"Sicario". Merciless Means. Yet is there an End?

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2016)

At times (and it seems these times happen FAR too often) we all find ourselves checking to see how long a movie has until it ends, freeing us at long last from some manner of misery. And then there are cinematic gifts like "Sicario". Man, I NEVER wanted this brilliantly brutal masterpiece chronicling the down and dirty business of fighting Mexican drug trafficking to frickin' ever FINISH!
Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin and Daniel Kaluuya. Uniformly exceptional performances from each of these TRUE pros in every sense of what this word stands for. One minor quibble. I REALLY would have liked to see Director Dennis Villeneuve focus in greater detail on Del Toro's agonizingly tormented character Alejandro. "Sicario", the exquisite model of top-tier movie making that it is, could have been considerably better served through more concentration invested in and close-ups of a man whose soul is condemned to be interminably tortured whether or not he exacts at last the vengeance he stalks with such fierce and unbridled commitment. Del Toro is certainly that class of actor who I believe could have given us even more to remember in an already tour de force performance.
However unsavorily gained, U.S. law enforcement ultimately scores a major victory in "Sicario". The film's final images portray a seemingly innocent scene of a bunch of kids being cheered on by their moms while playing soccer in the Mexican dirt. The abrupt and menacing "time out" delivers a stark and sobering punch to the gut with the reality that this insidious war on drugs rages on.
Brolin's character warns us earlier in this harrowing story that as long as 20% of Americans are consumers of the commodity at the core of this ruthless combat the fight must continue. Which leaves us to struggle with the enduring and deeply disturbing question...
How, then, is it EVER going to end?