Sicario (the movie) + other current movies

[Stacia]

[since I've been posting in the gun threads, please go ahead & feel free to call me a hypocrite if you need to as the movie I'm going to mention had its share of guns & violence.]

 

Dh & I saw Sicario tonight. (Imdb users have rated it an 8.1 out of 10.) It's harsh. And stunning. It's not just a movie for the sake of violence, it looks at some real issues plaguing the US & Mexico re: the drug cartels. Well-told, no clear-cut answers, great acting, great cinematography. Wow.

 

I think this review by Parry-3 on imdb nails it...

"Sicario" describes, with surgical precision, the fatal and bloody desecration of Mexico as a result of its decades long cartel war. And it does so by compressing this almost endless tragedy into a two-hour tour-de-force of filmmaking.

At its center we find idealistic FBI-Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who is recruited to pursue a Mexican drug-baron. She is being guided by a seemingly untouchable covert assassin named Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro). Their investigation and methods are pushed further into unknown territory where justice and morality are no longer valid. The end not only justifies the means, it requires them.

Denis Villeneuve's masterful piece exemplifies not only filmmaking of the highest order, but carves out a place alongside the terrible news reports as a deeply regretful, angry and at times almost unbearable look into the abyss of a socio-political nightmare that is fueled by first world-habit and global economics.

Through the powerful performances by Blunt, Del Toro and Josh Brolin in the leads as well as the excellent supporting cast, do we get a sense of the human cost (physical and psychological), which the war on drugs has caused.

From an exploding prison population, to the destruction of Mexican agriculture, to refugees and a cycle of violence that is beyond barbarity; the pull that "Sicario" exerts over the viewer is undeniable and by skirting the limits of bearable tension, without ever becoming exploitive, it is never giving an inch concerning its subject matter.

Few movies this year will have such a clear and defined structure and unflinching approach towards a situation that appears to be beyond salvation, while showing at the same time that life nevertheless continues.

Taylor Sheridan's script doesn't miss a single beat and without sidestepping anything frees itself from beaten movie conventions by using them in an extremely skillful manner.

All these themes, stories and characters are captured through the lens of veteran Roger Deakins (Skyfall, No Country for Old Men) who lets us always know how the micro- and macro-particles of any conflict are inextricably intertwined. We share the vistas of beautiful sceneries while having to witness their downfall.

Whatever ideals the likes of Emilio Zapata once had, their land has now, as it is described in the movie, become „the country of wolves".

Fifteen years ago Steven Soderbergh's „Traffic" which earned numerous Oscars, not the least of which went to Benicio Del Toro, made a clear statement about the various strands the drug trafficking business touches. Now, all those years later we see in „Sicario" that even the faintest of hopes that „Traffic" held onto have been eviscerated.

What now? One might ask.

 

[unsinkable]

I've heard good things about Sicario, too. Thanks for your thumbs up!

 

DS & I saw The Martian in 3D last night. It was wonderful, awesome, loved it! :-)

 

Matt Damon was great. Many of his scenes brought me to tears.

[Stacia]

We're going to go see The Martian too. Looking forward to it. Dh, ds, & I all loved the book, so we're all planning to see it -- hopefully this weekend some time. Dd has zero interest in it.

 

Thanks for telling me that it's awesome! Now I'm looking forward to it even more.

[trulycrabby]

We saw the Martian too and loved it. We also want to see Sicario, but will have to wait and see if it comes to our area.

[Stacia]

Time for my next movie review. Dh & I saw Everest tonight. (7.4 out of 10 stars on imdb.)

 

 

Prior to going tonight, I hadn't seen any commercials or previews for it. I wasn't sure if it was going to be about the tragedy on Everest as covered in the book Into Thin Air or if it was going to be about a different tragedy. Fairly early in the movie, 'Jon Krakauer' was introduced as a character & I knew it was about the same days covered in Into Thin Air. I love the book Into Thin Air. It's one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. I also saw the National Geographic Imax documentary (years ago) made during the same time as Krakauer's book. (The Nat'l Geo group was on the mountain then, but they were not trying to summit that day & were not a part of the tragic circumstances, though they did have to weather the storm on the mountain. The Imax documentary references the storm & deaths but is not centered around them.) If I had lived another life, maybe I would have been a mountain climber. I'm not brave enough, nor skilled enough to do so in this life (plus I'm too old to do it now), but I have always had a fascination with mountain climbing.

 

This movie was decent. I think it would be worth reading the book Into Thin Air prior to seeing the movie, if you plan to see it. I just think that might give you a better perspective on some of the things that the movie didn't fully clarify, imo. There were so many tragic circumstances that colluded to cause the deaths & I didn't fully get that feeling from the movie. But, having read the book, I could pick up on the things that weren't totally clear or fully explained in the movie. I do think it did a very good job showing some of the vistas, some of the completely terrifying drops, crevasses, steep terrain, etc.... In those respects, it is worth seeing on a big screen. (Imo, an Imax size screen would have been best as even a regular movie screen somehow didn't seem big enough....)

 

Made me cry (but I knew I would). Even though it had been years since I read the book, I remembered some of the ones who were fated to die on Everest, so I knew what was coming for those characters in the movie.

[Chris in VA]

I want to see Sicario and The Martian, but I will pass on Everest--too sad for me.

[TechWife]

We went to see The Martian. It's the best movie I've seen in a long time! A great mix of science "fiction," drama and humor. 

[goldberry]

I can't wait to see The Martian, I read part of the book but didn't get all the way through it.  The details were a little hard to follow to me.  I'm also interested in the Will Smith movie Concussion. 

 

Stacia, I thought the same as you about Everest.  DH and I both LOVED Into Thin Air, and although I really liked the visuals in Everest, the story was told very superficially I thought, and would not give a full picture to someone who hadn't read the book.  All in all, it was "okay" but I was disappointed because it could have been so much richer.  That story had so many angles and so much depth to it that was not reflected in the movie.

[Stacia]

Stacia, I thought the same as you about Everest.  DH and I both LOVED Into Thin Air, and although I really liked the visuals in Everest, the story was told very superficially I thought, and would not give a full picture to someone who hadn't read the book.  All in all, it was "okay" but I was disappointed because it could have been so much richer.  That story had so many angles and so much depth to it that was not reflected in the movie.

 

Yeah, I think you've pretty much nailed it. Gorgeous scenery, but the story could have been so much richer (& maybe I could see that having read the book previously).