Villeneuve so reliable right now

Rating: 6/10 (4 November 2015)

"Sicario" is an American 2-hour movie from earlier this year and the director is Canadian Denis Villeneuve who consistently delivered strong films over the last 5 years since his Oscar-nominated Incendies. This one here is not an exception. The writer is Taylor Sheridan and it's the first time ever the actor ("Sons of Anarchy") has come up with a script. Pretty good effort for being a rookie. In terms of acting, the movie is mostly carried by Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. The latter 2 seem basically interchangeable until at least the half of the movie playing bad-ass secret agents with one being basically the Hispanic version of the other. However, the last 45 minutes take Del Toro's character into a completely different direction and this is probably also when the film is at its best. I am not saying I did not enjoy the first hour of the film that mostly focused on Blunt's character, but Del Toro simply takes it to another level here when the film is more progressed.
Still, I am not sure if it's an example of great acting or just a character written as ruthless and bad-ass (no prisoners taken) as you can imagine. Maybe it is the latter, but that should not be derogative in any way on Del Toro's performance. He elevates the material a lot and I cannot think of any other actor who would have worked so well with this character. No surprise, he is considered for an Oscar nomination. Same goes for Blunt, even if her buzz is probably not that heavy anymore. There are a couple parallels with Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty", but all in all it is a completely different character and performance. And of course she is very easy on the eyes as well. Brolin occasionally became a bit less significant with these 2 strong performances around him, but that's also because he was not written equally baity. You cannot blame him and he gives a good performance as well. "Sicario" is a worthwhile watch for everybody who has an interest in drug trafficking at the Mexican border and does not mind the graphic violence that comes with this movie. I would not say it's among the best of the year, but nonetheless a good watch and I recommend it mostly because of its extraordinary last 40 minutes, even if there are great scenes before that already too like the fireworks scene.