If there’s anything that can be said about Denis Villeneuve’s drug-cartel thriller, it’s that Sicario is definitely a wild rollercoaster ride. It’s wild in the sense that, as a viewer, you’ll be jolted up, down, left and right throughout the entirety of the film. And while that might be fun during the film, you might walk away with a stiff neck and a sharp pain in your lower back wondering what you enjoyed about the ride in the first place.
Emily Blunt stars as Kate Macer, a relentless do-gooder FBI agent who is asked to join a joint task force with supposed Depart of Defense advisors Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the mysterious and elusive Alejandro (Benicio del Toro). The team is vigorously aiming to take down or at least draw out the kingpin of the Mexican drug cartel, as violence and mayhem in both Mexico and the U.S. border states are at an all time high.
The only true flaw of Sicario is Emily Blunt’s character. Kate is entirely shoe-horned into this film to be the voice of the relentless yet law abiding government official that questions the not-so-necessarily-legal means of cracking down on the Mexican drug cartel. Is the conversation that her character introduces into the story an important, sophisticated, and realistic discussion the film should bring up? Yes. But it’s in the execution of her development, her introduction, why she’s brought along on these missions, and why she stays with these agents throughout the film that make little to no sense. This isn’t to say that Blunt did a bad job in the part. Her character’s struggle comes off as very believable and understandable, it’s just that her character’s placement in the film seems very skewed from reality.
At first, Brolin’s Matt Graver comes off as unnecessarily blunt, outlandish, and as such a cliche “doesn’t-play-by-the-rules” government agent that it’s almost really easy to dismiss Graver as unrealistic and distracting from the film. He almost seems to enjoy some of the nastiest and most painful parts of his job and this appears unrelatable and inaccessible. Throughout the film, however, his intentions are delved into enough that his character’s coldness and apparent lack of humanity are redeemed by his true motives. Brolin’s gravitas (for lack of a better word) lends itself handily to both of these points in the film.
The real treasure of Sicario is Benicio del Toro. Del Toro steals the spotlight in every scene he’s in. His presence and stone-cold countenance fit perfectly into the murky and abhorrent atmosphere that Sicario exudes. Especially when things get hairy, the film makes it abundantly clear that the last place you would ever want to be is anywhere near del Toro. He’s absolutely horrifying. Black Label Media, Sicario’s production company, seems to understand how great of a character they’ve come across. They’ve already got a sequel (or possibly a prequel) to Sicario in the works that will solely focus on del Toro’s Alejandro. Sicario reminds audiences that haven’t seen del Toro in many mainstream roles in the last decade just how spectacular he really is and serves as an excellent basis of excitement for his recent casting in Star Wars: Episode VIII.
Del Toro isn’t the only notable contributing factor to Sicario’s creepy and menacing tone. There are some really grisly and poignant images and environments in this film. Sweeping shots of Juarez, Mexico, a border city that the U.S. officials in the film are based in, show how packed and devastated the drug-traffic pinnacles of Mexico really are. In many political discussions regarding U.S. involvement and victimization in drug-trafficking, there seems to be a lack of acknowledgement that the conditions on the Mexican side of the border are far worse than a lot of what is happening on our side of the fence. The drug-cartels are merciless to the Mexican people and wreak havoc on their cities and inhabitants day-and-night. Sicario does everything in its power to remind the audience of this.
At the end of the day, Sicario is a high-strung, excitable, and action-packed thriller with an innate tenseness that keeps you on the edge of your seat for the whole film. It feels like Sicario loses a bit of this edge with its heavy handed political message, but that message is naturally linked to the subject matter of drug cartels. Could the lines between what was right and what was legal in the characters’ minds have been a little less defined and forced? Yes. But that doesn’t take away from this film’s vigor at all.
Featured Image Courtesy of Black Label Media
