Movie Review
By Wisdom Mumera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Sicario, the recently released suspense movie by Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve comes with a bleak worldview just as the Director has done with his previous creations such as Prisoners and Enemy.
Villeneuve has mastered and prioritised a type of film-making where moral ambiguity is perched upon intense suspense-drama that really captivates leading, usually, to not-so-normal endings.
Sicario is a movie about an idealistic FBI agent, Emily Blunt, who is thrown into the darker side of the war against drugs when she joins a cross-agency task force led by the shady Matt (Josh Brolin) and the even shadier Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro).
As a side note Del Toro also starred in another drug masterpiece, Traffic for which he won an Oscar and he continues that trend with another captivating role here as a silent but intense character
waiting to explode.#
You can bet that come Oscar season his name will hover thereabout. FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) has clearly defined and bordered concepts of justice and morality which she hopes to follow in her new role. She and her partner, Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya), are among a dwindling number of true believers in the success of the war against drugs.
The rest such as Matt and Alejandro are just out to deliver the most devastating blows they can but carry no idealistic images of a utopia after defeating the cartels.
In Sicario there’s not much difference between black and white sides of morals. The bad guys have traits one sometimes associates with those wearing white hats, and vice versa.
Drug dealers can love their families and Federal agents can torture and kill without compunction. Does the end justify the means? It depends on one’s perspective but those who answer “no” are likely to find themselves outmanned, outgunned, and potentially on the endangered species list.
Matt and Alejandro earn Kate’s trust by claiming that their goal is to stop a terrorist whose bombs are killing her people.
That isn’t a lie, but what they don’t tell her is that their methods will challenge her moral fiber. From Matt and Alejandro’s perspective, there’s no such thing as an “innocent” bystander – only collateral
damage.
Sicario from the first scene amplifies the sense of tension with its unpredictability and you are not allowed to relax until the very ending.
The film’s action scenes eschew the traditional mainstream approach – they’re quick, brutal, and dispiriting for the participants. It’s refreshing to find a director who is willing to show violence without celebrating it.
With its bleak take on the issue of drugs Sicario may face some challenges to get Oscar recognition but it remains an unforgettable motion picture that should be on the must-see list for anyone who
appreciates films that deal in grays rather than blacks and whites.
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