It’s hard to tell the bad guys from the good, the winners from the losers in the drug war.
It’s true of all wars. And “Sicario’ exists in a world as morally grey as the storm clouds gathering over Juarez. This is the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend territory without trust just alliances of convenience.
This tone of uncertainty is established early in a tense parade through Juarez – but filmed in Mexico City – by a convoy of black SUVs, police cars and army units, escorting a drug lord back to the US for enhanced interrogation by two mysterious spooks, played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro.
The fifteen minute or so sequence is one of the most gripping of the year.
Director of photography Roger Deakins, on his way to another Oscar nomination, compared the aerial and boots on the ground shots and a shootout in gridlock border traffic to a jigsaw puzzle.
You experience every bump in the road throughout thanks to the ambient soundscape and rumbling underscore.
The film, by Denis Villenueve – director of “Prisoners” and “Incendies” – from a screenplay by “Sons of Anarchy” actor Taylor Sheridan is a series of powerful moments woven into a not always persuasive story. The story means “assassin.”
Emily Blunt, of “The Devil Wears Prada,” is the audience surrogate; an FBI agent swept up in the extra legal operation and still naive and idealistic enough to be shocked by it. Her blunt, if you will, reactions and of her partner Daniel Kaluuya as they go through the rabbit hole – which travels beneath the US/Mexican border – too often feel like what they are: perfunctory sleight of hand while another trick is played.
The film has multiple powerful moments, like desert scenes shot using night and thermal vision lenses could be news or documentary footage from Afghanistan or Iraq. But the personal story is either drained of actual jeopardy or Blunt is a poor vessel for it. The most humane scenes occur in passing as a gruff but humble Mexican cop, played by Maximiliano Hernandez, his wife and son are caught in the undertow.
The result is almost but not quite on par with other notable works on this theme including: “Heli,” shown at last year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, about a young man’s family caught up in cartel and police violence; and “The Cartel” and “The Year of the Dog,” by writer Don Winslow.
All these works portray the labyrinth war on drugs as a death march.
***1/2 Three and one half stars
With: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garver, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Maximiliano Hernandez. Produced by Basil Iwanyk, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill, Molly Smith.
Written by Taylor Sheridan. Directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Rated R: violence, language. Approximate running time: 121 minutes.
Tags: Emily Blunt, Roger Deakins, Sicario Posted by