Monday, November 23, 2015

PCP in Theaters - Sicario

Sicario - 2015, rated R.  My rating: 10 out of 10. 

It has been awhile since I've walked out of a movie just in awe of the film overall. Sure, there have been action movies this summer that I enjoyed (but never got around to reviewing) and I'm sure that I'm going to love the upcoming Star Wars flick, but walking out of Sicario I felt something I hadn't felt in awhile: the feeling of just being blown away by a powerful film.

Sicario is a story set in the ongoing pointless War on Drugs being waged by the U.S. Government. It focuses on badass FBI agent Emily Blunt, who is brought on to a task force led by the charismatic Josh Brolin that features the mysterious Benicio Del Toro, the titular sicario (hitman) that is waging a very dark war on the cartels in Mexico. I do not want to get too much into the plot so as not to give things away, but it is an incredible journey filled with tension that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The film features great acting performances from the core trio, and also some pretty beautiful filmmaking. There's extensive long aerial shots of the desert along the border between Juarez in Mexico and El Paso in Texas, shots that are haunting in their beauty. There's also a lot of gruesome scenes in Juarez, driving home to American audiences the cost of the war on drugs of the people in Mexico, costs that most of us either ignore or are ignorant of, such as the massive spike in the murder rate within Juarez as the cartels vie for control of the drug trade. Overall, the film is bleak, nihilistic, and unsettling to the extreme, but that is why it is so highly effective. It really gets under your skin and makes you think, and the incredible performances by all of the actors involve really make the film work in profound ways.

Bottom line, I cannot recommend this film enough. If it is still in theaters by you, make sure you go see it. If not, see it when it comes to DVD or Netflix, because it is easily the best film I've seen in a long while.