According to the start of "What I Want From Movies", readers probably won't be surprised that I tend to avoid these sorts of movies. It's mostly a combination of lacking the three elements that I like in movies, as well as the highly graphic violence.
Despite that, last year's Sicario is very notable to genre fans because -- shortly after its release, to critical success -- the film's director Denis Villeneuve was attached to the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. It isn't hard to see why he was picked for the latter movie, based on his skill with this one, but the films' tones are likely to be very different.
The Setup
During an FBI raid of a suspected cartel hideout, Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her team discover a horrifying cache of corpses in the walls of the house. After two of her fellow officers are killed by a booby-trap, her boss recommends her for a task force assembled by the DoD to implicate those responsible.
Kate quickly realises how ill-prepared she is for the border warfare that the DoD and CIA are involved in, with the team led by agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the soft-spoken Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) immediately crossing into Juárez, Mexico in order to extradite one of the men high up in the cartel. It only gets worse from there.
Combining a disturbing original score, graphic content and mostly unlikable characters, this movie made me angry in a way that the film makers probably intended. The entire point of the film is to show the dirty work the CIA get into, and at the same time follows the growth of two characters whose motivations couldn't be more different.
"By the end, you will understand." -- Alejandro Gillick
Part way through Sicario, viewers begin to suspect the real meaning of Alejandro's words, and the movie transforms into something new. I won't spoil what, suffice it to say that the first half was better from a narrative perspective, but the second half makes the movie complete by satisfying the thematic perspective. These kinds of movies (ones with a particular thesis that they wish to convey) aren't the sort of story that one watches for narrative catharsis, so the switch in perspectives is understandable.
Shots are happy to cross the line if it makes for a better effect, and ambiguity abounds in realistic scenes of underworld crime and violence. Much of the movie happens without dialogue, and tone is often established not by the score (which is generally, as stated above, at the same disturbing level throughout) but by the inserting of different ideas and tableaux. One recurring visual is that of a character washing their hands and looking in the mirror -- an on-the-nose idea, but used in the right quantity not to feel overdone. Another scene early on inter-splices images of the corpses with the discovery of the cartel's explosive booby-trap.
I eagerly await his new Blade Runner, because Villeneuve's directorial choices make for nail-biting tension scenes and creative metaphorical ideas. Combined with the learned eye of cinematography legend Roger Deakins, there is always something interesting happening in frame.
Unfortunately, despite an excellent command of visual language, the movie's colour palette is as suffocating and drab as the score -- again, like the tone these are intentional decisions, but a movie can be beautiful and disturbing at the same time (see my review of The Conjuring, coming soon). I won't take the opportunity to complain about colour timing in modern films, instead I will borrow the illustration a friend of mine used, that the film "looks like it was filmed through somebody's urine sample".
Sicario has a lot to recommend it: it's a suspenseful thriller that tells a haunting story. However, it's not recommended if you like the kinds of movies that I enjoy. Yes, not every movie has to "entertain" or be "fun" -- some are made to move you emotionally -- but the truth about movie magic is that so much more can be done with the medium than simply try to depict realistic events, especially in such a gruesome way.
Sicario gets 3 / 5 stars. It's a very good film, but not for me.
Combining a disturbing original score, graphic content and mostly unlikable characters, this movie made me angry in a way that the film makers probably intended. The entire point of the film is to show the dirty work the CIA get into, and at the same time follows the growth of two characters whose motivations couldn't be more different.
"By the end, you will understand." -- Alejandro Gillick
Part way through Sicario, viewers begin to suspect the real meaning of Alejandro's words, and the movie transforms into something new. I won't spoil what, suffice it to say that the first half was better from a narrative perspective, but the second half makes the movie complete by satisfying the thematic perspective. These kinds of movies (ones with a particular thesis that they wish to convey) aren't the sort of story that one watches for narrative catharsis, so the switch in perspectives is understandable.
Creative, Terrible Horror
While juggling the movie's thesis with Kate's character development, and showing the brutal nature of the job, Sicario goes about telling smaller, intimate stories through various visual storytelling techniques, particularly inspired by comic books and anime.Shots are happy to cross the line if it makes for a better effect, and ambiguity abounds in realistic scenes of underworld crime and violence. Much of the movie happens without dialogue, and tone is often established not by the score (which is generally, as stated above, at the same disturbing level throughout) but by the inserting of different ideas and tableaux. One recurring visual is that of a character washing their hands and looking in the mirror -- an on-the-nose idea, but used in the right quantity not to feel overdone. Another scene early on inter-splices images of the corpses with the discovery of the cartel's explosive booby-trap.
I eagerly await his new Blade Runner, because Villeneuve's directorial choices make for nail-biting tension scenes and creative metaphorical ideas. Combined with the learned eye of cinematography legend Roger Deakins, there is always something interesting happening in frame.
Unfortunately, despite an excellent command of visual language, the movie's colour palette is as suffocating and drab as the score -- again, like the tone these are intentional decisions, but a movie can be beautiful and disturbing at the same time (see my review of The Conjuring, coming soon). I won't take the opportunity to complain about colour timing in modern films, instead I will borrow the illustration a friend of mine used, that the film "looks like it was filmed through somebody's urine sample".
The Verdict
As a narrative hound there are certainly problems to be found in the story of Sicario -- especially after the half-way point -- but they aren't the rushed-script problems of the latest overwrought foreign-appeal-bait movies (Orci and Kurtzman really need more time to work on their scripts). Rather, they are the kind of deliberate decisions one makes when trying for a war story with this much verisimilitude. As such, I cannot fault the movie for being itself, just because I might not like a story with dark characters, gore and unsettling music.Sicario has a lot to recommend it: it's a suspenseful thriller that tells a haunting story. However, it's not recommended if you like the kinds of movies that I enjoy. Yes, not every movie has to "entertain" or be "fun" -- some are made to move you emotionally -- but the truth about movie magic is that so much more can be done with the medium than simply try to depict realistic events, especially in such a gruesome way.
Sicario gets 3 / 5 stars. It's a very good film, but not for me.
