Monday, January 25, 2016

SICARIO

I missed seeing Denis Villeneuve's Sicario (2015) during its brief local cinema run, but caught up with it on blu-ray this evening and wasn't disappointed. It's a tense and pretty uncompromising and tough crime thriller set amongst the brutal but almost casual everyday violence of the Mexican drug cartels and the blurring of legal and illegal lines in the government's fight to bring them down. Terrific performances by Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro, but the real surprise of the film for me was the stunning cinematography by Roger Deakins, who captures some amazing and almost other-wordly Mexican vistas, many of them from high in the sky. A great modern crime flick that I imagine I will find myself watching again soon.