Fish and Cherries Productions

Sicario left me asking a lot of questions about life and ethics in bringing down corruption.  Do the ends justify the means, even though many good people and families will be killed or left in shambles?  Or is it better to stick to your morals, even if doing things the legal way leaves little to no real impact?  Is there a lesser of two evils or a necessary evil?  Do such things even belong in the grand discussion?  All these and more will be left entirely up to the viewer to decide for themselves.

As for the movie itself, it is quite excellent, almost too good to talk at length about.  Each cast member is pitch perfect and it’s a personal pleasure to see Jeffrey Donovan of Burn Notice as a government flunkie (I would have loved it more if he had a larger role, but that’s just me).  The cinematography and score do a great job at conveying a sense of discomfort and being out of one’s element, something that Emily Blunt’s character has to constantly face.  There’s a particular scene shot almost completely in night vision and thermal scanning which not only embodies this feeling, but is a brilliant piece of filmmaking in itself.   Above all of this, it is one hundred percent honest about the horrors going on in the cartel wars in Juarez, Mexico and how the U.S.’s hands aren’t exactly clean in the matter.  There’s no adaptational heroism of any faction, no sugar coating the bloody details, and nothing that will make things “more palatable” for general audiences – just the hard, uncompromising facts.  Sicario has earned the Applejack Seal of Honesty and that, more than anything, is a reason to see this movie.