Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Bernthal
Sicario
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Rating: 4/5
When it comes to crime thrillers there are few directors better than Denis Villeneuve with Prisoners and now the excellent Sicario under his belt. Sicario was one of the autumn 2015 movies that I was looking forward to the most and it was a film that did not disappoint.
Sicario sees Villeneuve team up with Emily Blunt for the first time, as she leads a cast that also includes Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro; Blunt and del Toro have previously worked together on The Wolfman.
In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent (Blunt) is enlisted by an elite government task force official (Brolin) to aid in the escalating war against drugs. Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past (Del Toro), the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.
I love a good crime/thriller and Sicario is a heart-pounding and visceral film experience that is compelling from start to finish. As well as being action packed, Sicario is an intelligent thriller that will challenge your views and will leave you asking a lot of questions.
As a filmmaker, Villeneuve is well and truly becoming the master of tension and suspense and he really does notch it up slowly as the danger and the stakes for the characters get higher and higher. It is great to see Villeneuve back in the director's chair and he has delivered another real gem in the crime genre - this really is one of the best crime/thriller movies that I have seen in recent years.
Emily Blunt is one of the most exciting actresses around and she gives a terrific central performance as Kate Macer; for me, this is the best performance of her career to date and this character gets drawn into a web of lies and everything she believes in is tested.
With every role Blunt continues to show her versatility and this is as intelligent performance as it is action packed. Blunt finds the perfect balance between Kate's strength and vulnerability and you really are rooting for her from the word go. Of course, Blunt is already a big name in Hollywood but Sicario looks set to be a role that will send her star rocketing even further.
Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro are equally magnificent and play two characters that you are never quite sure if you or leading lady Kate should trust. From the moment that you meet Alejandro (del Toro) there is a subtle menace to him that does send a shiver down your spine. You, like Kate, know that there's more to him than he is letting on.
Sicario is a movie that is packed with twists and turns and is explosive and incredibly thought-provoking. But what I love most about Villeneuve, it he has left the moral judgement up to the audience; leaving them to decide what is right and what is wrong. This is a movie that is both morally and ethically challenging and those questions will stay with you after the credits have rolled.
Sicario is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now.
Tagged in Emily Blunt Denis Villeneuve