New film “Sicario”:- Life – But not as most of us Know it.

Let’s face it, most deadly scenarios move along better with the touch of someone feminine and “human” and in the case of starring Emily Blunt in the role she plays in Sicario the audience is able to absorb some daring and devastating moves and scenarios because the camera spends so much time on her pious face and haunted eyes with a little contribution from her verbally  on wondering what on earth she is doing with a band of men who seem to have hidden agendas and are uncomfortably happy with their job of bonding away lots of shady characters, even when it is on a highroad toll booth and the body count goes onwards and upwards from thereon, guns ablazing.  Audiences like to see a film which thrills – what is the point of art if it does not take us outside the thinking box but Sicario definitely covers new and dangerous ground.  By the finish of the drama, I believe most people will leave the cinema believing most if not all of what they have seen actually imitates real life in Mexico in the war on drugs run by the CIA and other factions in the USA.  In one scene Blunt says “I need a drink” – well that only leads to her being nearly killed by a double agent, but the audience were probably wondering if she actually needed drugs rather than drink to escape from what she had already witnessed – dead bodies decorously placed in various scenes and in various forms.  Sicario is definitely not for the squeamish and Director Denis Villeneuve takes us on a path which is adventurous and dangerous, all the time with Emily Blunt’s doleful eyes giving us a release from the gangsters and tricksters she is with who mostly seem to be psychopathically immune to their task – annhilating arresting and generally messing up a list of characters, some of which we have come to love in their fight in the drug war.  Benicio del Toro is resplendent as a dodgy double agent who narrowly escapes with his life several times and he seems to beg for a better role in the future with more focus on his residual acting talents which could also be said for Josh Brolin and Victor Garber. Taylor Sheridan – who penned the script specialises in dark dramas including Sons of Anarchy and White Rush and has also had some acting roles in the past.  Mostly he did an ace job with the script save for some rather silly remarks about his female role’s choice of bras and the fact that, actually the only female role in the film is a terribly delicate lady who is advised to find a small town and get out of her job in the drugs war, so no heroines here then.  The irony is that drugs are apparently an integral part of many people’s lives in the USA and so the audience can possibly feel a touch of sympathy when the drug lords and their millions are made to look like disgusting and hateful people.  Questionable, perhaps but they do seem to be rotten to the core with no feelings for the minions of their own race in Mexico who run the industry from street level, with all the danger that poses. Advice to viewers – expect to see new ground covered in this enlightening touch on a tough subject.

Penny Nair Price