#sicario review
What are we doing here? 
Denis Villeneuve does it again in this beautiful and thrilling tale of morality, justice and the inconceivable fallacy that’s tied to fighting a war that cannot be won.
Sicario is about the war on drugs. It is centered on a justice seeking FBI agent of whom specializes in kidnappings. Without any acknowledgement or affiliation to an agency an agent of the Department of Defense, Josh Brolin, approaches the FBI specialist, played by Emily Blunt, to join his task force whose mission is to lure out a cartel boss from hiding.
This is without a doubt my favorite movie of the year. Villeneuve carefully frames every sequence with chaotic disparity and artistic wonder (a lot of that is credited to Roger Deakins).
As with his past two films, Villeneuve seemingly loves developing characters that essentially work to do the right thing and are typically portrayed as “straight shooters,” his characters seem to follow the philosophy that if they do good then good will be done unto them, but eventually are met with some kind of unfortunate cirumstance thus throwing the characters to the wolves of temptation and circumstance, where they are then forced to decide between what’s right, wrong and fair to their cause.
Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent dedicated to her job. Little is known about her past other than the fact that she’s a divorcee; probably because of her job. She seeks justice for the victims of the cartel’s kidnappings, knowing this, Brolin recruits her to his anti-drug enforcement task force with the promise of getting back at the cartel for their gruesome murders.
Josh Brolin plays his role with comedic candor as he calmly weaves his way up the cartel food chain unabashed by the violence and turmoil. His moral compass is pointed toward the greater good and does not hesitate to do what is necessary to get it done. His character represents efficacy as well as wisdom, for he understands the nature of the drug landscape and is willing to operate outside of any agency rules to get it done.
Benicio Del Toro is also in this, he plays an unnervingly calm agent of chaos; his position is not clear, who he takes orders from can be loosely interpreted in many ways — one thing is clear, he will not hesitate to perform whatever deed that must be done. His words are spoken softly and his actions decisive, his past is muddled in violence as the cartels took everything he cared about from him and he has since dedicated his life to returning the favor tenfold. One aspect to his role that I thought was an ingenious aspect to the film was that most of the cartel henchmen that unfortunately came upon his wraith, always asked “Medellin,” as this is a famous city in Colombia which is known to be the former drug capitol of the word during Pablo Escobar’s time, but has since fallen from that grace due to the rise of the Mexican cartels; so, it’s very interesting to see the cartel henchmen assume the involvement of Colombia as they scramble to takedown the cartels. Does this mean the DoD is working with Colombia? Sicario, never fully explains this, which only increases the intrinsic value of Del Toro’s character — it’s always a treat to see Del Toro’s talents properly fostered in a film
Brolin and Del Toro operate as two halves that bring balance as one devises a plan and looks at things with a disturbingly relaxed sense of well being, while the other, tortured by his past, does what most won’t to get the results he needs. All in the name of restoring balance to the drug trade.
The film’s greatest strength are in its action sequences. None of it is wasted on the pretense of style and serve a purpose, thus creating legitimate tension rather than brainless entertainment. And that is the genius of Villeneuve.
The film’s point is about the devaluation of human life when weighed against the mighty dollar as people are often times used as bait and or killed just for being involved in any facet of the drug trade. 
4/4
