Beyond borders

"Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything we do, but in the end you will understand."

Every once in a while when I take in the nightly news, I often hear about stories on drug busts near the borders of Mexico or in the states adjacent to the country. Many skeptics say that these operations are futile effort and that the cartel vehemently recoups their losses elsewhere, so regardless of how hard the U.S. government tries, there's virtually no clear tactic on how to win the war on drugs. Sicario, which is Spanish for "hitman", opens with a kidnapping raid in the town of Chandler, Arizona which is close to the Mexico border. After completion of the raid, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her team discover the walls inside the house are full of corpses, which links them to a high profile cartel boss in Mexico. Afterwards, Kate is recruited by Department of Justice adviser Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who offers her the opportunity to volunteer to go after the boss and the men responsible, which Kate agrees to in hopes of finally hurting the cartel's drug business. Upon arriving in El Paso, Texas, Kate meets Matt's abstruse and quiet partner Alejandro Gilick (Benecio del Toro), whose ideology of how to fight the war on drugs clashes with Kate's, which leads to further conflict when she experiences first hand that the two work outside the law, and if she truly wants to make a meaningful impact, so must she. Whereas most films rely on cliche thrills or action-set pieces to invoke tension, Sicario forgoes these antics and relies solely on the subject material to tell and move the story. In addition, the film doesn't view the issue of the war on drugs from solely one standpoint but instead from three; an accomplishment that is rarely seen in these type of films. Kate represents the idealistic perspective of resolving the conflict in a diplomatic fashion, Matt represents the perspective of fighting the enemy on the same level to inflict actual damage, and Alejandro represents the perspective of abandoning all morality to gain instant results, damning the consequences that comes later. In a way, all three points of view are correct and yet neither one is the right one, demonstrating their follies. Sicario is deeply thought-provoking, something I rarely ever say about a film, and delivers a genuine experience at the movies that's sure to hit home for some, which in the end is what every movie should accomplish. Sicario gets my highest recommendation.

-Reviewed by Razor, 10/11/15