A Bone-Chilling Portrait Of Border Warfare!

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2015)

A downright intense, gritty & unadulterated journey into the world of Mexican drug cartels that also contemplates the darkness of human behaviour, Sicario continues director Denis Villeneuve's steady rise in the film industry as this immensely talented filmmaker delivers yet again with a highly captivating thriller that's impressive enough to rank as one of the finest offerings of the year, so far.
The story of Sicario follows an idealistic FBI agent who volunteers to join a covert operation to battle the escalating drug violence in the border areas between USA & Mexico. Assisting her in the mission are a supposed DoD adviser & a mysterious agent who has an agenda of his own. After witnessing the illegitimate manner in which the assignment was being carried out, the new agent is pushed to her moral & ethical limits.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique, Incendies, Prisoners & Enemy), Sicario opens on a high note for its first act is a masterwork of tense, gripping & razor-sharp storytelling and presents the promising filmmaker in sublime form. The film is able to grab the viewers' attention from the beginning and its foreboding atmosphere is maintained till the very end. And while it slows down a bit after its tightly-packed first act but even in those moments, it never drops its gear.
Taylor Sheridan's screenplay is no slouch for the story puts greater emphasis on characters inhabiting this crime thriller although it shifts its focus from one to another over the course of its runtime, which was quite unexpected, but since the primary characters are so expertly written, the change in focus doesn't become much of an issue. One drawback, however, is a sub-segment involving a Mexican cop that shows up at various intervals but has nothing relevant to contribute to the story.
Coming to the technical aspects, Roger Deakins' camera-work is pure wizardry for he stages some truly breathtaking shots through ingenious use of camera angles, smooth movements, slow pans & precision lighting while also making efficient use of desaturated colour palette to encapsulate the whole film with a spiritless ambiance, which fits its narrative. The pacing is methodical throughout its 121 minutes of runtime, and further elevating its tension is the pulsating score from Jóhann Jóhannsson that turns nearly every segment into a nail-biting moment.
As far as performances go, Sicario features a dependable cast in Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal & a few others and everyone is excellent in their given roles. Blunt is impressing a lot of lately with the kind of roles she's picking to play & her utter devotion to her character here makes it one of the finest works of her career, so far. Brolin also chips in strongly with what was expected from him. Finally, the ever-reliable del Toro only gets better as the plot progresses & in the end, effortlessly steals the show with his quiet but brooding performance.
On an overall scale, Sicario is a tightly-structured, tautly narrated & sharp-edged thriller that packs in an engrossing story filled with compelling characters and also brims with palpable tension from start to finish, is narrated with a tight grip on all aspects & is further elevated by outstanding performances from its cast, especially Blunt & del Toro. While there was still some room left for improvement and the rigidness of its tightly-knit first act is lost once the middle act takes over, Sicario is still worth your time & money and deserves a watch for its fascinating portrait of border warfare alone. Strongly recommended.