Sicario - This Blunt Rocks The Border

Dir: Denis Villeneuve

Starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Bernthal

Denis Villeneuve’s excellent thriller confirms Emily Blunt as not only Hollywood’s leading kicker-of-arse woman, but also one of its finest actresses. She is the lone woman recruited to a shady CIA ops team working against the Mexican drug cartels. Josh Brolin is her no nonsense boss, and Benicio Del Toro is…well, you’re never quite sure what he is, what he’s up to, or who’s side he’s on.

Gripping from the off, but knowing how to pace its tension building, Sicario (means  hitman – but you new that already) looks less at the socio-political aspects of the drugs trade – and its effects on both sides of the border – and opts instead to be a full-on genre action-thriller. It’s more or less a war movie at times (shades of Zero Dark Thirty are clearly felt), with Blunt cast out into the front line, uncertain of those around her, who she can trust and what may happen next.
Villeneuve moves expertly between edgy violent shoot-outs, to almost surreal night vision moments of increasing uncertainty, often drawing on Blunt’s extremely strong presence to anchor the film. We not only get the steel strength of the woman but the vulnerability behind it. It’s a terrific turn and one that could well see her nominated – the first action woman lead actress since Sigourney Weaver in Aliens perhaps? Now, that would be something. But even if it doesn’t happen – Sicario is really still something.

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