"Sicario" (2015)

This film is a bit hard to pigeon-hole. Is it an action? IS it a drama? A political thriller? You would probably have to land on, action only slow and artistically delivered, so not very active. That said, it does have a couple things going for it: great cinematography and Benicio Del Toro in a role that reminds you he really can be a star. His character is the one feeding rumors of a sequel.

However, you need to know going in that this is not your typical, heroic action story. It does not have heroes. The closest we come to that is Emily Blunt’s character, Kate, but she is really more of a troubled, impotent observer. What this story is really about is the dark underbelly of law enforcement and the dangers and the attractive nature of power.

In an opening scene, Kate is recruited for a special taskforce aiming to stop the drug cartels and their reign of terror. It is the typical enticement one sees in these scenes. Powerful and somewhat secretive men with a casualness that can only come with those who know exactly what is going on and what they need to do to make things better. In a typical action film our hero would join this group and become another one of their self-assured and effective number. Here, Kate simply goes deeper and deeper into chaos and horror.

The final statement this movie wants to deliver is not that our government is there to make things better. They want to make them worse, because things are easier to control when the bad guys are known and consolidated. And the tool we are using is a man so bent on revenge that he is actually as bad or worse than the worst of the bad guys.

Uplifting stuff.