Sicario: Denis Villeneuve delivers another taut and disturbing thriller

Today, a look at the latest film from the director of Incendies and Prisoners.

Sicario:  
    I didn't really have much of  clue as to the plot of this film going in, so each new twist was a complete surprise. I won't give a plot summary, because I feel that's the best way to experience the movie.
    Emily Blunt is really great as the lead heroine. She's a good mix of toughness, but also naivete and vulnerability that makes her relatable. Benicio Del Toro was fantastic, and Josh Brolin was equally effective. Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Donovan, Victor Garber, Maximiliano Hernández, Rauol Trujillo, and Julio Cedillo are recognizable faces who have smaller parts than you'd expect, but were terrific.
    The plot, much like Drive, is essentially a simple plot done in an arthouse style. The entire atmosphere of the film is almost eerie and the movie has some fairly disturbing segments, as do all of Villeneuve's recent projects. The music by Jóhann Jóhannsson is moody and subtle, and never overwhelms the action or made me feel like I was being told how to feel via music cues, which is something many modern movies do as an easy emotional trick.
    The cinematography by Roger Deakins is beautiful and flowing and clever. Deakins knows how to emphasize the power of a scene by using a huge wide-shot, or maybe focusing in on something smaller (one key scene never shows what actually happens, merely showing a drain on the floor of the room with the audience hearing some vague altercation, whereas others show the huge scope of the landscape the characters inhabit).
    Taylor Sheridan's script is smart and is a new spin on a classic story arcs (revenge, betrayal). I was impressed even more so when I found out he's an actor, not a screenwriter.
    But most impressive is the fact that Villeneuve is able to churn these projects out year after year. He's released a film every year for three years now: Prisoners in 2013, Enemy in 2014 (though technically a 2013 release in film fests), and now Sicario, and they've all been really great.
    Sicario may not be as great as Villeneuve's other works, but it is an unvarnished look at the war on cartels, and an incredibly tense and suspenseful thriller, much like Prisoners. 7/10 stars (perhaps this will become an 8 on further watches).


                                               (Image: Wikipedia)


Side Note:
R.I.P. Maureen O'Hara