Sicario (2015) - Review

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2015)

Well, this is my favourite film of the year so far.
I loved this movie, more than that, I think Denis Villeneuve is becoming one of my favourite directors. I absolutely loved Prisoners and while Enemy was a bit too crazy for me it was still a masterfully made and very unique film. This film is maybe slightly below Prisoners in terms of quality but only very slightly.
Emily Blunt is really proving herself to be very versatile these days, she was awesome in Edge of Tomorrow but she plays a different kind of badass here. She's the idealistic one, pulled into some really dirty stuff and the she gives the best performance of her career so far. Both Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Torro play great characters, you are never sure where you stand with them, you're never sure what they are going to do next which creates a great sense of unease a lot of the time.
Speaking of unease, I feel like the highest compliment I can give a film is that it makes you feel something, be it sadness, happiness or in this case, extreme anxiousness. Villeneuve has some extreme skill at building tension, he did this in Prisoners too. There are some scenes in this that had me almost feeling sick I was so nervous, he drags these scenes out for just the right amount of time to build the tension and they never get boring.
The plot, while maybe slightly familiar was really good, it kept me guessing and while this is by no means an action film, when action was utilized it was really well done. Both the way the action was filmed and the sound design gave it a really gritty and intense feel, loved it.
Another masterful effort from one of the best filmmakers around today and my favourite film of the year so far, highly recommended.