican drug cartel crime drama. This is easily one of the best films of the year, with incredible cinematography by Roger Deakins, and a challenging screenplay by Taylor Sheridan, that manages to capture a bleak and unconventional perspective of one of the most violent issues plaguing the continent of North America.

The plot follows Emily Blunt's character Kate Macer, who at the start of the film is a SWAT officer trying to bust a drug kingpin's web of killers in Texas. After catching the attention of Josh Brolin, she is then brought to Juarez to help him and Del Toro's character track down the crime lord and put a stop to his operations... or so she is told by her commanding officers. The story is full of brutal scenes that show the effects of poverty, ineffective governments, and ruthless mercenaries who will do anything to complete their objective. Sicario isn't interested in painting a black and white vision of these characters and the world they live in, as every scene has you and the protagonist Kate wonder exactly with whom you should be sympathizing.

The short answer to that is probably nobody. The drug cartel is portrayed very bluntly as individuals willing to murder and torture to get what they want, while the governments of the United States and Mexico care less about civilian crossfire, and more about their own establishment and power. Just when I thought the film was going to end in a sequence similar to something at the climax of Zero Dark Thirty, the film suddenly went on to show the audience one of the most brutal fifteen minutes of a film I have seen in years.

This is a very gritty and realistic movie shot in a variety of incredible landscapes and great nighttime scenes. Nearly every frame knows exactly what to draw your attention to, and yet also what to conceal. All this helped by Benicio Del Toro giving a performance that should seriously be nominated for an Oscar, and Sicario manages to be a provocative piece of entertainment you shouldn't miss.