"Sicario" (2015) is a visceral and tense thriller starring Emily Blunt as an idealistic young FBI agent recruited for a covert government operation on the Mexican border by shadowy government officials played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro (the latter portraying the titular “Sicario” hitman).
As the viewer you remain as perplexed and bewildered as Blunt’s character, Kate, as she becomes enmeshed in a nebulous plot to ferret out information on an infamous Mexican drug kingpin. The suspense in Sicario is palpable and often times nerve-racking, following a serpentine narrative that weaves through increasingly ominous terrain—leading to a finale of jarring existential finality.
A huge fan of Québécois director Denis Villeneuve from his work on Incendies and Prisoners (and later Arrival and Blade Runner 20149), I was thoroughly excited for this one, and did not walk away disappointed. It's a fantastically involving and profoundly unsentimental tale of vengeance and moral turpitude, and Villeneuve is a true modern master at work. Hats off to cinematographer Roger Deakins as well—gorgeous, spellbinding stuff.
View the trailer: