Sicario
“You think the people that send you here are any different? Who do you think we learned from?”
One of the rare films that not only locates, but stares straight into the dark void of What’s Really Going On, and refuses to look away. Power vacuums, shadows shooting at ghosts, an infinitely futile war for control and revenge that stretches far beyond the borders and boundaries being crossed in the Americas.
A criticism often levied at Villeneuve is the lack of humanity or soul in his work, but this cold, unflinching soullessness is exactly why this film is as effective as it is. There is no humanity to the ghouls that lurk around each corner of Kate Mercer’s search for lawful morality in this ugly world. She’s as much an observer to a corrupted system twisting and contorting each page of “the book” as we are. It’s pessimistic, it’s hopeless, it’s real. I think there’s much to criticize about Taylor Sheridan’s more recent grifter-y output, but there’s no denying that Sicario, either through Villeneuve’s influence/vision (it’s well documented how Villeneuve chose to cut 90% of Alejandro’s dialogue, and eliminated his perspective as the original script’s protagonist) or through Sheridan’s own capacity at the time as a screenwriter, really does strike at the heart of compelling, well observed, ever relevant complexities on American interventionism, geopolitics and the shadow plays interlacing them both.
And with a godly trio that is Denis Villeneuve, Roger Deakins and Johan Johannsson, it’s all realized with such haunting, hard hitting precision. One of my favorite film soundtracks ever - “The Beast”, “Night Vision”, “Soccer Game” and “Alejandro’s Song” are standouts in particular. Everything Deakins is doing here is great but special mention to 1. the shot of the American flag being split in half by the base’s gate during Kate and Matt’s first argument on the right and wrong of this all and 2. The lingering shot of the horizon as all the uniformed silhouettes descend into the darkness of hell that is the tunnel (the infrared/night vision stuff that follows is really awesome eye candy too).
Villeneuve’s one of those directors for me where each time I rewatch one of his films I go “oh yeah this one is his best one”, but I really do think this is his best one. Masterpiece.