one of the year's best

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2016)

Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) are part of a FBI strike team looking to rescue kidnapped victim in Arizona. They find a hideout filled with dead bodies. A booby trap kills two cops. A mysterious Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) tricks Kate to volunteer to join him on a mission around El Paso. He's supposed to be an adviser to the DOD. An even more mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) from Columbia is part of the team with Delta Force and a couple of Marshals. She is shocked to be going into Mexico to retrieve a prisoner.
Director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins deliver beautiful action in the beginning. The drive through Juárez doesn't actually have any big action but the tension is amazing. The scene at the border is thrilling. The first section of the movie is Alice falling down the rabbit hole. The acting is superb. The story is not different but it is told with a powerful intensity. This is simply one of the year's best.