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
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