The new movie, Sicario (2015), is about the labor of U.S. operatives in trying to wreck a horrifying Mexican drug cartel. I don’t entirely believe the film any more than I entirely disbelieve it: for example, is it not true that Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an FBI agent, is a little slow in catching on to certain things the more mysterious federal operatives are doing?
The film propounds the idea that the only way the U.S. government can bring down those intractable drug lords is to use a vengeful Mexican sicario (hit man) who has personal reasons for killing Mr. Big. Nothing very sophisticated about this, yet I cannot deny that Sicario offers a certain sophisticated naturalism. It’s powerful. One wishes it were better, but it is not the “dismal thriller” I called Denis Villeneuve’s previous movie, Prisoners.