Sicario (2015)

[TStechnij]

Loved this movie

2 hours after and still have that last scene in memory

The soccer scene or the Blunt scene?

[Webslinger]

Although it's not quite as powerful as his previous wide American release, Prisoners, Denis Villenue's Sicario is nearly as uncompromising and cynical as films come, and it's all the better for it. Villenue's narrative aligns perfectly for an empowerment narrative with the trajectory that it sets for Emily Blunt's protagonist from its opening scene, but it brilliantly subverts that trajectory with all that follows. While some viewers may argue that the film ultimately shortchanges Blunt's character, it actually highlights the frustrating sense of her powerlessness as an out-of-place do-gooder in the face of such thoroughly-corrupted evil. Blunt hits every beat in her performance, and she acts as a near-perfect audience surrogate into the corruption and relative lawlessness of the North American crackdown on South American drug cartels. Like Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty, she zeroes in on intense devotion to one's job at the expense of other considerations, and she does so in such a complete manner that she feels well-rounded rather than simply one-dimensional; in particular, the sex scene gone awry feels particularly heartbreaking if only for the fact that the one scene in which she is allowed to feel any kind of personal pleasure is instead transformed into a violent confrontation. Her work here eclipses both her brilliantly acerbic comedic performance in The Devil Wears Prada and her edgy maternal work in Looper as a new career best. Benicio Del Toro is also in fine form as the title character. In a performance that represents the polar opposite of his very underrated work in Savages, Del Toro is subtly intimidating in the title role for most of the running time, but he commands the screen with ferocity in the film's final act, and in turn, delivers his best work since his Oscar win nearly fifteen years ago. With how solid Del Toro is in this role (especially his final two scenes), it's easy to see why anyone is speculating as to the potential of a sequel. On the whole, the film certainly touches on dark themes and never compromises in its incredibly pessimistic perspective on human nature, it - like Villenue's Prisoners - does a terrific job of tapping into the darker side of human nature without batting an eye, and is all the better for it.

 

A-

Edited October 12, 2015 by Webslinger

[PanaMovie]

The soccer scene or the Blunt scene?

 

The blunt scene in the balcony

[baumer]

I'll try to explain it briefly because I agree with most of what you are saying.  

 

My point about Del Toro is that he works for the good guys (so to speak) and yet he is out for selfish reasons of course.  His wife and daughter were murdered in heinous ways.  So naturally he wants to extract revenge.  He seems to have a soft spot for Kate but then he shoots her and tells her not to ever point a a gun at him again.  He also rescued her from rape and then puts a gun to her head and has her sign a piece of paper.  

 

Ambiguous?  Maybe that's the wrong term.  But he is obviously using anyone and any agency to get what he wants, which is revenge but he is also helping out the good guys so to speak.  So he is painted with shades of grey.  That's what I mean by ambiguous.  

[TStechnij]

But Brolin certainly wasn't a good guy either. And by the end neither was Kate. The whole point of the movie is moral ambiguity of the entire operation, I think. If you can come out saying someone is good or bad then I am not confident that the movie affected you in the way Villenevue wanted.

Edited October 12, 2015 by TStechnij

[baumer]

But Brolin certainly wasn't a good guy either. And by the end neither was Kate. The whole point of the movie is moral ambiguity of the entire operation, I think. If you can come out saying someone is good or bad then I am not confident that the movie affected you in the way Villenevue wanted.

 

Brolin was doing his job.  Sure he wasn't a good guy but he wasn't a bad guy per say.  Kate is one of the "good guys" so to speak.

[AniNate]

I'm just dumbstruck by how much I agree with baumer on this

[Goffe]

I really really liked it, Sicario sounds and looks great, it's well acted and super tense, but I can't shake this feeling that there is something missing, maybe this is one of the rare instances where the movie needed to be longer than it actually is. I agree with Numbers, the whole Juarez sequence is the best set-piece of the year so far, just masterfully directed. 75/100

Edited October 14, 2015 by Goffe

[ladyevenstar22]

i loved it, extremely tense and tightly paced....

 

what i was most impressed with was the cinematography ....

 

actors great no excess , the director led this film like an orchestra conductor !

 

i understand the criticism vs blunt as myself was slightly frustrated with her character , on one hand you want her to be more bendable in her pov and also its hard to believe her being an fbi agent she's that by the book with no wiggle room giving what they're up against ...

 

gah i wish in real life people in power would take same hard ball stance against terrorism instead of playing footsie with them!

[EllissonWatson]

I understand the justification of why they had her tag along but the paperwork scene stretched credulity a bit to much.

[KGator]

^^ Or something even more pragmatic: that it was doubtful she'd have a killing shot at that range (it wasn't super far but she also only had a handgun), and regardless of whether she killed him or not, she'd face persecution and the likely end to her career.

