Those who know me will know that Sicario is one of my all time favourite movies, and those who enjoy my reviews owe a bit of gratitude to that film as seeing it at TIFF back in 2015 was a large moment in me getting into film. As I'm sure you can tell its impact was huge on me, as film is now my strongest interest and a field I'm pursuing as a career. This new entry into the saga loses some of the key cast and crew from the first film (Emily Blunt, Denis Villeneuve, Roger Deakins, and Johan Johannsen), however writer Taylor Sheridan as well as actors Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin were all returning so I was still very excited.
In this film we see the return of Brolin's Matt Garver. With activity growing, the Mexican cartels are being labelled as terrorist organizations, which allows the US government to do a lot more in taking care of them. Garver once again recruits Alejandro, this time to start a war between two of the largest cartels.
Acting-wise I have very few issues. The first film billed itself as an Emily Blunt film but as it went on the focus shifted heavily towards Benicio del Toro, and thanks to that Blunt's absence doesn't detract from the film at all. Del Toro is brilliant as Alejandro, taking everything we loved about him in the first film and adding more depth and complexity to his already troubled character. He goes through some very rough and gritty stuff and plays it all perfectly. Josh Brolin is also excellent. His character was great before and is even better now, showing some inner conflict which made for some very interesting moments. Catherine Keener is added to the cast, and while she isn't in the film much she has some interesting back and forth with Brolin that I thought worked really well. Jeffrey Donovan is back, whom you might remember as one of Brolin's associates in the first film. His role is a bit bigger this time and he did some great work so I was glad to see more of him. The only issue I have in terms of characters/acting is Elijah Rodriguez as a young man named Miguel. Miguel is a high schooler whose cousin gets him a job within a cartel, which would seemingly be an interesting plotline to follow. Unfortunately Rodriguez does little more than stare at things with a blank-pouty expression on his face. He was making the same face the whole time and honestly bored me quite a bit.
In terms of the technical elements of the film there was a lot I liked. While obviously not as great as what Roger Deakins could do, the cinematography is quite good. This film is very dark and gritty and I think the new cinematographer Dariusz Wolski did great in capturing it. I also liked that the film seemingly held nothing back. The first film also does hold much back but in this film the reigns are loosened even further, showing us brutal gunfights and in one instance a mother and her child caught in a terrorist attack, which while unsettling to see was very bold. Taylor Sheridan has once again crafted a unique and intriguing story, brought to life with great dialogue. While it isn't always clear where he wants to take the story this is still a very good screenplay. The score is unfortunately not as great this time around. It's still pretty good, but Johanssen's score in the first film was so unsettling and pulse pounding that it felt like its own entity at times, almost acting like an animal stalking the protagonists. This one still adds a decent degree of tension but doesn't hit as well. Towards the end of the film one of the main songs from the first film is used and it honestly gave me some chills, and felt like a good tribute to the late Johanssen. I think the issue with the score is highlighted by direction that isn't as great as the first. Denis Villeneuve created unrelenting tension from start to finish in the first film, and Stephano Sollima despite his best efforts can't hit that mark. There is still a lot of great tension and had I not been a fan of the first one I probably could have been more on the edge of my seat, but alas I found myself underwhelmed by Sollima.
There is a lot going on in this film that I loved, or at least really liked. The performances are great and most of the filmmaking is quite good. The absence of Villeneuve and Johanssen are felt, but they were replaced decently well. I enjoyed this quite a bit and can't wait for the next entry, assuming this does well enough to prompt one.
Rating:3.4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
In this film we see the return of Brolin's Matt Garver. With activity growing, the Mexican cartels are being labelled as terrorist organizations, which allows the US government to do a lot more in taking care of them. Garver once again recruits Alejandro, this time to start a war between two of the largest cartels.
Acting-wise I have very few issues. The first film billed itself as an Emily Blunt film but as it went on the focus shifted heavily towards Benicio del Toro, and thanks to that Blunt's absence doesn't detract from the film at all. Del Toro is brilliant as Alejandro, taking everything we loved about him in the first film and adding more depth and complexity to his already troubled character. He goes through some very rough and gritty stuff and plays it all perfectly. Josh Brolin is also excellent. His character was great before and is even better now, showing some inner conflict which made for some very interesting moments. Catherine Keener is added to the cast, and while she isn't in the film much she has some interesting back and forth with Brolin that I thought worked really well. Jeffrey Donovan is back, whom you might remember as one of Brolin's associates in the first film. His role is a bit bigger this time and he did some great work so I was glad to see more of him. The only issue I have in terms of characters/acting is Elijah Rodriguez as a young man named Miguel. Miguel is a high schooler whose cousin gets him a job within a cartel, which would seemingly be an interesting plotline to follow. Unfortunately Rodriguez does little more than stare at things with a blank-pouty expression on his face. He was making the same face the whole time and honestly bored me quite a bit.
In terms of the technical elements of the film there was a lot I liked. While obviously not as great as what Roger Deakins could do, the cinematography is quite good. This film is very dark and gritty and I think the new cinematographer Dariusz Wolski did great in capturing it. I also liked that the film seemingly held nothing back. The first film also does hold much back but in this film the reigns are loosened even further, showing us brutal gunfights and in one instance a mother and her child caught in a terrorist attack, which while unsettling to see was very bold. Taylor Sheridan has once again crafted a unique and intriguing story, brought to life with great dialogue. While it isn't always clear where he wants to take the story this is still a very good screenplay. The score is unfortunately not as great this time around. It's still pretty good, but Johanssen's score in the first film was so unsettling and pulse pounding that it felt like its own entity at times, almost acting like an animal stalking the protagonists. This one still adds a decent degree of tension but doesn't hit as well. Towards the end of the film one of the main songs from the first film is used and it honestly gave me some chills, and felt like a good tribute to the late Johanssen. I think the issue with the score is highlighted by direction that isn't as great as the first. Denis Villeneuve created unrelenting tension from start to finish in the first film, and Stephano Sollima despite his best efforts can't hit that mark. There is still a lot of great tension and had I not been a fan of the first one I probably could have been more on the edge of my seat, but alas I found myself underwhelmed by Sollima.
There is a lot going on in this film that I loved, or at least really liked. The performances are great and most of the filmmaking is quite good. The absence of Villeneuve and Johanssen are felt, but they were replaced decently well. I enjoyed this quite a bit and can't wait for the next entry, assuming this does well enough to prompt one.
Rating:3.4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
Comments
Post a Comment