Review: Sicario 2 - Soldado

Sicario 2: Soldado (aka Day of the Soldado)
Cert: 15 / 122 mins / Dir. Stefano Sollima / Trailer



Director Stefano Sollima was always going to have his work cut out for him, helming a follow-up to a modern classic like Sicario. Crucially, writer Taylor Sheridan returns, with Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin in tow reprising their characters from the first film, but the world of drug trafficking across the Mexican border has taken a sidestep into the black-market currency of current times: people.

Without Denis Villeneuve holding the reins, Soldado lacks much of the brooding visual poetry that interspersed the conflict last time. However, Sollima brings cinematographer Daruisz Wolski with him, and they succeed in capably continuing the tone, at least. Early questions about the ethics of border-control threaten to wink right at the camera, but these quickly sink into the background when we're reminded that these characters have no ethics. Lines of conduct and loyalty which were previously blurred are now almost invisible.

Because what's really ramped up here is the body-count. And while it's always narratively justified, never throwaway and never glamourised, not a scene of this movie goes by without the execution, the threat or the discussion of violence. If Sicario was a cinematic embodiment of threat, Soldado represents unrelenting punishment.

Del Toro and Brolin are now thoroughly and seamlessly embedded in their roles, but the star of the show here is Isabela Moner, displaying an attitude not seen this acutely since Hailee Steinfeld grimaced and sneered her way through True Grit.

What Soldado lacks as an intricate conspiracy thriller, it more than makes up for by putting its characters right through the ringer. Fantastic, if grim, stuff...

Best line: "Give me your shoe."

Zero Dark Thirty, Hell Or High Water, Logan.



It is.



Whatever your preferred viewing format, yes it is.



Soldado is another high-watermark for its central cast.



Only if you're wrong.



There isn't.



Level 1: DJ is in this.







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