The film itself, which suggests that it may be too late to expect that the war on drugs can be won using ‘fair means’, seldom shies from the pessimistic view that there is no triumph and no redemption here. Villeneuve communicates those thoughts compellingly in this relentless film that never lets up. Don’t miss it.

This film isn’t concerned with tender moments, but when it takes a breath and surveys the meaningless chaos in the world, it hits hard. And then you realize it’s only been two days since those hidden bodies, and you take a breath and survey the chaos in the world. That is when Sicario soars. This war will never end, but the battles can.

Sicario is grim, Sicario is dark, Sicario is also, in its quiet way, gorgeous.

Sicario is heavy on action and gritty realism. This is without a doubt, one of the best movies out this year.

The drug problem in the US has no lasting solution, but temporary arrangements and compromises, is what this film tries to convey. It’s not something everybody can relate to, but it’s gripping enough to merit at least one watch if only for the star cast.

Villeneuve directs it with a super heavy-hand: the tone belongs to an occult ceremony: everything is supersober, no one is meant to laugh and all grand proclamations (whether a line of dialogue or the sight of mutilated dead bodies suspended from a bridge) are followed by droney, town-hall music. While this maybe appropriate for the subject, it is also typical of Hollywood movies about individual protagonists who discover the ugliness inherent in a foreign landscape.

No doubt that this is a frequently mined area of operation for most Hollywood flicks. But Villeneuve doesn’t take the by-the-numbers route to achieve his distinction. The characters are beautifully fleshed out.

Sicario may not be as tensely successful as some of director Denis Villeneuve’s past work, but it’s enthralling enough, smart enough and raises enough questions to be counted as another tick in the masterful filmmaker’s success column.