By: James Southworth
Rating: 4/5 Stars
I still remember vividly the first time I watched "Sicario", my first introduction to director Denis Villeneuve. The concept of the movie is deceptively simple: FBI Agent Kate, an idealistic rookie, is enlisted by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and is also introduced to Alejandro (Benecio Del Toro), who happens to be an assassin who works for whoever pays for him. The three of these people go to fight in the escalating drug war between the U.S. and Mexico, and in the process Kate sees the evils that the U.S. commits. She constantly questions whether they are necessary or not. The movie is a masterpiece (one of many from Villeneuve), and effectively dealt in grey morality rather than clear cut black and whites. The movies ending lines from Alejandro, who ended up being the most interesting character thanks to Del Toro's performance, still give me chills whenever I think about them. I wasn't really expecting a sequel to this movie, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a trailer for it earlier in the year. Del Toro and Brolin (the best parts of the first movie) are both back reprising their respective roles. This drug war has only escalated in between films, with terrorists now being trafficked across the border. So, Matt recruits Alejandro for another mission. In the process, the viewer sees the depths of corruption both Alejandro and Matt will go to achieve their goals, which mostly works to both this film's benefit.
Even though Villeneuve is not at the director's helm for this film, we still have writer Taylor Sheridan. I have loved most of what Sheridan has written, including "Hell or High Water" and especially "Wind River". The guy's only had five writing credits, and he's already got some really powerful work under his belt. I was certainly interested to see how he would further his narrative from "Sicario", and for the most part, he succeeds. Where I've noticed that Sheridan really excels in his writing is having a relatively simple premise being a powerful foundation for interesting character development. Like the first movie, this sequel does, on first look, have a seemingly simple premise. But something that Taylor does with this that he hasn't done with his other films is complicate it even further. There's a lot of different twists in the plot that you may not be expecting. The film frequently shifts focus from character to character, with debatedly both Matt and Alejandro having about equal screen time. The film also focuses on two children characters who become harrowing victims in the crossfire of this drug war, Isabel and Miguel. I personally find all four of these intersecting stories to be very interesting. Taylor knows exactly the type of arc he wants to give every character. I found both Isabel and Miguel's journeys to be tragically relevant to events going on in America right now. It can be undeniably hard to watch children be repeatedly exploited in this movie for other characters' gains. That goes for both sides of the drug war. Matt and (to a lesser extent) Alejandro both use Isabel as a pawn to try and get the drug cartel to cave to their demands, as Isabel is the daughter of a prominent drug lord. The Mexican cartel uses Miguel, making him seem like he's a valued new member. However, he's only used so the blood can literally and figuratively be off the prominent leaders' hands. Matt and Alejandro are both affected as they see the way that they and the other side exploit children, and it probably won't be in the way the viewer expects. This movie frequently subverts expectations in the best way possible.
The performances in this film are almost all amazing. Josh Brolin may be even better as Matt Graver than he was in the first movie. This role seems like the type that Brolin was born to play. He brings a disturbing arrogance and menace to this no-holds barred FBI elite, who will do literally anything to get what he wants. There wasn't a moment in the film where Brolin wasn't fully invested. He's been on a role in 2018 with having to play demanding roles, and I personally think Matt may be his most demanding yet. He definitely nails it pretty much pitch perfect in my opinion. Like in the first film, Benecio Del Toro is the undeniable highlight here as Alejandro. In the first movie, I felt as though Alejandro was a bit of an enigma; you didn't know what he was going to do next. That was appropriate though, as we saw him through the perspective of Kate. In this film, Alejandro gets a lot of heavy development. Del Toro plays him as this strong, silent type whose dark side might be even more frightening than Matt's. I really appreciated how Del Toro shows that Alejandro's driving motivation for what he's doing is still in avenging his daughter. He won't stop taking revenge for her murder until every last member of the cartel is dead. I like how his caring for his daughter crosses over into his compassion for Isabel. I'm obviously not going to spoil it, but Alejandro's relationship with her takes a turn that I wasn't expecting, and made me even more invested in the second half of the film. I can't go without talking about Isabela Moner as Isabel. She's a relative newcomer in the film industry, and she absolutely shines here. Isabel is easily the most sympathetic character in the film, as the child who is caught in between a war she didn't ever want to be a part of. Even though she is the daughter to a drug lord, it's still easy to feel for her. Moner doesn't let Isabel be an entire victim, as there are moments when she shows inspiring, resilient strength in spite of her circumstances. Elijah Rodriguez is also really great as Miguel, playing his character with a surprising amount of powerful subtlety. Like most of the other actors here, Rodriguez has a tough character arc to navigate. He does well at making you feel for this child as he is becoming more and more indoctrinated into the drug cartel's way of life. The only main performance I wasn't into was Catherine Keener as Cynthia. She's not bad per say, but she just pops up every once in a while, seemingly just serving as a cliched voice of reason. I also found Matthew Modine to be disappointingly underused as James Riley, a role that really wasn't necessary for this film.
I do have a few issues with this film, although none of them really reduce my enjoyment of it significantly. Perhaps the most significant is that it's hard to truly sympathize with either Alejandro or Matt. Yes, they are both played magnificently by their respective actors. But, I totally agree with other people's criticisms that having both of them in the spotlight can be tough to watch at times. At the end of the day, they're both morally reprehensible, which this film does make abundantly clear to its credit. Even though the first "Sicario" was definitely not an easy watch, it still had Emily Blunt's Kate to be the moral objector. We had a likeable main character. Now of course, I actually appreciate films that have people who aren't necessarily good, but sometimes the evil both of these characters stoop to can make this film an unpleasant watch. There are very few moments of calm or levity throughout. This is more the case as we near the ending. But, like I said, this doesn't reduce my enjoyment of the film too much. There's also a few moments of over the top violence in this release that feel out of place. Most of the violence in this film works, as it's brutal and not glorified. But there were one or two moments that felt a little hyperbolic. I also question this film's ending shot. I think it was trying to give a similar commentary to what the first film had, but it doesn't pack quite the same punch. It's not an awful ending moment, but I think it could have been executed better.
Overall, "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" was a pleasant surprise for me all around. I've been surprised at how mixed critics have been to this film. I personally found it to be very well-done in many ways: it's well shot, well-acted, and well-written. The themes of this film, about how children become tragic victims and pawns in our political games, and how evil is appears in different ways on both sides of a war, are compellingly presented. Even if this movie can't match up to the first (which, to be fair, would be a hard thing for it to accomplish no matter the circumstances), I don't know if this sequel was actually trying to be as good as the first. It still stands well enough on its own. I would recommend it just to see both Brolin and Del Toro. They are absolutely in their element and give career defining performances. This may actually end up being one of my favorite films of the year!
No comments:
Post a Comment