Sicario

[kevinknapman]

The current impressive run of outstanding cinema continues this week with Denis Villeneuve's extraordinary drug war thriller Sicario.

It's a subject that's all the rage at the moment from Don Winslow's masterpiece novel The Cartel and Matthew Heineman's exceptional documentary Cartel Land. Sicario is definitely as good as both.

Following Emily Blunt's idealistic FBI agent who, after discovering 40 corpses in a US house with Mexican drug cartel ties, rashly agrees to be part of an ill-defined government task force in the belief that she can make a difference. Though she soon realises that she is out of her depth and is unprepared for the murky, often illegal methods that task force leader Josh Brolin and the mysterious Benicio Del Toro will use in their fight on the war on drugs across the US/Mexico border.

Sicario is a tense and intelligent thriller that punctuates the air of moral ambiguity and confusion with a series of impressive set pieces including the opening discovery of the corpse-filled house, a confrontation with Mexican gunmen at a traffic-jammed border crossing and a descent into a dark drug tunnel. Villeneuve keeps things permanently on edge throughout, aided by an impressive first script by actor Taylor Sheridan, the dependably outstanding work of cinematographer Roger Deakins (who he worked with on Prisoners) and an oppressive and ominous score courtesy of Johann Johannsson.

Emily Blunt heads an excellent cast, and delivers one of her finest performances so far. She acts as the audiences way in to this world, and remains as unsure of her exact role in it as we do.
Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro are both very, very good and Brit actor Daniel Kaluuya (Babylon, Psychoville) also makes a solid impression as Blunt's inquisitive partner. As do Victor Garber, Jeffrey Donovan and Jon Bernthal in smaller roles.

Villeneuve and Sheridan's take on the war on drugs offers no easy answers and is ultimately as cynical as Josh Brolin's laid back, flip flop wearing task force leader. If you can take the pessimistic world view on offer, Sicario is essential viewing and a strong contender for thriller of the year.

[yogi]

I had high expectations after the excellent Prisoners but partly because the audience, like Blunt, were kept in the dark about what was going on and the fact the whole War on Drugs is portrayed as being so futile I found it hard to engage with and ultimately care what was going on.

Some good performance and an fantastic opening sequence but overall 6/10

[LatrellBrown]

I personally felt it was intense at times and was leaving me and also the main character throughout most of the film guessing what really goes on with drug cartels in Mexico.

I feel this deserves a 8/10 and i would watch it again.

[ClareBarr]

Saw this at Croydon grants and, even though my friend really enjoyed the film, I found it difficult to get into it as the lights stayed on for the whole film!

[prettyxcool]

Saw this tonight at the denofgeek screening at the PCC. Absolutely packed, every seat taken in the upstairs screen, which I feel is the nicer of the two screens at the PCC.

Powerful, brutal and suspenseful thriller with an excellent cast. 9/10

[funthing29]

I was not overly impressed with this. I found Blunt's character incredibly bland and therefore having the narrative told from her viewpoint diluted some of the drama and tension (IMO). I also felt very nauseous due to a lot of the shaky camerawork and the claustrophobic nature of some of the shots. 6/10.

[stuartboy]

I found this plain boring. Just seemed to be a string of set pieces that moved from one to the other. It was basically like a gorier episode of Homeland only I preferred Homeland. Particularly annoying was the bizarre 40 corpses in a house thing. Wtf? Never really explained. Mind you nothing was. I found it tedious. I really couldn't have cared what was going to happen next, and it could have ended at any point without me caring nor wanting to find out more.

I've definitely seen better TV shows.

5/10

[fraz]

Busy night at Cineworld, Edinburgh.

Really enjoyed the film. Great cast, Del Toro was excellent. Loved the scenes in Juarez, brutal place. Felt the pace was good and kept you guessing as to where it was going. Would recommend. 8/10

[KM&M]

Very quiet at Ipswich Cineworld, quietest preview i've been to by miles.

I did enjoy the film, good use of either silence or a very subtle soundtrack.

[Smarties]

Enjoyed this film, although didn't care much for any of the characters. The cinematography was beautiful, I hope Roger Deakins will finally get the Academy Award for his work on this.