Yes No Maybe So: Sicario
Monday, June 22, 2015 at 8:30PM
Manuel here to talk about Sicario, the latest Denis Villeneuve film starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin. It already earned strong reviews at Cannes but last week’s trailer was our first extended look at this drug cartel film where Blunt plays an FBI agent enlisted to help in the war against drugs in the US/Mexican border.
I wanted to make a full YES/NO/MAYBE SO for this trailer but realized as soon as we got to this shot...
I was all in. Villeneuve + Blunt + Roger Deakins = YES. YES. YES. It's gorgeous but haunting; it hints at the intense violence that will permeate the film (those walls filled with body bags!) and underscores what a great showcase this will be for Blunt. I love that it feels like both a familiar image (blood washed away in the shower) yet a refreshing one (perhaps it's the fact that she's facing the camera?). It also speaks to the fact that Villeneuve fought to keep his lead a female role but even in shooting her nude in the shower the shot never sexualizes her in ways we've seen filmmakers do before even when framing said characters as "strong" career women. I cannot wait to see what else Deakins has up his sleeve for this film after seeing what great work he did with Villeneuve in Prisoners.
Check out the full trailer below.
Oh, and can we also talk about that gorgeous poster that forsakes floating heads and bad photoshop for effective artwork?
Are you just as excited for it as I am? Will this be the Villeneuve film to finally win over awards accolades (as Nat believes it will) and follow in Traffic & No Country for Old Men’s footsteps?
Reader Comments (20)
Holy smokes, that poster is incredible.
Ever since I saw the trailer on the weekend, I have been eagerly awaiting YNMS. Thank you for that.
And also, ever since I saw that trailer, this has become my Most Anticipated Movie of 2015.
(And here's hoping Oscar can get his head out of his special effects arse and give Deakins a cinematography award for TRULY great cinematography!)
I can't wait for this! Between this film and the Netflix series, fall 2015 is going to be full of narco-themed media to discuss.
Yes! This looks intense.
I also saw this trailer over the weekend and was, like, YAAAS, BITCH, YAAAS! It looks far more interesting than it reads on paper, and Blunt looks like she might have a career-(re)defining role she deserves. Who knew it would take a The Wolfman (!!!) reunion to get us here?
This will be awesome. Currently predicting that this will be my personal #1 of the year.
Looks harrowing as all hell. Definite yes.
There are SO. MANY. great looking movies coming out this fall. And it has already been a great year! SO EXCITING!
Looks scary! I hope this shows flat out how much Mexico is still the Wild West, and the United States is another undocumented and crazy country outside of California.
Emily Blu-
YES!
100% Yes. Villaneuve hasn't made a movie I've really responded to yet, but there is nothing about this trailer that I'm not excited for. I don't care in the slightest how it does with the Academy, as long as it finally wins Deakins his f*****g Oscar, as it looks like it very well could.
Living in the Juarez/El Paso border, this subject is on the bottom of the list of things I want to watch movies about. But the team behind it is just too much to pass up. I too am waiting for Emily Blunt's defining role, so we'll see if this is it.
The actors, the director, the cinematographer: yes.
The U.S. as global police force heroes: no.
I'm a Yes for the poster alone.
San FranCinema: Yeah, based on this trailer, there's not NEARLY enough consistently applied shadow on these faces for a 2015 drama about this subject. ZDT (which was also a drama about the US as a global police force) actually got it right where this gets it WAY wrong. We should not see a SINGLE SHOT where there isn't some shadow on these faces. We do. MULTIPLE times.
So my YNMS:
Yes: The shower shot. Emily Blunt being a good actress.
No: Overlit, completely unshadowed shots of faces of participants in the US global police force culture.
Maybe So: Villenueve has to hit it off with an English language film sometime.
Overall: Maybe so, heavily leaning no. (It has to get 85%+ on RT AND at least four Oscar noms for me to chance it.)
YES- Emily Blunt - enough said !!!
You had me at BLUNT!
I liked Enemy. I like Deakins, Blunt, Del Toro and Brolin. And yet, this merely looks...fine? I don't know. "War on drug" stories (like Traffic) are becoming like gangster movies to me. They all kinda look/feel the same. And the only apparent twist with this one is - gasp! - the protagonist is a woman! Sorry, but it's 2015. That's not enough anymore.
This looks pulpier than Zero Dark Thirty which is excellent because Blunt is a pulpier actress than Jessica Chastain.
The trailer looks good. Not excited to watch Emily Blunt. She's such a bland actress.
Really this is a gorgeous poster.