SIcario (*****)

"Sicario" completely took me by surprise, leaving me with an overwhelming feeling of amazement and wonder. Amazed by such a tightly-written thriller with clear characters and thrilling moments, wondered by the art of such a story and an eagerness to watch it again.

Denis Villeneuve has directed some good films (Prisoners) and some curious films (Enemy), but for the first time it feels like he has helmed something important. The story is layered with a depth of character development that it's oftentimes difficult to determine even a main character. My guess is Kate (Emily Blunt), an FBI agent who is used to being thrust into danger. The opening scene depicts a drug raid gone sour (and do I mean it's bad). She's strong-willed and good with a gun, but even in these early moments we sense a vulnerability; a sense that she is in well over her head.

She is recruited by a special ops team that tends to leave her in the shadows. Their goal is to eradicate the leaders of a drug cartel based in and around Mexico, but Kate is rarely given a full breakdown of the plan. A trip to El Paso instead finds them in Juarez, Mexico. A mysterious bodyguard turns out to be Alejandro Gillick (the brilliant Benicio del Toro), a man full of mysteries and potential danger.

In many ways the story is equally about Gillick. He hints at a past and through interrogations and his knowledge of the drug underworld, we come to believe he is a man of intense knowledge and equal danger. Benicio del Toro is no stranger to the world of acting, and here has got to be one of the year's best performances. Gillick is a man of few words, but he has such a quiet intensity that we recall great movie characters like Anton Chigurh or Hannibal Lecter. Perhaps those are unfair comparisons. He is not a villain by the traditional standards, but the manner of his being and his ultimate goal (realized in a couple of the most tense final scenes I can remember) indicate that he is bound to no moral compass to achieve what he wants.

I suppose it's easy to see this as a movie about a drug raid and the fight against drug trafficking in America (similar to something like 'Traffic'). Instead I found the film much more reserved, a study of a person well in over their heads. While Gillick I compared to someone like Javier Bardem's character in 'No Country for Old Men,' Kate then would be a fair comparison to Tommy Lee Jones: a morally sound person that finds the world is simply too much for them to endure on their own.

The performances are all around wonderful, and the look of the film (the great Roger Deakins) continues to be some of the most impressive photography of the year (that is until he releases his next film. Can we believe this man has received soon to be 13 Oscar nominations with no win??). The final battle sees soldiers wandering the desert after sunset. Through mostly night-vision cameras, we follow the action, and in a story with so much gray area and moral ambiguity, the decision to show the footage in a nearly reverse color scheme (black is white and white is black) only gave the situation a visual metaphor that was all the more impactful.

I suppose I could find a flaw with the film if I looked hard enough. I'm sure that's the case with most movies. Leaving 'Sicario,' I was entirely satisfied and unbelievably happy to have watched a film of such skill and intelligence. This is one of the year's very best films.