Sicario

I feel like I’m doing a little bit of clean up from the movies that I had interest in watching in 2015 but never got around to. It always happens but this particular film, after watching it, I am pretty disappointed that I didn’t see this movie when it first came out. I enjoy all the title actors in this like Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin, I really cannot totally explain why I didn’t end up seeing this movie when it came out last year.

Emily Blunt plays Kate Macy, an FBI agent involved with several cases combating the activities of the Mexican Cartel on the border. After a huge event, Kate is recruited to a special taskforce targeting the leaders of the cartel with a more hands on, unorthodox approach. This task force is headed up by the mysterious Matt (played by Josh Brolin) and the “DOD advisor” Alejandro (played by Benicio Del Toro).

From the get go, Kate is suspicious of this taskforce but she goes along with it because she wants to do the right thing and bring the leaders of this cartel to justice. However, she realizes that not everyone she encounters on this team should be trusted and not everyone’s motives, or actions are totally clear and fall into a morally grey area.

I think one of the reasons I didn’t see Sicario was because I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of movie it was. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be more of an action thriller, or more of a dramatic thriller more focused on the characters and leaning more towards an Oscar contender. While neither option is better or worse, I don’t think I was in the mood for a movie trying to win an Oscar, I think I wanted a fun movie. Luckily, I think Sicario is a great combination of both a great character study, a great action thriller, and a movie really hell bent on creating great tension and suspense. There are a lot of scenes in this movie where you honestly are just waiting for the action to come and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t, but the important part is the suspense is almost the element that is more fun. Sicario provided multiple moments where I was sitting on the edge of my seat unsure of what was going to happen next and where the plot would take me.

But that only works if you have good relatable characters involved and Sicario does a great job with the performances and writing of the characters.

Emily Blunt gives a great performance. Kate Macy comes off as a very competent FBI agents and in most films, that’s usually enough. But then she’s thrown into a world that even she has difficulty really dealing with and at times she seems out of her depth. Blunt plays a perfect balance of a woman who is both a badass and able to handle herself as well as someone who is incredibly vulnerable and again, out of her depths.

Emily Blunt continues to show that she is an incredibly competent actor with an incredible range. On one hand she can pull off the action star role in movies like this and Edge of Tomorrow. But at the same time she can just nail it in movies like Into the Woods and be cast as Mary Poppins. Emily Blunt is one of my favorite actresses working today because of her incredible range and her ability to make me feel when I'm watching a movie like this. 

Josh Brolin is just a lot of fun in this movie, almost to the point where he’s almost playing a caricature instead of an actual character. He just seemed to be having fun with the role and he is very mysterious. You don’t really figure out his motivations until the end of the movie and its totally worth all the intrigue this character provides. There have been talks about a Sicario 2, and I would definitely want Matt to show up again.

Along with that, this movie really made me realize how good of an actor Josh Brolin really can be. Honestly I can't say I've seen him in a whole lot of movies and besides being in two scenes as Thanos in the Avengers movies and that's just not enough. I really enjoy Josh Brolin in this film. 

And then there is Benicio Del Toro. Unfortunately, there is only so much I can say about him, and Josh Brolin’s character because their characters are so shrouded in mystery and have such compelling stories surrounding them and their plot. From the first time you see him, Alejandro is an intriguing character and you spend the entire time trying to figure out what his story is.

Like Brolin, this movie just points out the fact that Benicio Del Toro is a criminally underrated actor. I'm realizing that both Del Toro and Brolin have had short stints in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and unfortunately, a lot of young people might only know them from those small parts as the Collector and Thanos. Watching this movie just makes me incredibly sad to think about that because these two are incredibly talents actors. 

There are a couple more good performances in the movie. Daniel Kaluuya plays Kate’s partner at the FBI. Victor Garber plays her boss. Even Shane from The Walking Dead (Jon Bernthal) has a small role that I thought he did a pretty good job at. The main performances though are those of Blunt, Brolin, and Del Toro, and they are really good.

One other thing worth mentioning that I really enjoyed in this movie was the cinematography. If you’re a continuous reader of this blog, you will know that I don’t usually write about cinematography because that’s really not my strong suite. I know when something looks pretty and I know when something is shot differently than any other movie out there. I can’t necessarily say whether or not its very good but I can usually say how I felt when I was watching it.

The only reason I bring up the cinematography in this movie is because the movie won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and thinking back, yeah I totally understand why. The movie overall is beautifully shot and really leans into the suspense But the reason this movie won Best Cinematography is due to one scene in the film where the majority of the scene is shot from the perspective of night vision. Speaking as someone who has used night vision, it is a pain in the ass. The first time I used them, it took me a long time to get used to them.

The point is, the scene brought me back to that feeling and I had to get used to that viewpoint through night vision goggles. It was an incredibly real experience. But at the same time, everything happening was clear and it made the scene even more intense. It was both incredibly real, and could bring people into the fold of utilizing night vision. A very, very cool scene.

There’s honestly not a lot in this movie I didn’t like. I guess if I was going to say something it would possibly be that the movie couldn’t really decide if it was a straight up shooter action movie or if it was a serious drama thriller making a point on the justice system and the state of the border between the United States and Mexico. The action and the suspense made it seem like it was going more for the former, but the characters, the drama, and the suspense are so good that it deserves more than to be called just a mindless action movie.

I guess the question that I still pose, having seen the movie now, is should there be a sequel to Sicario. I think I heard some news saying that they are working on a script or something, but I believe it made enough money to possibly warrant a sequel. My initial reaction would be, no, this movie doesn’t need a sequel, it’s a solid movie that can stand on its own and it doesn’t need to be turned into a franchise or go past the point where the studios aren’t quitting while they are ahead.

I could see a couple of strings in this movie, characters and elements that could carry over into a sequel and I liked the movie a lot and would probably be first in line to see a sequel. However, like I said, the movie doesn’t really decide if it’s an action thriller than could expand into a larger franchise, or if it just is a more personal story that, I suppose, could be expanded on in future movies, but is more likely to just be a great standalone film.

Studios can make good movies like Sicario. They can make stories about FBI agents and fighting the Mexican Cartel and it doesn’t need to be a sequel to Sicario. I guess the name recognition helps a lot. But overall, I really enjoyed Sicario as a standalone film. It had a lot of great suspense, action, and good characters to balance it all out.

I know this is a short review but a lot of this movie rides on just experiencing it and not knowing too much about it. I treated this movie the same way I did Looper in that I wanted to know as little about this movie as possible before I watched it because I had a good feeling about it from the get go. I am very glad that is the approach I took because Sicario is just a down right fantastic film.

But those are my thoughts on Sicario. Have you seen it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. Because this movie won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, I thought I'd put a longer video of just the visual design of Sicario I found. If you're into cinematography, you might find this interesting. Enjoy!