A Gritty, Pragmatist Look at the Drug War on the U.S. Border

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2016)

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
With unjust police shootings and guys like John Connolly making deals with Whitey Bulger, it's getting near impossible to tell the good guys from the bad. Emily Blunt no doubt would agree after what she goes through as FBI agent Kate Macy in the kill-or-be-killed thriller "Sicario." Kate's the proverbial babe – and I mean babe – in the woods, a still wet-behind-the-ears agent working out of the Phoenix office. But she has moxie, that one ingredient necessary for every G-gal who's ever stumbled into a movie. Which is good, because she's going to need it after receiving a can't-refuse invite to join a black-ops group tasked with using "any means" to bring down a major drug cartel working out of the body-strewn war zone known as Juarez.
The force of black SUV-driving water-torturers is led by Josh Brolin, the go-to guy when it comes to typecasting Texas shitkickers standing knee-deep in a pool of tough-guy sarcasm. He's Matt, which is about all Kate – or any of us – will ever know about him. No clue who he works for, or whose interests he represents, despite Kate's persistent inquiries. But compared to Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro, he's practically an open book.
Making like Eastwood in a Spaghetti Western, Alejandro is an enigma of few words. He lets his automatic weapons do the talking – loud and lethal. His purpose, his presence are the film's central mysteries. He's also the likely reason the movie is titled "Sicario," which in the lexicon of Mexican gangsters means "hitman". He plays a character that's quite similar to the one he had portrayed in his Oscar- winning turn in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic". But "Traffic" was so long ago (2000) that you've probably sufficiently forgotten Del Toro's portrayal of a Mexican cop hooking up with the DEA to bring down a drug lord. Well, it was a good part, so why not do it again? In fact, why not make "Sicario" just like "Traffic", sans the soap opera? That's clearly the thinking of wunderkind director Denis Villeneuve, who envelops his story in all the angst and gloominess we've come to expect from the guy who brought us ain't-no-sunshine joints like "Prisoners" and "Incendies". He loves wallowing in the muck. And as hard as you resist, you like wallowing with him. Say what you will about the guy – that he exploits human frailty; that he hates happy endings – you can't deny that he knows how to entertain the pants off you, even though the "entertainment" consists almost exclusively of murder and torture.
With actor-turned-writer Taylor Sheridan ("Sons of Anarchy") at his side, Villeneuve wastes no time bringing the dread by opening with a "Straight Outta Compton"-like drug raid that ends in multiple deaths. And that's not counting all the people who were already deceased, their bodies encased in plastic and jammed between the studs of a bullet-riddled Phoenix crack house. All are suspected victims of Fausto Alarcon (Julio Cedillo), the cartel boss an unsuspecting Kate is about to play an unsavory hand in bringing down.
The film thrives on Villeneuve's keen eye for action. Aided immensely by uber-cinematographer Roger Deakins (a shoo-in for his 13th Oscar nomination), Villeneuve turns your nerves into a twist with two masterful action sequences. The first involving a terrifying shootout on the Bridge of Americas, and the second a nighttime raid inside a crudely dug desert tunnel that Deakins films with an infrared camera that perfectly sets an eerie, foreboding mood as blood and ideals are spilled in a barrage of bullets. It's simply breathtaking, as is the final scene, like "Traffic", set on an athletic field. It will not only haunt you, but it will also – this is for you Donald Trump – drive home the reason so many people will do anything to flee to the U.S.
What's not so great is the flat storytelling, which presents precious little of what's at stake for the characters, particularly Alejandro. The entire film builds and builds to his climactic moment of revenge porn. It's powerful, but not as intently as it could have been if Villeneuve created a more palpable sense of suspense. Still the performances are strong, and Deakins is amazing, doing for normally boring, bland desert-scapes what he did for the snowbound tundra in "Fargo". In fact, his ingenious camera-work is "Sicario's most addictive drug. Whether that's enough to get audiences high remains to be seen. But even with all its impurities, "Sicario" remains pretty kick-ass dope.