In Mexico Sicario means hit-man

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 2015)

Sicario, Latin meaning for "hitman" is director Dennis Villeneuve's latest thriller. Staring Emily Blunt, she plays Kate as a brilliant FBI agent recruited to be part of a mission in the lawless border between U.S and Mexico. Unaware of the main objectives of the mission, Kate is exposed to some of the most dangerous and uncomfortable situations international drug trafficking can offer. Government task force agents Josh Brolin as Matt and Benicio Del Toro as Alejandro lead the mission smoothly up until they start using secretive methods of violence and deceit that Kate notices. At this point it makes you realize that we are in for a fishy situation that no one can really predict the result.
Right of the bat Sicario unloads with intense shooting scenes. FBI agents including Kate invade an Arizona home in search for a kidnap victim. The discovery of bodies wrapped in plastic behind the walls of the home is one of the many gruesome scenes that you will see in this movie. Headed south of the border, Kate gets a close look of what Ciudad Juarez is like on day-to-day basis. Bodies hanging in plain sight and constant police activity make you believe that this is normal and believable if you know or don't know about the constant drug war struggle in Mexico. It's evident that Kate's purpose in the mission is unclear as Matt and Alejandro are purposely keeping her out of the loop. There is a lack of leadership on both sides of the drug war, which creates confusion as to who really is the protagonist. The communication between Kate and the task force is unclear all throughout which didn't allow the storyline to fully develop. Unclear communication led to conflict between Kate and Matt as she sees Alejandro do something that caught her off guard feeling like he's the one they should be going after.
What drives Sicario is the cinematography and acting. Villeneuve pushed for suitable and realistic scenes that take you in to what it's really like to live on the other side of the border. The suspenseful and bone chilling sound effects make you feel that at any second something crazy will happen. Del Toro and Blunt's remarkable acting makes this movie a good thriller yet confusing in a sense. The flaw I see is Kate's role because the movie is seen through her point of view most of the time. She is confused and nervous of what will happen next. As the viewer I felt I was unaware of what was truly happening in regards to the mission. But ultimately Del Toro's role saved the movie from being OK to good. His presence fit well in this dark shocking film because he makes it seem like he's cool guy who is following everything by the book but soon enough you will realize that he's the last the guy you want to be around with. Getting a better perspective of what Alejandro was really up to would have been nice to implement in the movie. I mentioned how the movie lacks clarity of the mission's objective, but we have to face reality. There is so much competition and evil flowing around these drug wars that sometimes being unclear with those you even trust is your best bet to be a winner. You can't trust no one and have to be on your own. I would of liked to see how that persona of Alejandro was thinking and planning on doing more than what was really shown in the movie.