Movie review: Sicario

Action/Crime/Drama

Rated – MA15+

Duration –121mins

Release – September 2015

Director –Denis Velleneuve

Cast –Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro


 
Mr Knight
With movies today I find the “Watch Test” is the best to use when settling your true feelings on whether a movie is great or terrible. The test is subtle. You may be doing it without knowing you’re doing it. The test is this. If the movie is terrible, you look at your watch wondering when it started and how much longer you have to endure this visual vomit for. If the movie is great, you check the ticket to see the end time and you check your watch to ask yourself “How will they end this with only so long to go!?” or “I’d be happy to sit another hour”… two hours in. Sicario was the latter.

Sicario, as the start of the film states, in Mexico, means hitman. Sicario follows FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an idealistic, play it by the book, human trafficking agent, hell bent on locating kidnapped victims by Mexican cartels in Arizona. Macer is the case officer for warrant after warrant, always seemingly one step behind the cartels and the bodies they leave behind start to build making her feel as though her efforts are fruitless.

After a high risk warrant Macer is brought in to what she believes is a mission de-brief, only to be put before an over confident, smiling Matt Graver (Josh Brolin). Graver, along with Macer’s FBI boss, offer her a chance to leave her people smuggling team and join his task force, to shake the tree, kick the hornets’ nest and all the other innuendos that would suggest they are going to piss off the cartels in Mexico.

Along with Graver (who she knows next to nothing about or where he’s from) Macer is met by mysterious Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), a specialist consultant, who says little, yet commands great respect and the three fly in a private jet to Juarez. What unfolds is gritty and brutal and Macer finds it tough to grasp that she has been taken out of a world with strict rules and circumstances and instead she finds in her present company, anything goes.

Macer soon realises Graver and his team answer to no one and the rules of engagement are this.. Don’t fuck with them. I found the cinematography and direction was of the highest quality. The use of music made the sunniest day in Mexico seem like the darkest, deepest, bottomless pit. But it wasn’t the music that did the most for the mood, but the actual lack of it. The silence at times was palpable and I found I couldn’t look away from the screen. I was intensely engaged and completely caught up in the possibilities of the film.

Del Toro was brilliant. I found the mystery of his character and his possibilities to be endless. The movie served up just enough of Del Toro’s background, military prowess, motivations, and capabilities to make you walk out of the cinema thinking, “Wow. What a badass!”

At times I found Emily Blunts agent Macer to be a bit tragic and preachy, but she played the part to a tee. Josh Brolins, maybe CIA, maybe some other secret agency, Matt Graver was just the right amount of obnoxious, gun-ho Texan and was actually quite alike to his mountain climbing enthusiast character in Everest. To round it all off was of course Benicio Del Toro who’s Alejandro, not to dissimilar to Denzel Washington’s Creasy from Man on Fire, made the film in the end.

Prepare yourself for a tense ride into a brutal part of Mexico for a shoot em’ first style of solving cartel violence with more violence. Enjoy. I did.



 

Mrs Knight
The film quickly sets the mood as we see FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her team track a kidnapping case before discovering a horrific crime linked to a Mexican Cartel.

Due to her capable skills and calm demeanor as an agent, Kate Macer is recruited by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to join his task force to bring down one of the biggest Mexican cartels in Juarez at the border between the U.S and Mexico. However, Kate has no idea what she's in for and keeps being told to watch and learn. She quickly finds herself in the middle of Matt and Alejandro’s (Benicio Del Toro) chaos. They unlawfully stir the pot to obtain information, which ultimately gets them one step closer to their goal. Kate finds this hard to deal with and often goes against their orders and the mission to abide by the law.

Let me begin by saying the direction by Dennis Villeneuve is incredibly well done. It's full of tension, suspense and lingering silences. A lot of the film was told through the music, which was hauntingly brilliant. There were suspense filled long pauses, more so than actual conversations. The long pans against open desert really set the scene and made it all the more eerie. It had a Breaking Bad feel to it. Not surprisingly considering it involves a badass Mexican cartel in the deserts of Mexico. But even much of the cinematography reminded me of it.

The film wasn't nearly as action-packed as I thought it would be which made the violence that much more powerful. It also made me, that much more interested. I was glued the screen and pleased it wasn't all gun fire. All of the cast played their roles perfectly to the point where I couldn't imagine them in any other roles. Not surprisingly Emily Blunt nails it once again. Her performance is incredibly convincing and believable. In my opinion, she can do no wrong. Her character was a very confident, by the books agent who didn’t take direction well (or at all). While this annoyed me, I couldn't help but admire her and I enjoyed watching her. Don't even get me started on the brilliance of Benicio Del Toro. He plays a scary Cuban all too well. I definitely wouldn't mess with him, or even look twice at him!

The film was put together perfectly, from the camera work, music, direction, actors and everything else that goes unnoticed but wouldn't be the same without. I believed it and I wanted to see more. I now want to go and binge on Breaking Bad.