At first glance, it looked like another of the Tarantino clones filling the art houses in the wake of Pulp Fiction. The Usual Suspects was a gritty crime thriller whose cast mixed cult favorites and unknowns and the writer/director team behind the (unreleased) Sundance sensation Public Access. But early reviews from its own Sundance debut …
Tightly wound from the opening frame, Denis Villeneueve’s Sicario opens to the gripping sounds of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s gripping electronic score, as FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) rides in an armored vehicle to an Arizona house linked with drug traffickers. Clad in full combat armor herself, as are her partner Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) and the dozens of other agents with them. Like the viewer, Macer doesn’t know what exactly she’s getting herself into, but the foreboding look on her face as she takes deep breaths and tries to relax suggests that she has some idea of the danger lying ahead.