Professionally done drug crime thriller with a lot of zeitgeist

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2015)

When film historians of the 2050's look back at the '10s, the style that Sicario represents will probably be a quite defining feeling of the era – a movie version of TV series like True Detective and Narcos. Droning soundtrack, cinematography pushing muted grey and brown and characters lost in their personal hopelessness. Drugs (or maybe terrorists), guns and technology. In this sense, Sicario is somewhat a textbook example.
The film is well shot and has a rather good pacing for a thriller. In tone, it reminds me of Villeneuves earlier film Prisoners (2013) – throbbing soundtrack, world soaked in greys and desperation, broken people and morally ambiguous use of torture and violence. Sicario throws in techno thriller-stuff – drones, vehicle convoys and alphabet agencies. As for the cartels and the drug trade, Sicario doesn't seem to problematize or politicize the issue nor is it a lesson in history as for example Narcos is. I'm not American enough to recognize any hidden jabs about illegal immigration, either.
The only thing hinting how ordinary people are just cogs (reminding us of Villeneuve's masterpiece Incendies[2010] which is basically about fate and misfortune) is the recurring scenes of the Mexican father who wakes up, eats his eggs and beans and goes off to work when his son only wants to play football.
Emily Blunt does a good role as an idealist (or perhaps sane, if we are not to take the nihilist viewpoint as given) FBI agent who gets thrown in the deep end with the task force team led by rather stereotypical CIA-type guy Josh Brolin. The bunch is joined by Benicio del Toro who basically acts the enigmatic, Spanish speaking Benicio del Toro. Daniel Kaluuya is OK in his sidekick role.
Some say that del Toro steals the show, but Blunt was my favourite with a strong female character who isn't a strong female character to the point of being a trope or unbelievable in the context. It was striking how similar the character was with 2nd season True Detective Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams). Then again, if this is the era of TV series getting more serious as a medium of telling stories to adults against infantile superhero fixated feature films, Sicario has a feature benefit of sparing us of longer escapades into relationship trust issues, something you essentially have to have when writing a 10+ hour TV series.
All characters have a slight tinge of cliché, but hey – if this is the neoneonoir of the '10s, it is only to be expected. Sicario isn't anything new or mind blowing, but it is a skillfully crafted piece of film that delivers more than your average thriller, possibly because the subject matter is more interesting than your run-down-the-mill crime thriller.