Sicario is an unfamiliar word to most Americans.  In short, the definition means “hitman.”  Sicario will now be known in America for another reason and that is the fact that it’s one of the best films of the year and a film most people will be talking about come Oscar season.

 

Sicario is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who directed Prisoners, one of the best films of 2013.  What he has crafted with Sicario borderlines on perfection.  The film is a master class on building suspense and tension.  Sicario rarely lets up for the duration of its 2 hour running time, and even that flies by.

 

In Sicario, we follow Kate Macer, played by Emily Blunt.  Macer is an idealistic FBI agent that gets caught up in a drug war between the U.S. and Mexico when she is asked by a shady government task force to join them on their mission.

 

For Macer, the rest of the film feels a little like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. She finds herself in a land she doesn’t quite understand, surrounded by people who seem a little off (an understatement).  It’s through Macer’s eyes that the audience views most of the film.  We are just as bewildered and mortified as she is, begging for questions and getting no answers.  Until we do get some answers, and boy are we, along with Macer, better off not knowing.

 

Blunt has quickly become a fantastic actress.  With last year’s underrated Edge of Tomorrow and Sicario, Blunt proves that she really has a knack for playing strong female characters.  With Charlize Theron’s performance in Mad Max: Fury Road, it really is the year of the strong female heroine.

 

The rest of the cast is rounded out by Josh Brolin, who is fantastic as the lead member of the task force.  He’s a laid back cowboy who can often be seen wearing flip-flops.  His relaxed vibe is unsettling to say the least.  You would think he’s about to prepare for a paintball game instead of a raid on a Mexican cartel.

 

Although Emily Blunt is the lead character, this might be Benicio Del Toro’s film. Sicario is easily his best work since his Oscar winning performance in Traffic, a film that shares more than a few similarities with Sicario.  Del Toro plays Alejandro, a mysterious “consultant” with the task force.  He’s a wild card that Macer has reservations about right from the start.

 

The other highlight of the film is the cinematography by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins.  Deakins has been nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar 12 times for films such as Shawshank Redemption, Fargo and No Country for Old Men.  It’s truly a crime of cinema that the man has never won.  A travesty that might change this year.

 

His work in Sicario closely resembles No Country for Old Men.  Sicario is filled with wide shots of the Mexican/American landscape, as well as shots of the desolate desert.  One scene in particular really stood out for me.  It’s a night scene in the desert as the sun begins to fade in the background, the soldiers are walking in the foreground until they disappear.  The colors of the sky, mixed with the silhouette of the soldiers is a thing of beauty.  You could frame it, put it on a wall and charge thousands for a print of that quality.  It’s that breathtaking.

 

Another favorite scene of mine in the film is a confrontation between Brolin and Blunt.  The scene is shot wide, with the actors 25 yards away.  Many directors would establish a shot like this and then go in tight on the actors, but Villeneuve lets the scene breath.  By keeping the camera wide and at a distance from the actors, Villeneuve is also commenting on America as a society and how we view the issues between Mexico and U.S. - from a distance, detached and solely as a hot button issue to be passed around come election time.

 

Sicario is a raw and violent film that offers little hope about the crisis in Mexico and its prospects for the future.  The film portrays the American government as flummoxed, throwing their hands in the air as a sign of surrender, admitting that the problem cannot and will not ever be solved.  A hopeless notion indeed. However, that’s not to say the American government is giving up on the problem. On the contrary.  

At the height of Michael Jordan’s career, there was a saying, “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.”  This is what Sicario depicts.  The war on drugs is eternal, but it can be controlled and manipulated.  The lengths we go to accomplish something like that might be more terrifying than anything.