 

Exactly, a headshot or something with the same accuracy (planned) on a vital organ at that range with a sidearm is unlikely.  Her best choice would be center mass but then what . . . it probably wouldn't have killed him, it would have ended her career (possibly led to incarceration) and been against her morals (character arc).  In the end, she wasn't the wolf just as he said.  And he knew that.

[KGator]

I give this movie a solid B.  Visually it had some great moments and the soundtrack was very well done.  The movie seemed to lag towards the end for me and I didn't care that much for the FBI characters although I did feel Blunt's character was sympathetic and could feel her internal conflict.  To me Brolin and Del Toro stole the film.

 

As for Del Toro, to me his character is the prototypical good guy who turned to the dark side.  He wasn't good nor evil but driven for revenge.  He was the perfect "the end justifies the means" type of character.  He wasn't just a brutal killer because he enjoyed it.  He could have easily killed Blunt when she drew her gun on him (impeding his mission) in the warehouse.  He could have killed the maid (she could have summoned help, screamed out a warning, etc) but assessed her as a non-threat and simply bypassed her.  He was the perfect killing machine because revenge was his primary motivation and he didn't care about his own well being.  However as someone earlier mentioned, he wasn't a sociopath, his killings were directed towards a purpose.  He threatened to kill Blunt but when she signed the form he disassembled her weapon and left her alive even though once she signed he probably could have killed her and left one less loose end.  In the end though, his rage was directed against the cartel, not the general public.

 

It was sad that Del Toro killed the corrupt cop but then again, leaving him alive would have breached operational security and I can't imagine that as a Mexican Prosecutor who's family was killed by the cartel that he had much compassion for corrupt officials.  Especially as he foreshadowed how the Mexican Police are the ones you couldn't trust during the extraction mission.

[The Stingray]

Finally got to see this and boy it didn't disappoint. One of my favorites of the year.

3 for 3 for Villeneuve and dude is definitely one of my favorite filmmakers at the moment.

8.5/10
 

[Water Bottle]

If it wasn't for those wide-shots, I'd probably go down to a B+. But damn those wide-shots were fantastic. And the actual film is pretty good even if it does meander a bit in Act Two. Still, it was very tense when it needed to be.

By the way, I'm happy to see this on Halloween. Sure, I could have picked a straight-up horror film like Crimson Peak. Now I haven't seen Crimson Peak but I'm pretty confident this film is more terrifying than anything Crimson Peak can throw at me.

 

A-

[Lordmandeep]

One of those films is a slow burn with high points you watch at home and it be fun.

 

 You may close your eyes once or twice but solid 

 

B+ 

[Jake Gittes]

Still processing it but really excellent stuff for the most part. In my top 5 of the year. Del Toro is a beast. 

[Jake Gittes]

The thing that keeps bugging me is the entire Jon Bernthal part. So Blunt and her partner decide to go to this bar on a whim, and he's already there - is it just a lucky coincidence or did he somehow know ahead of time? Then, after their confrontation, BDT says that Bernthal intended to learn what she knows, but then why does he start choking her to death - is he really that stupidly hotheaded? Then after that, when Del Toro saves her (which, very convenient), he forces Bernthal to name other corrupt cops and lets him go, but that doesn't move the plot forward in any way. I assume the writer wanted to build up to Blunt and Del Toro's later confrontations with him saving her life in the apartment, but it seems like he chose to find the most convoluted way to do it in 10 minutes.

[baumer]

20 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The thing that keeps bugging me is the entire Jon Bernthal part. So Blunt and her partner decide to go to this bar on a whim, and he's already there - is it just a lucky coincidence or did he somehow know ahead of time? Then, after their confrontation, BDT says that Bernthal intended to learn what she knows, but then why does he start choking her to death - is he really that stupidly hotheaded? Then after that, when Del Toro saves her (which, very convenient), he forces Bernthal to name other corrupt cops and lets him go, but that doesn't move the plot forward in any way. I assume the writer wanted to build up to Blunt and Del Toro's later confrontations with him saving her life in the apartment, but it seems like he chose to find the most convoluted way to do it in 10 minutes.

 

They didn't let Bernthal go.  He was going to prison for sure.  They told him this.  His choice was to go to prison in one piece or to endure hours of beatings.  As for Del Toro conveniently saving Kate, it wasn't convenient, he knew that because she went into the bank and got caught on film, she'd be targeted.  He followed her knowing that something would happen to her sooner than later.  

[Jake Gittes]

Right, I forgot that about him going to prison. But he still had no real impact on the plot. The movie just spent 10 minutes spinning its wheels, narrative-wise.

 

And I agree that she would have been targeted, but going to that bar was a spontaneous decision, yet Bernthal was somehow already there, all prepared. 

[4815162342]

Yeah a single line from the partner saying he invited Bernthal to meet Blunt could have fixed that.