TIFF15 Review // Sicario

Anyone familiar with the films of Denis Villaneuve will know not to expect a cheery experience heading into the border-hopping drug thriller Sicario. While the Quebecois director has enjoyed access to more money and deeper casts since going Hollywood, he’s continued to create boundary pushing pieces of cinema, often taking us to exceedingly dark and difficult places. Sicario is a worthy addition to that impressive body of work, but it also stands as his most mainstream thriller yet. Emily Blunt stars as Kate Macer, an FBI field agent heading a kidnapping response team. After a grisly discovery in an Arizona cartel house, she volunteers for a shady assignment spearheaded by Matt (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro (Benecio Del Toro), two special agents of ambiguous rank and organization. They’re quickly off to Juarez to transport a cartel kingpin back across the border, but who and why are questions Macer can barely get answered. As the body count grows so do her doubts about the mission, and soon the dangers that once remained south of the border are bleeding across.

It’s a bleak and unrelenting piece of filmmaking, quickly paced and punctuated with breathtaking visuals from Roger Deakins who captures the arid border landscapes from above and (literally) below in ways we’ve never seen them. Taylor Sheridan’s screenplay (his first) is sharp and sparse, telling a streamlined story that feels much larger than it’s actual scope. While it may not break new ground where drug thrillers are concern (the war on drugs doesn’t work guys), Sicario keeps us guessing until the end and should be a major contender when awards season rolls around.

Capsule Review, Evan Arppe.