My opinion of Sicario has risen in the past week since I saw it. That kind of means you might want to take this review with a grain of salt. See, I walked out of this film not feeling so hot on it. I actually was profoundly disappointed. This was caused by the fact that after two very good, but not great beginning acts, Sicario didn’t quite stick the landing. It was a profound disappointment, especially since I had been anticipating the film for quite some time. But now a week later, I have broken the movie down, and the fact is that even though the film doesn’t stick the landing it’s still a solid film that with a few more minutes of character building would work. But it’s missing that profound moment, so what we have isn’t perfect. It’s impactful, but not perfect. Impactful is what it has to be, because it’s a violent thriller about the drug trade. There’s no way that that won’t hit you. It’s a lean, mean, picture that kind of invokes the feeling that Cartel Land did earlier this year. Our protagonist is Kate Macer, a kidnapping squad officer who soon finds herself down in Juarez, Mexico, trying to take down a drug lord by using another to track him. There, she meets two agents of another agency, Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) and Matt (Josh Brolin). Then the film kind of takes a bad turn, and while what happens during this moment is one of the best moments in a movie I’ve seen, it still runs the film into the ground. That’s all I’m going to tell you, for a good reason. Now the best thing about Sicario is that it’s a character drama. The people here are interesting, and Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro make one hell of an impression when you watch them. They always seem slightly awkward, but you soon realize that’s on purpose. They aren’t supposed to make you feel like you should trust them. Unfortunately it’s Kate (Emily Blunt) who is not as interesting as she needs to be. I mentioned that the film is a profound minute away from being an 9.5 type of movie, and that minute I would have spent intercutting a character moment when the film takes that bad turn. Without it, the film negates Kate from a full arch. Making her seem like more an observer with no power is actually a good thing in the full scheme of things, when it’s considered, but it still doesn’t end up working as well as it should. Sicario tries, though. Again the actors are great, and Blunt, for as little as her character gets, sells it. The action is flawless. Denis Villeneuve does an excellent job with the shootouts, and he uses it to keep the film going at a good clip. It helps that he has Roger Deakins behind the camera. Deakins is a master of cinematography, and the camera in this movie moves so dynamically that it almost redeems everything that goes on. This is a wonderfully shot but broken film. I give Sicario an 8 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |