08. Sicario

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Release date: September 24, 2015

“This is a land of wolves now… and you’re not a wolf,” warns Benicio del Toro’s menacing anti-hero to Emily Blunt’s heroine. He’s not joking. There are wolves aplenty in the morally murky and violent world of French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s Mexican drug cartel thriller Sicario. This often intense and bloody film poses the question “does the end justify the means?” as a naive FBI agent puts her soul on the line to join a group of mysterious government-sanctioned renegades who aim to bring down a Kingpin – by any means necessary.

Villeneuve has announced himself as a must-watch director in Hollywood since crossing into English language movies with 2013’s impressive Prisoners and the atmospheric and abstract Enemy. Sicario further demonstrates his ability to build palpable tension and extract riveting powerhouse performances from his cast. Villeneuve’s actors are the focus and his presence as director is subtle, allowing tension in the script to build on its own terms. Vital though are the stark, post-Apocalyptic aerial shots of the US-Mexican border – a barren reminder of the bleak terrain on which the blood of the drug wars is shed.