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...
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Sicario Cert: 15 / 121 mins / Dir. Denis Villeneuve / Trailer
Apparently the best thing about being an FBI operative is that the riot-gloves they issue you with are so sensitive that you can feel a man's pulse (or lack thereof) though them while you've got the adrenaline pumping through you that you'd get if that man had just shot at you and you'd just blown his spine all over the wall in return. Or so it would appear, anyway.
Following a successful if slightly naive Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) through her recruitment into a CIA black-ops unit to eliminate a Mexican drug baron, Sicario is a tight, grim and moody thriller of a film, but one which never wallows in its despair. Realism, rather than pessimism, is the order of the day as Macer struggles with both the legal and moral loopholes used to tighten a net which is, even she has to admit, for the greater good. As much about the trust issues as it is the dead bodies, the film features the visual aesthetic of Marshland and the philosophical bent of Zero Dark Thirty.
Director Denis Villeneuve is unrepentant in his stark amorality, and cinematographer Roger Deakins' camera pays as much attention to the gorgeous aerial photography and horizon-sunsets as it does the festering corpses who are collateral damage in the story. This film is beautiful for all the right and wrong reasons. Although it's tonally dark, the film never feels exploitative, and even the most blasé killings are carried out with the characters' sense of moral or poetic duty, rather than the dynamic glee which would have come from many other directors.
The film uses a documentary style to immerse the audience, but a sparse script to make them pay attention; the story never strays from the linear path, but you're not spoon-fed the plot either. Jóhann Jóhannsson's accompanying score is percussive and abstract rather than outright musical, and often combines with the camerawork to make the film feel like a first-person-shooter game*1, particularly during the climactic scene where the photography slips exclusively between infra-red and thermal imaging. Sicario may not always be fluid storytelling, but it's astounding film-making…
But best of all, I love how the Mexican-Spanish for "…on the buses" is (verbally - in this film) "…on the buses". That's going to make sitcom programme-scheduling a hell of a lot easier…
I think it is, but I also know that the film won't be for everyone, despite how much I've just gushed over it.
A rental, then buy it when it comes down to a fiver.
Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro are fantastic; Josh Brolin coasts a little, but to be fair that's also how his character's written.
It does, indeed.
Not particularly.
There isn't.
Well, the Benicio Del Toro / Episode VIII situation is still in 'heavy-rumour' mode, so rather than rely on that direct link, I'll just drop these here.
Sicario stars…
• Emily Blunt, who appeared in Salmon Fishing In The Yemen alongside Ewan 'Kenobi' McGregor.
• Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, who appeared in Guardians Of The Galaxy with Peter 'Darth Maul' Serafinowicz.
• Jon Bernthal, who appeared in Fury with Jason 'Inquisitor' Isaacs*2.
• Daniel Kaluuya, who appeared in the Doctor Who episode Planet of the Dead alongside David 'Huyang' Tennant.
• Victor Garber, who appeared in Big Game with Sam 'Windu' Jackson.
*1 And I mean that in the best possible sense, a great film feeling like a great game; it's incredibly rare to get that crossover. The vast majority of game-to-movie adaptations manage to miss it completely…
*2 (hello to Jason Isaacs)
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
