Prior to the release of his latest title Denis Villeneuve had a reputation for carving unique thrillers.
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There is another subplot featuring the plight of a Mexican officer (Maximiliano Hernández) who ends up a wasted opportunity where he could’ve been an example of the pressure of being a cop in a truly corrupt system, but instead exists only to further a scene later in the film. Del Toro cloaks the character in measured threats, always soft-spoken, direct as a bullet and impossible to miss. Their master classes help make it easy to label Brolin as the odd man out in this star trio, but he does provide the closest thing to comic relief – albeit mixed with moments of ice and menace that show the fangs beneath his down home charm. The only worry was that the lack of speechifying might lead a few to think they were enforcing south-of-the-border stereotypes that have burrowed their way into pop culture. The people who inhabit the border towns of the Southwest are as unforgiving as the brutal desert setting, which we see from above throughout the film as nearly a disturbingly alien landscape.
Denis Villeneuve has proven over the past couple of years that he can switch gears at the drop of a hat. “That was the last thing any of us wanted”.
At the time, the Quebec filmmaker, 47, said that he would be happy in the tinseltown environment, “As long as I can keep my identity and make movies that are my movies”. “Not every taxi driver is Travis Bickle”. Denis is right when he says the film is about America, but it does take place in country that has been portrayed recently in a very negative way.
Explaining what intrigued her when she first read the script for “Sicario“, Blunt said, “the reveal of those bodies, and then all the images of Kate’s apartment and the loneliness of her life”. (Take note of how frequently Villeneuve’s frame includes an American flag; it isn’t exactly subtle, but it communicates the idea.) She’s a stranger in a unusual land, and repeatedly throughout the movie, the only woman in the room; Emily Blunt’s slender physique draws an nearly immediate contrast with the bulky destructive men around her, as her character is not only lonely but consistently kept out of the loop as to what the real mission may be.
“But there’s hope, right?” “I can’t fall back on any tricks”. They came out and demanded that somebody do something about it. The musician Rubén Blades wrote this letter after what happened in Iguala, Guerrero, when 43 students disappeared. “And there are all these allegations about the drug cartels and the government that have never been proven”. “But we have to make this problem stop”. This film comes out this Friday to a theater near you.
“Was the “Wet Willie” bit improvised”, Del Toro says scratching his chin.
“Oh, he just went around the set giving those to everyone”, Blunt says. And this constitutes a good day to her temporary commander, Matt, a gum-chewing, sandal-wearing agent of mysterious provenance and an even more enigmatic form of idealism played by Josh Brolin (still on a blinding roll after, what, a decade now?).
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Del Toro and Blunt worked together five years ago on “The Wolfman“.
