Incredibly tense , all round great thriller!

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2018)

Denis Villeneuve is on a roll...........this film is great and only enhances his position as one of the best up and coming modern directors today. Right from the opening scenes this film entices you in and never lets go of you, it is incredibly tense and hard to watch at times. There are two main reasons this film grabs a hold of you, one being the fantastic story/writing and the other is the characters/performances.
The directing across the board is sublime, gorgeous shots of Mexico that are obviously enhanced by Roger Deakins cinematography. These beautiful wide angel shots are complimented extremely well with really close up action set pieces. The set piece across the boarder in the traffic jam has got to be one of the most tense scenes in a film recently, incredible work.
As previously mention the story/writing of this film is extremely good and makes for a riveting watch. It carries along a really tough subject with a lot of complex character background without letting one overshadowing the other. All the characters backstories are fleshed out really well throughout the film whilst still contributing to the overall story. Taylor Sheridan definitely deserves a shout out for this, really good work. A story that I've never seen before, extremely realistic and grounded.
The cast is very very good, firstly Emily Blunt who is the audiences eyes as the film progresses as she is seeing the same things we are for the first time. Plays a sort of fish out of water but can stand her own ground. What I mean by fish out of water is the fact that she is completely out of her depth and doesn't know what is going in the outset. Her character arc throughout is really good and has a satisfying end. Josh Brolin is very good as the charismatic leader of the team that definitely has his complexities to him. As the film goes a long you never really know 100 percent if he is telling the whole truth, he is a little bit wild and unpredictable. This makes is relationship between his character and Blunts all the more interesting.
However the best performance of the film is Benicio del Toro, just jaw dropping at times, is seemingly peaceful and friendly one minute and the next he is brutally murdering people. Fantastic performance all round, probably has the most depth to his character as well, as to the reason why he is helping the Americans. Brutally fantastic.
Last couple of positives are Roger Deakins, his cinematography is always incredible and is probably the best cinematography around, truly beautiful work. The last positive is the score by Johann Johannsson which is extremely haunting and only increases the tension throughout the film, simply brilliant score and fantastic use of it, it comes and goes and is only used when necessary.
Overall this film is 85% out of 100 or 8.5 out of 10, this is a very good film that has opened up an entirely new genre to explore, fantastic work from Denis Villeneuve, will this man ever make a bad film, probably not. Taylor Sheridan for the incredible story and characters. The three main cast members are all fantastic, must also quickly shoutout Daniel Kaluuya, good little role from him. Score and Cinematography are real highlights as well, there aren't any negatives really, I suppose it can drag a little and pace of the film can be hit and miss at times. All in all and truly great film not for everyone but extremely riveting and entertaining.