Lost War on Drugs

Rating: 9/10 (21 May 2017)

Dennis Villeneuve is one of the best directing talents in recent times, has proved it with Prisoners and Enemy, this one is a more mainstream effort from him. The so called War on Drugs as one knows has been a long drawn out affair,that has cost billions of dollars, countless lives and has not seen any resolution to yet. And I doubt it will. For the last 4 years or so,Mexico has turned into a war zone of sorts, with daily battles between the entrenched drug cartels and the Government. A dirty battle, marked by unprecedented viciousness, cruelty, and which really has seen no winners at all.
And I guess that is the best part of Sicario, it treads into the grey zone, there are no heroes in this war. Both the sides play it equally dirty, throwing all rules and ethics out of the window. As the idealistic Fed agent Kate Macer( Emily Blunt) discovers , when her boss tells her bluntly, the boundaries have expanded, and there is no question of operating outside them now. In a sense Kate undergoes a loss of innocence, as she watches her colleague, a Dept of Defense adviser Matt( Josh Brolin), and his mysterious partner Alejandro( Benicio Del Toro), break every rule in the book. She seems to be the odd one out in a dirty and ruthless world, where no one is what it seems.
One of the most shocking opening scenes ever, where the raiding party, discovers a home stuffed with caracasses in the wall and rigged with explosives. You know this is not going to be your conventional popcorn action flick. The pacing is slow, and the tension is more like a slow poison sort, that envelops you steadily. The violence is brutal and realistic, it just makes you squirm, you are thankful that you are not there. One particularly brilliant scene, when the Agents intercept the cartel men in a traffic jam near the border, the way Villeneueve builds up the tension here is superb. The movie sticks to the point, and at no stage is the focus diverted. The tension is relentlessly drilled into your head, until it overwhelms you.
The camera work is outstanding, the desert scenes, the aerial shots of the border towns, are so brilliantly shot, as well as the scene where they go into the tunnel. Add to it, the movie is marked by some top notch performances. Emily Blunt is first rate as the idealistic Fed agent, who has a rude awakening to reality. Josh Brolin as the street smart DOD agent, who would do anything to get to his target is great as usual. And it is good to see Benicio Del Toro, back in a real meaty role, as Brolin's partner, who seemingly has a lot to hide. Here is my recommendation, Go for it.