Verdict:
Thanks in part to some of the most effective use of acoustic bass in cinema history, this movie feels very tense. The camera shots feel epic, almost abstract at times, with its long shots of barren landscapes and a single-minded colour palette. The cinematography puts you in a trance.
The performances in Sicario are altogether excellent, with Josh Brolin being so casually intimidating, that I am not sure that I would want to meet this actor in real life. Del Toro’s character seems like a quiet mysterious father figure at first and then turns out to be a tornado in human form. Del Toro’s ability to show a mysterious fury bubbling just under a calm exterior is one of the film’s greatest assets.
I feel like a broken record sometimes, criticizing most movies for their poorly written and needless dialogue, but Sicario is one of those movies that proves that you can, in fact, have the opposite of that. Most scenes are devoid of spoken words, filled instead with an unsettling crescendo of menacing sound effects. A few sentences here are all that’s needed to paint a whole painting for the audience. This approach returns meaning to words.
The scenes of violence are swift and effective. They may come after a period of tension or sneak up on you when you least expect them. This balance ensures that every act of aggression feels meaningful and terrifying.
I’ve never seen a movie where the clean quiet scenes sounded so loud and said so much with so little being spoken. Sicario is an exercise in effective minimalism.
Where Sicario falters slightly is in its narrative complexity. Towards the end, it can be difficult to follow. After watching the film, I went to wiki to look up whatever it is I missed and, no, it still didn’t quite make sense. Also, there are many scenes that are there to build atmosphere, make some sort of point or explore a specific character, but do not serve the main story, which may get some viewers lost.
Nevertheless, Sicario is a tense entrancing film, and it is an excellent example of Denis Villeneuve’s atmospheric style of filmmaking. The film’s ability to immerse its audience in a world of moral ambiguity and cartel-related violence makes it a standout piece of modern cinema.