REVIEW: Sicario keeps you on the edge of your seat and never allows the feeling of safety in a world of drugs and crime.
By Franklin Racobs, Staff Writer
Sicario (hitman in Spanish) directed by Denis Villeneuve, is a crime thriller that features an FBI agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who rises through the ranks of her male-dominated profession. She is then recruited by a shady government official, Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), to take down the leader of the Mexican cartel by traveling back and forth across the U.S. and Mexican border. The task force that Kate joins uses one cartel boss in hopes of finding a bigger one and is led by a very mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), the character that really drives the film.
What makes Sicario such a great film is the acting and directing. Without its beautiful shots and top-of-the-line acting, Sicario would have likely ended up being just another violent cartel film. Denis Villeneuve does a terrific job of building suspense throughout the film. From the very beginning to the end, Sicario keeps you on edge, and while watching, you never feel as if the characters are safe. Thanks to Roger Deakins, the cinematographer, Sicario was a film with outstanding nighttime scenes, which helped to build even more suspense as you reach the climax of the film. The choice of casting a female lead in the film played a large role in the film’s critical success. Emily Blunt’s character allows the audience to be more involved with the story. While watching the movie you root for Kate because she is clearly outnumbered in a task force of all men, and she is the only character who isn’t trying to hide her true motives during the operation. She seems to be the only agent whose morals are in the right place. Emily Blunt does a wonderful job of portraying a female FBI agent, able to balance two sides of her character throughout the film. In one scene, she can be a tough, experienced agent, and in another, she is a sensitive woman with strong convictions and strives to do the right thing.
Sicario is a film that does what all thrillers should strive to do: it never lets its audience relax. Along with the excellent directing and shooting done by Villeneuve and Deakins, Benicio Del Toro’s performance as Alejandro makes Sicario a great thriller. From the first moment you see Alejandro on screen you feel very suspicious about who this man really is. Del Toro’s ability to frighten the audience with a character who is seemingly on the side of the “good guys” is what makes his performance so powerful. As the film progresses, Alejandro becomes increasingly more frightening, due largely to his interrogation tactics and the unfolding of the film’s climax.
Going into this film, I was expecting Kate Macer to be a character who was involved with most of the action. Kate Macer truly serves as the morally right character who struggles to find her footing in the war on drugs, where seeking true and fair justice by the book is viewed as an unrealistic outcome. But within the dark and depressing environment created by Villeneuve, Benicio Del Toro’s character Alejandro is truly the one who shines and makes this film what it is.