Denis Villeneuve is fast becoming one of
those directors whose every move you anticipate with a mixture of dread
and pleasure. His films may not be easy watches but, by God, are they
exciting and not just in content but in terms of style. His new movie "Sicario" is the kind of visceral action-thriller you might have expected
from the American cinema of the seventies just as its complex plot
harks back to a time when mass audiences were expected to take their
brains into the cinema with them as well as their popcorn.
Sicario,
we are told, is the Mexican term for a hit-man and there are a lot of
hits in this film which uses the drug wars only as a backdrop to a tale
of revenge. It's a film that hardly ever pauses for breath and which
contains at least two terrific set-pieces in which all the elements of
pure cinema, (cinematography, editing, sound, scoring), are brought
together to terrific effect. The DoP is the legendary Roger Deakins and
this could prove to be the film that will finally win him that elusive
Oscar. It's also superbly played by Emily Blunt, finally getting a part
worthy of her talents, as well as Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, both
in Oscar-worthy form, as a pair of very dubious enforcers of law and
order. This is terrific, nerve-shredding entertainment.
Denis Villeneuve is fast becoming one of
those directors whose every move you anticipate with a mixture of dread
and pleasure. His films may not be easy watches but, by God, are they
exciting and not just in content but in terms of style. His new movie "Sicario" is the kind of visceral action-thriller you might have expected
from the American cinema of the seventies just as its complex plot
harks back to a time when mass audiences were expected to take their
brains into the cinema with them as well as their popcorn.
Sicario,
we are told, is the Mexican term for a hit-man and there are a lot of
hits in this film which uses the drug wars only as a backdrop to a tale
of revenge. It's a film that hardly ever pauses for breath and which
contains at least two terrific set-pieces in which all the elements of
pure cinema, (cinematography, editing, sound, scoring), are brought
together to terrific effect. The DoP is the legendary Roger Deakins and
this could prove to be the film that will finally win him that elusive
Oscar. It's also superbly played by Emily Blunt, finally getting a part
worthy of her talents, as well as Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, both
in Oscar-worthy form, as a pair of very dubious enforcers of law and
order. This is terrific, nerve-shredding entertainment.
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