At the outset, "Sicario" appears to be a conventional crime thriller like so many set in the U.S.-Mexico border before it: We're introduced to FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) as she and her partner Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya) lead a gripping raid on a Mexican cartel safe house. When Kate is summoned into a government task force to take down a major drug operation, it appears, as in the beginning of "Zero Dark Thirty", that this will be the story of a badass heroine squaring off against bad guys.
Alas, "Sicario" is no conventional crime thriller. It is, after all, directed by Denis Villeneuve, who has, at different points in his career, subverted the usual preoccupations of such established genres as the police procedural (in "Prisoners") and the sci-fi drama (in "Arrival"). The main interest of Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan isn't in the perils and thrills of Kate's mission, but in the fundamental impossibility of it: The war on drugs can't be won, its apparatus is essentially a cover for corruption, wasted resources, and pointless violence, and the real interests behind it are the opposite of virtuous. Kate, our entry point into this world, learns all that the hard way.
Spoiling the turns "Sicario" takes would be a disservice, so we'll just advise you to calibrate your expectations for a slice of action-thriller excellence — Villeneuve's direction of the tense and violent scenes is expectably masterful — that nonetheless traffics in frustration and unpleasantness by design. It's a movie that may leave you feeling hopeless and angry at the state of the world. But, much like "Zero Dark Thirty," that's what makes it a vital entry into its genre.
