outstanding

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2015)

Sicario is tense, well made, and makes great use of the talented Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro. Gritty realism combined with a series of escalating situations - Sicario blends environment seamlessly with characters and content. Strictly as an invention of the writer and director, this movie shines as well made piece of visual fiction, but there is so much more to stop and think about after the film is done. This film flirts with an often over used term: masterpiece.
At it's heart this film is a mystery, and Emily's character is our gateway into the gray area of the drug war, its combatants, and a vicious circle of violence.
Casting: brilliant. Each character is believable, tangible, real.
Directing: superb. This guy is on a roll, he knows the material, and did a stellar job of translating the writing into visual fiction.
Location: a rare treat to witness such seamless integration of the environment into the content of a film. Disquieting use of camera and sound punctuates growing intensity, and clever use of light and dark guides the eye with visual symbolism.
Realism, I think, can at times be more difficult to analyze and critique, especially if the viewer is hypnotized by what they see and completely buy into the story. This movie makes presenting the abstraction that is film look so very easy.
With such generalizations, who will like this movie? Fans of the cast, people who like watching military ops, and media junkies who like a good mystery. Sicario is violent, harsh, and does not pander to what people want to see - it is an unrelenting journey into a world of predators and their victims, as well as a exhibition of class film making.
nearing perfection: 9 out of 10