Thursday, February 4, 2016

Sicario (2015, R)

Sicario isn’t a big Oscar contender.  It’s only up for one of my priority categories – Roger Deakins for best cimematography – but to me, it’s reminiscent of gritty, violent current-event pictures of recent years, like The Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty.  While focusing on fighting a drug cartel instead of insurgents or terrorists, it has much of the same sensibility as those films.  For whatever reason, I had a harder time connecting with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, so it’s probably no surprise that this film left me a bit cold.

Kate, a dedicated FBI agent, is tired of fighting a losing game.  After a particularly harrowing we-know-exactly-who’s-behind-it-but-we-can’t-pin-it-on-him experience, she’s ready to go all in when she’s invited to volunteer for a very high-level, very hush-hush squad that promises actual results.  She’s eager to make a real difference, but the deeper she gets into the increasingly-sketchy operation, the more she struggles to understand what she’s really gotten herself into.

We’ll start with what works.  The direction is tight and gripping, showing how the threat of violence can somehow simmer in the air and yet, when it finally erupts, still feel like it’s coming out of nowhere.  (Deakins’s work has plenty to do with that – something of an always-a-bridesmaid cinematographer, he’s been nominated for a whopping 16 Oscars and never won.)  I like the basic framework of Kate and a number of the other characters, especially the mysterious and knowledgeable Alejandro and Kate’s FBI partner Reggie.  As far as the latter goes, the close, supportive friendship between Kate and Reggie is one of my favorite parts of the film.  He’s definitely there for the sole purpose of serving her story, which is kind of uncool, but I still like the way they talk things through, look for trouble together, and unwind after a hard day.

The screenplay is a little rougher for me.  It’s all right, but it feels a bit been-there, done-that.  My attention started to wander in the last third of the film, and while many of the characters are set up well, some later fall prey to out-of-character Idiot Ball plotting to get the story moving where it needs to go.  Kate gets the worst of this, which is a shame, because it keeps me from loving her as much as I want to.

That said, she’s still pretty engaging, thanks in huge part to Emily Blunt’s smart performance that walks the right line between toughness and vulnerability.  I may shake my head at some of the things Kate does, but Blunt always sells them with everything she’s got.  Plus, her platonic chemistry with Reggie (played by Daniel Kaluuya, a.k.a. Posh Kenneth from Skins) is off the hook.  Benicio del Toro is great as the enigmatic Alejandro.  Although the role earned him some Oscar buzz a while back, I haven’t heard him mentioned much since the nominations came out and #OscarsSoWhite started up again.  Not sure why.  Is it because he was more of a longshot compared to people like Idris Elba or Michael B. Jordan?  Or maybe the fact that some have been translating “no PoC actors up for Oscars” to mean “no Black actors up for Oscars?”  It’s weird that his performance isn’t really a part of the conversation.  In other news, the film also features a reliably-good Josh Brolin and a brief appearance by Victor Garber.

Warnings

Strong violence, disturbing images, language, drinking, smoking, and sexual content.

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